I worked one-on-one with Colby tonight.

First started out with some skipping and medicine ball drills to loosen up and finished up with breakfalls.

I first reviewed all of the basic wrist grab escapes. From there we went onto some variations to wrist grabs (or hard handshakes). First was from a hard handshake and transitioning into an inner wrist lock takedown. we had worked on this wristlock takedown previously. We worked just the takedown several times to get the footwork down and the hand positioning. After a few tries, I added in some afterthrows: knee drop and stamping kick, jump over/land on elbow, and finishing with the prone armbar. Here I focused on foot positioning across the body for the armbar. Assuming that the armbar is being applied to Uke's right arm, Tori's right leg "should" be over top of uke's torso and hooked over uke's left ribs as much as possible. This gives Tori control over uke's body. If the leg wasn't there, uke can easily roll onto their stomachs from their right side while bringing their feet up towards their head so their body ends up 180 degrees from where they started. by doing this, their arm rotates so the elbow is up, escaping the armbar (of course Tori can then transition into another technique, but that was beyond the scope of class tonight).

We spent the majority of class working on this technique.

In the last 20 minutes, we did two other techniques from a hard handshake: sankyo with the wristlock takedown to the rear followed by an arm pin and strikes, and a type of wristlock takedown to the rear, but it is applied at waist level: tori steps to 45degrees to uke's right side and rotates so that he's standing beside uke facing the same direction. as tori rotates, he brings his right hand down and into the small of his back (back of the hand touching the small of the back) while holding uke's hand. This forces uke's elbow to bend. Tori grabs uke's elbow with his left hand and lifts it upwards as he steps straight back, taking uke onto his heels and then to the ground.

I received my Black Belt College Level 1 Teaching Certificate examination on Wednesday. I'll be completing that in the coming weeks. Sensei Mariedke also managed to negotiate permission to display advertising (signage, pamphlets, etc) at the Leisure Center where the dojo is. This should hopefully get some more people into the dojo to try things out.

Tonight I worked with Kyle and Dan on wrist locks. I first started them out with the basic entrance from the #2 position using the inside and outside hands. All wristlocks were performed with a distraction as an entrance: either a shin kick or a palm heel/slap to the head. With the inside hand, we did the takedown to the front and the takedown to the rear. When showing them the takedown to the rear I took a few moments to illustrate the concept of balance using the concept of the triangle from the toes and the heels and then demonstrated with uke taking a horse stance and showing how balance is strong side to side, but weak towards the toes or heels. We continued working the wrist lock takedown to the rear.

Next we worked the wristlock using the outside hand with uke ending up in a reverse wrist lock. I emphasized that the wrist should be kept higher than the shoulder to prevent uke from being able to pop his elbow or roll out of the hold. I also emphasized hand positioning: thumbs braced on the back of the hand, index fingers pointing, and middle and ring fingers on the base of the wrist. Demonstrated this grip vs grabbing with the whole hand and also explained the push-pull lever action with the fingers pulling in and the thumbs pushing. Explained how to roll and arms to get all the power from tori's shoulders and upper body into the lock and pushing uke's arm down into his shoulder.

After the lock was performed, I demonstrated some follow-up takedowns and come-a-longs. For all subsequent techniques, they were all preceded by one or two kicks to uke's torso while he was in the wristlock. All techniques described here assume that Tori is controlling uke's right arm.

1. Tori steps in so that uke's right shoulder is in tori's left armpit. Tori is in a deep horse stance and raises uke's right wrist/arm and executed an arm lock. Two variations from this position: Tori walks in horse stance away from uke (to the right) and keeps the hold on the arm and forces uke to the ground & finishes with an arm pin. Second variation, tori bends uke's elbow 90 degrees and steps in front of uke and executes a bent wrist takedown to the front. Tori keeps his left finger over the top of uke's arm at the elbow for leverage and during the takedown, points his right index finger towards uke's face to get the proper torque on the wrist. Verbalization of commands was also discussed.

2. Tori lowers uke's arm and places the back of uke's right hand into the palm of his left hand. Tori grabs around the knife edge of uke's hand. Tori steps in and scoops uke's elbow with his right hand causing it to bend. As Tori steps in, he twists uke's hand so the palm is facing the ground, points his index finger and tries to point it into uke's armpit. Tori's right hand passes in front of uke's hand, between the arm and ribs, and rests on uke's shoulder blade to prevent uke from rotating. Uke should be up on his toes. After complete, showed how to transition to a rear takedown by keeping the lock, raising uke's hand above his shoulder and taking uke down backwards, on his heels. After uke lands, Tori moves to uke's other side and moving uke;s hand over uke's body, forcing him to turn over. The hand can then be placed in the small of the lower back and Tori's right knee can be placed between uke's shoulder blades.

3. Tori again lowers uke's arm and places the back of uke's right hand into the palm of his left hand. This time, Tori places his left thumb across uke's wrist. Tori's right hand scoops the elbow and guides it so it rests on Tori's chest and then brings his right hand to complete the gooseneck wristlock. Explained how the thumb aides in separating the wrist joint in this lock and the option of not using the thumb.

4. Tori lowers uke's hand and grabs the meaty part of the thumb with his left hand and places his left thumb between uke's index and middle fingers. Tori scoops the elbow with his right hand and places uke's elbow on his chest and twists and pulls on uke's wrist. Dan initially had problems getting the lock and after I explained the concept of getting the leaks out before scooping the elbow he was able to perform the technique without any problem. Also showed how Tori's body position in this technique made him less susceptible to a punch from uke's left hand compared to the gooseneck wristlock. Also showed the difference between using the chest as a base for the elbow vs tucking uke's elbow under tori's arm and the extra control that is gained.

For both 3 and 4, I emphasized that uke should be up on his toes when the come-a-long is executed.

All of these techniques were performed from both sides.

After, I worked on a kata that Sensei Mariedke showed me. This was a kata that she used to do at Sensei Kevin's dojo for the brown belt exam. It starts with a double wrist-grab from behind (close), transitions into a side armlock to a bend wrist take-down to the front, release, uke throws a left hook, tori executes a high forearm block with the right arm, trasitions to an armbar over tori's right shoulder, transitions to an in-line wrist lock takedown (releases) uke throws a right hook, tori performs a high forearm block and steps into an osoto-gari takedown. This kata helped to teach how to perform transitions from one type of block to a control and from one control to another.

This was a great class. The dojo is closed for the holidays until January 7, 2008.