Counting the numbers

I spent most of my lunch counting the number of people I think will try BJJ at the new club. There are a few people I know will cross train but most are a question marks. As I sit here writing this post I realize I am spending too much time worrying about it. Hopefully the people that cross train now will continue to cross train and serve as leaders in a growing program.

Thr Class - Last night was open mat followed by Judo. I arrived in time for open mat but did not take full advantage of the time. I got some throws in and I drilled a particular sweep I have been working on, but I cannot say I was really WORKING. I certainly could have joined in on crash pad throws or done a little live training on the ground but I did not push myself. I find open mat is always more successful with a designated leader, at least for me it is.

Judo Class - The TOD was the Hari from the high collar lapel. This is one of my preferred grips and my preferred throw so I enjoyed the work. We then did some Toki Waza followed by randori. I always found it odd that we never did any kind of Toki Waza in BJJ. This is something I may incorpate into my classes. For those that dont know what Toki Waza is, Toki Waza is "your favorite technique". The idea is to give the player a little time to drill whatever they would like to work on.

Often in BJJ we learn a technique, drill it a bunch of times in that class and move on. It is up to each player to try it during training. The problem is most techniques take a lot of reps to make work. As a consequence new players either get smashed several hundred times before figure out what they are doing wrong or they throw out the technique and stick to the few they are already decent at. Toki Waza give you the time and fits to figure out the technique you were shown last week but have not gotten the feel of yet.

Anyway, randori was good. First set was with one of the lighter Black belts. i did well and had some good attacks but nothing spectacular. Second set was the visiting Green belt. He was pretty strong but played too defensively. When I went for my Hari he telegraphed going for the suplex. In response I faked the Hari and when he tried to pull me backwards I simply pushed him down flat on the mat. I figured one or two of those and he would stop sitting on the Hari. Unfortunately (for him), he did not stop so I just kept faking the Hari and pushing him flat. It was a decent set, after a while I tried to thrown other stuff anyway but it was hard with him pulling back so much. Third set was with one of the girls in the club. During open mat I noticed she was practicing her grip fighting and she used those grip fighting techniques against me in randori. I have to say it was messing me up a little. I could use a more work on grip fighting, I know it is important at the higher levels.

Ground work was fun, we did the pin off the trap and roll where yo are facing away from your opponent and you have their arm trapped in your armpit. I found a flaw in my holding technique. Anytime I can find a hole in my game it makes the whole night/week/month worthwhile. It was a small adjustment in how I place my hips but the little things make a big difference.

I had two newaza sets, both were fun, I got some triangles, some arm locks, some sweeps. Nothing really of particualr note.