Quick Recap

I didnt take off for the holiday or anything like that but I was busy and Just didnt have the time to blog.

I did skip tuesday at PMJC sucked but I felt sick and didnt want to get too run down and didnt want to get the rest of the PMJC team sick.

Wednesday was a kind of easy day at the Y. I started class talking a bit about Jenn's wins in newaza and Brandons Choke. Then we did some Newaza Uchikomi. Cant remember much else

Thursday was a travel and family day. Good times :)

Friday was a Travel and Girlfriend day. Good Times :)

Saturday was about 6hrs of Judo. Good times :)

I started at the country club kinda light workout.. worked taio a lot and ude gaeshi... I fought dan and got a few decent scores in.. then i fought sensei in mat work and did ok.. worked half guard decently for a bit.. eventually passed then got swept and armlocked.. then i worked guard and did ok eventually getting passed and armlocked.

Then I went to PMJC. Great class. I got us there late so it was right into crash pad and then fighting. Joe has been whoopin me good.. i got one good counter but he basically bailed cause of my knee. Thanks! I dont want a knee injury now. then he DUMPED me big with an osoto. I tried to counter.. i figure the more I try to counter his osoto the more Ill be picking up the lil guys in competition.

Fought Chris. F F F F its getting real frustrating... I havent thrown or scored on him in a long time. he got 2 good scores on me. Gripping was ok. I had some good attacks, moving and gripping. I did stop a few of his attacks both front and back.

Fought matt. COuldnt choke him but at least im getting in the right positions.

Fought 1 of the new guys and thats about it.. i need to step it up

Monday YMCA

I was hoping we would bounce back into tournament mode.. and we did not not by a long shot.. I think im gonna talk to some people about that. I have a bunch of big tournaments coming up and I need work for them. I need to get it one place or another. I cant have PMJC be the only 2 days I get good work in.

Anyway heres what I did.

1. Taught Osoto to a new kid. Hope he sticks with it everything was coming natural to him
2. Got 1 set of UchiKomi in 20 reps of KataGuruma.. yeah..
3. Got 2 sets of a spider guard pass about 5-10 reps each
4. 1 round of randori with Corey. He had some nice attempts but didnt finish. I had a nice throw or two and an armlock or two. I cant wait for Corey to be back in full swing.
5. 1 round with Vito. It was long. I got some scores he got some.. he mightve had more scores then me. He just needs some more movement and set up. He is very focused on grips but needs to combine it with movement and set ups.. dont we all.. but all in all he is getting REALLY REALLY tough to throw.. good for both of us.

Sunday Promotional

I didnt fight.. im not interested in even thinking much about my next promotion at this point. I went to help out, ref, etc

Lots of people got promoted. It was pretty cool.. to much to write about.. any questions just let me know..

PMJC

PMJC

Chris couldnt make it but had a real good reason. He went to be Uke for His brothers Shodan kata examination. Chris Rules and so does his brother Tommy.

WIth that in mind I was just gonna run a typical PMJC workout. Not a typical judo workout, not a typical YMCA workout and not even a typical workout that I would run. It went as follows:

Newaza uchikomi: Clock Choke / British Strangle
Newaza Randori: about 5 3 min rounds
CrashPad / Uchikomi: about 5-10 mins of each (split class in half)
Randori: everyone got about 5 3 min rounds

I liked the techs we did in newaza and want them to be like 2nd nature to me.

I did good in newaza randori.

Crash Pad was fun.

Randori I was flat not hitting many throws when I really wanted... kinda in a randori slump right now :(

Country club

I went to the Country club. Basically just helped people get ready for the promotaional. I taught abunch of techniques, terms and Judo breakfalls and rolls.
We also went over a bunch of guard passes.
I got a fight in with Dan where I scored a bunch but no big scores as called by the instructor. I also fought the instructor and got a Pin early in the match for about 30-40 secs.. then He armlocked me 2x.

Then I went to PMJC.

UPDATE / BBALL / FUNDRAISER

ok Ive missed some blogs here is what I missed. I will try to update or add detail when I can.

BasketBall Fundraiser / Judo Demo:

Im not a bb guy but the kids had fun and we did a quick Demo during half time. Not bad Not sure how much money was raised but ok thats that.

YMCA

Ok didnt get much in during class last nite. I had Jen run the warmup while I helped some of the kids with a different warmup becaus they were late. Then I just paired people off and worked on the promotional. We had a new guy on the mat and I taught him osoto and he seemed to grasp it really well.

So everyone did that for about 1hr. Kinda boring but they need to work on there techniques for the test this weekend. Just as I was about to wrap it up and get to fighting the instructor shows up and talks for a bit about the promotional and then reads a bit from Haywards book.

