9/27/11 Competition

We have a few guys planning to compete at an In House tournament in a few weeks. So last night I deviated from the normal routine. We spent a lot of time on sprawling and catching then passing someone when they jump closed guard. Once the sprawling drills we done we moved on to jumping guard. Jumping guard from a player safety perspective in my opinion deserves a little more attention than most people give it. We covered how to catch a larger person by using your hips. I also really emphasized the importance of not allowing yourself to be knocked over backwards or to one of your back corners as it can result in a bad knee injury. Once I was satisfied everyone could safely catch their opponent we moved on to passing right off the jump. Basic stuff but stuff they were likely to see at the In House. I also covered a few things from the mount. How to get there, how to hold it and 1 submission. Overall I think the guys that are going can do well but most importantly they can all compete safely.

Judo - for some reason everyone was really "off" during kata practice last night. Not sure what it was, the only why I can really describe it is to say it felt like there was a lot of bad energy in the room. Anyway I bring it up because rather than sticking with the usual routine AQ recognized what was going on and switched things up a little.

I am going to try to keep an eye out for this in my classes going forward. It isn't enough to just pay attention to how people are rolling I need to also pay attention to who is mentally "with it" and who isn't.

On a blogging side note there has been some internet politics floating around on various blogs lately. Glad to see stupid politics are still alive and kicking. Imagine the anarchy if we were all rowing in the same direction at the same time.