Intensity

I’ve been sitting on two posts for a couple days. Mostly I typed up brief technique descriptions after class and then crashed. Been tired this week, undoubtedly from not sleeping enough and eating way too much chocolate.

In Monday’s Foundations, we reviewed the guard pass we’ve been working for the past few weeks:

Guard pass to side control: After you break the guard, get knee over uke’s leg by hip. Slide your left arm under their head and pull shoulder down w/grip on collar, leaning into uke with your shoulder. Pull right foot back and out behind you, past left foot, to stabilize. Post right hand behind uke’s hip under glut as you switch your knees into side control.

Main class was pretty short. We did some takedowns.

Single-leg takedown 1: Parallel open stances. Left knee down, grab behind their left knee. Penetration step—your right leg is planted at a 90º angle, straight behind uke’s leg. Stand up, keeping your head inside uke’s hip, and pivot on your back foot toward your back to take down.

Single-leg takedown, now with more heel action: Same opening. Stand up, straight-backed. Cup under uke’s heel with your left hand; press on uke’s knee with your right elbow; crank and take down (no step needed).

We spent a lot of time on this one.

Counter to cross-choke: Purple belt Sean showed us this one. You’re in uke’s guard; he reaches up to cross-choke you. You grab uke’s collar, fingers inward, and pull out the slack on one lapel hard. Pull the other lapel across uke’s throat, and get that fist in their throat. Make sure your arm is straight. Stand up and lean all your weight on that arm.

Rolled with Blake first. Think he’d seen the guillotine choke I did on poor Susanna last week, because he made some comment about avoiding the guillotine. *facepalm* He set me up for an armbar but I couldn’t figure out how to do one on my own. He told me to grab it, hip out, get my leg up over uke’s back and lock the arm, but stay tight. He pulled out of it because I was too loose.

Rolled with blue belt Sean (Shawn?) next. Super nice guy. He showed me that if a guy tries to stand up in my guard to pick me up and slam me on the ground, I need to get up with him—do a sit-up and hopefully overbalance him, then take him to the ground; or, do a sit-up and jump out to standing position.

Probably biggest realization of today: I need to up my intensity, even in drills, and offer a bit of resistance after the first few reps. One of the guys made a few comments to that effect when we were working on the takedowns. My first reaction was to feel a little defensive—the partner I was working with at the time was a newbie and didn’t know to breakfall, so I’d been going easy on him. And when he was trying to work it on me, I didn’t offer any resistance, as he was still trying to work out the mechanics and wasn’t fully going for the throw.

Yet I can definitely see his point. We’d accomplish nothing in training if we didn’t offer realistic feedback to our partners. There has to be a balance between allowing time to learn the mechanics of the technique and then trying it with uke resisting.

Any thoughts on intensity, o wise and learned peanut gallery?