tonight made up for a lackluster Monday class. Hottest day of the year and record breaking temperatures made the class great!

Didn't really cover any new techniques, just drilling ones from the last few classes and one new combo: step in for a tai otoshi, uke counters by stepping out and tori turns the technique into an uchi mata.

Lots of randori and different spin on randori called ippondori. randori continues until an ippon is scored and then the losing partner is replaced with a fresh opponent. the drills continue until the time is up.

Class was run by Sensei Clive Douglas.

He showed us a few ne waza techniques that were great. They were all turn-overs for when uke is on his stomach or on all fours:

1. From side control. You are on uke's right side. Your right hand grabs uke's right wrist and pulls it up to uke's hip while your left hand grabs uke's belt and pulls up. As you pull him up, circle over his head and put your right foot on the floor under uke's stomach. Keep ahold of uke's wrist and fall backwards. Your right leg will be on top of uke and your left behind his head. bend your left knee and hook your left foot under your right knee and squeeze to get the choke, sankaku jime.

2. From straddling ukes back. Take your right hand over uke's shoulder and back up under uke's armpit and grab your own lapel. Take your left knee and put it on the mat, turning your body and pushing your knee on the back of uke's head. Once uke's head is tucked in, fall backwards while pulling on uke's arm with your right arm into juji gatame.

Class was great tonight. we had a father and son instructor duo come from saskachewan to teach class. I believe that the son had just won his division in the Nationals.

We focused on a lot of ne waza techniques with uke in your guard and how to sweep uke so you end up in the mount. There were several techniques, but the common point to all of them is to never stay flat on your back. always have your shoulders up.

1. sweep from guard into arm bar. Tori has both legs up in a failed triangle position. Tori grabs uke's foot on his left side and brings his right leg onto the right side of uke's head. Instead of using your legs to push uke over into a "traditional" position, keep using uke's foot to pull you almost under his calf so you force uke into a front roll and then apply the arm bar.

2. grab lapel. left arm over uke's left shoulder and grab the belt whle you get up on your right side. scissor sweep to the right.

3. uke has your lapel. your left hand secures uke's left hand on your lapel. your right hand pushes uke's elbow into a belt arm bar almost and pushes his arm across your body so it is across uke's face and your head is over uke's left shoulder (almost in the same position as kata gatame). your left arm reach up and much as possible and then the elbow bends and you wrap your arm behind uke's head and grab your gi on your right arm. from here, bridge and sweep to the right. as you sweep, the choke gets tighter. you end up in the mount with a choke.

4. you try to do 2 or 3, but uke counters and starts pushing his shoulder into you to flatten you on your back. get an underhook with your left arm under uke's right arm and grab your right hand behind uke's head. try to straighten uke's arm so his bicep touches his ear. sweep and roll uke. hook both of you legs until his and straightn his body out while compressing.

5. you try 2 or 3 but again uke counters by pushing his shoulder into you. put uke's head into your left armpit and hook your arm under uke's left armpit. bridge and roll right. you can apply a hold down or crank it further for a spine lock/neck crank.

In tachi waza, i took sensei's advice from last week: keep a shorter stance to help increase the speed of your attacks. it worked. i was able to hold my own (relatively) with a brown belt and i managed to execute a full power with full resistance de ash barai foot sweep on an orange belt tonight. woohoo!

A smaller than usual class last night.

We worked on some newaza last night, mostly from having someone in your guard and different sweeps to end up in the mount:

1. right hand grabs uke's left sleeve and left arm goes over uke's left shoulder to grab his belt. pull on uke's arm to bring him forward and come up on your right elbow. Hook your right foot over uke's left leg and then roll to the right. you end up in the mount with uke's left arm trapped for an arm bar or pin.

2. right hand grabs uke's collar behind the neck (thumb in). left hand braces high on uke's right tricep near the arm pit. Pull the arm forward while pulling on the collar to make uke come down over your right shoulder and simultaneously shrimp your hips to the left. Uke should be flat on his stomach. without letting go of the collar, grab uke's belt with your left hand and place your shoulder/head on uke's right shoulder and pull in with your right hand (you should drive the bone at the base of the thumb into the corotoid artery). The more you lean onto uke, the tighter the choke.

We did about 30 minutes of ne waza randori to finish the class. I was unable to exert my will on anyone. I need to get some kind of strategy in place for randori because just trying stuff at random isn't going to work.

We got our applications for the next grading on May 2. There was some talk about the school shutting down for july and august, but that hasn't been decided yet. Hopefully they will stay open.

First day back after a whole bunch of traveling. I was still feeling a bit jet lagged.

It was a small group tonight. the white belt ranks are starting to thin out noticeably (expected).

Since it was a small group tonight, we worked with the coloured belts. We focused a lot on ne waza tonight, but some nage and tachi waza. The center heel lock takedown was introduced to us, too, and get had a chance to play around with transitioning between techniques when the first one doesn't work and setting up a technique:

1. enter for ippon seoi nage. uke moves to outside ("slips off your hips"). quickly transition to the enter heel lock takedown.

2. fake a center heel lock/foot sweep with your right foot to uke's right foot to force uke to step back (note: when sensei demonstrated on me, it felt more like he planted his foot next to mine and drove his knee into the anterior femoral just above the knee). step in with left foot to square up with uke, move your right hand down from the lapel onto uke's left tricep and do a modified "step on foot push shoulder" manoever: right foot steps on uke's left foot while pulling down with your right hand and lifting with the left (turning the steering wheel).