Purple belt Thursday

"This is a beautiful moment we're having. Can we please fight?" -Buffy the Vampire Slayer




Thursday Study Hall was an open mat- Dave (this would be just-got-his-purple-belt Dave #14 out of the 755 Daves at this school) and I rolled for almost a full hour.

After we were done, I spent about 7 minutes watching Prof Sean wreck Peter. It was quite amazing. Peter was working his butt off, sweating buckets, red-faced and straining. Sean might as well have had a beer in one hand and the cable remote in the other. He never looked like he was trying hard. Peter asked me if I had any suggestions, and I had to tell him sorry- I hadn't been watching it with a "coach" eye; I'd just been marvelling at how relaxed Sean's game was.

Advanced class (look Ma, I did two advanced classes this week!). It was Purple Belt Thursday. There were about 4 blues, everybody else was purple (and it was a big class).

Shoulder throw setups, then the entire throw. We spent most of the hour on this. I always forget to resecure both judo grips after every setup while my partner is working. Forgot again tonight and got reprimanded for it. Also- stupid side was very stupid, but I worked both sides as best I could.

We were doing the one where you hook your arm under the opponent's arm sort of like you're carrying a potato sack over your shoulder- Doug suggested that during the setup, I scrape my bicep right up the side of the opponent's body as I'm setting up. That improved things nicely.  

Shoulder throw fail- opponent sticks hip into you. Drop to both knees between hir feet and pull hir over your shoulder.

Closed guard, no resistance- opponent tries to pass in various fashions for 3 minutes. I'm noticing how I almost always want to pass on my left. That means that my opponent's right side (probably hir "smart" side") is set up to defend. Tonight I tried some passes on the other side. I need to try that more often.