There was a good sized class tonight.

We reviewed all of the throws that are required for our yellow belt grading:
o goshi
seoi nage
de ashi barai
uki goshi
o soto gari

When practicing uki goshi, we use one of the katas to help. uke steps into tori with an attack: a downward strike with the fist to tori's head. I realize that this kata is traditional and kept this way due to tradition, but it reinfored my belief that a lot of the "attacks" in other martial arts, whether it is judo, aikido, or some other art, are unrealistic and should be "taken with a grain of salt."

The High Performance Judo Coach dropped in at our dojo again last night and kicked all of our asses. After the workout... i mean warmup... the we broke off from the class to work on basics.

1. foot sweeps. practicing kuzushi and the sweep itself - both right and left handed.
2. o goshi and uki goshi uchi mata and then the full throw.
3. kesa gatame (pin and escape), kata katame, and kame shiho gatame.

with the gatames, we practiced transitioning between all three of them.