I got 1 fight in with tank and then 1 with brandon. The one with tank was fun and the one with Brandon was nice and long. Im glad I got it in and all i just wish there was more structure to the randori. I wish we knew we were going to go about 8 minutes. Actually i wish all randori was timed. Nice short intense rounds are more beneficial for competitors. Throw in a long round here and there thats fine but at the Y you get paired off andyou have no idea how long it will go. The instructor might be fighting and if he is in a pin or wants to keep going in his match then all matches just run and run and run. He might be talking to someone and lose track of time and things just run and run... I just like to mimic tournaments as much as possible...

anyway it was a good match. I am still trying to play in a style where I am just looking for my throws. I do very little defensive gripping or grip breaking. I dont mind this during the match much but looking back on it at times I feel I should stay focused on grips and defensive a bit more. But at the Y it makes more sense to play and try new things out. Then at PMJC I turn it up a bit to match the style going on there. Im not saying this to take anything away from Brandon. He got a bunch of good throws in Some were nicely timed and took advantage of the wrong things I was doing. Some he forced and was just so committed that I got thrown. All good.. im glad I can learn from this. At times it is more frustrating to not get thrown. But the quick recap is that Brandon got taio, guruma gake, makikomi?,seonage w/leg trap, seo/kouchi, sumi gaeshi. Not bad for a yellow belt.. I got mine in too.. i got seo,kouchi,guruma gake, foot sweep, kosoto gake. I was happy that when I did my kouchi's they worked.. I need to use this more it makes seonage a lot easier when Im throwing kouchi.

tonite we have a basketball fundraiser thing where we are playing the state troopers in a game of bball. AFter that we are doing a Judo demo and who knows what else...Not sure when my next Judo workout will be. I Do need to start getting 2 workouts in aday more and more.. Ive been slacking with that and sleep and it starts to take its toll. I really want to be ready for Tony Camals tournament in December.

Local Newspaper Article

Article from a local paper in the area about our results in recent Judo tournaments.

Link to article

Give it a read if you have a sec. Highlights some of the recent tournaments Ive competed at.

TUES PMJC

Our last workout at PMJC had tons of people on the mat and was one of the best judo days Ive had in a LONG LONG time but it was nice to workout with just our guys again. Pretty good size class. I like that there. I mean Ive gotten some great workouts when I went down there and only 1-2 people showed up but I like when everyone goes.. kinda shows that everyone gets that the training is good and everyone is getting better.

We started by drilling the british strangle. I need to keep on this. I was hitting this quite often but then just moved to triangle turnovers/sweeps. So I want another option. In judo you dont have much time when you hit the ground but this move kinda gives you more time on the ground.

Then we did newaza.

Matt: I worked a lil turtle defense.. and tried to control his sleeves as best i could.

Joe: Crazy match kinda all over the place. I had a nice setup for an armlock but Joe is good on the ground and much stronger then me.. he passed got mount I escaped.. good stuff... when i was in his guard controlling the grips made it real hard for him to set up any attacks.. i like that.

Crash pad... worked taio.. decent.. worked new kataguruma.. terrible.

Randori:
Matt: Mssed a choke and he pinned me for a pretty long time. I think I got a taio and an uchimata. He threw me with a yoko wakare and almost had 1-2 more scores but i was able to float out. I had 1 armlock I liked..kinda a triangle armlock from the side where I couldnt get a full juji.

Louis: Kinda stinks louis still takes it a bit easy on me at times...but its probably good for my longevity. He is a big fast strong 290lb player. He does have great control and keeps me pretty safe when he can. He got me a bit and had some good grips but I did catch him once real clean with seonage.

Joe: Made me look silly with an osoto-ouchi for ippon.. i was just sitting back too much. When I took it to him at the end i was able to push the pace and control the match for a bit. I dont think I scored against him.

Tony: Had some good gripping.. hit a few Guruma Gakes a seonage, somehow i hit uchimata.

Good night. Gives me some ideas for me to work on. Mainly more gripping, and right side Guruma gake. I also need to PULL more with them.

OH ill have pics from the headbangers ball workout and Ill post them up soon.

way behind.. quick summary of 3 workouts

Im way behind.. things Have been crazy.. i got a lot of good workouts in ill try to get back to these and add details.

Saturday Country club

Woke up early and picked up my nephew and took him to the country club judo workout. Not too bad. I didnt get much in I fought brandon and he threw me 2x and I threw him a bit. Not much to say about this one. It was cool to get Dom back on the mat and there were a few kids for him to work with

PMJC HeadBangers Ball

This was awesome. I could write a ton about this workout. It was awesome. Some of the best people in the area came out to the club to bang heads. It was part clinic and part randori session. Most of the teaching was covered by Leo/Edwin 2 GREAT judo players from Tech Judo.

Leo went over some gripping and then Taio
Edwin went over KataGuruma

Alberto went over Uchimata
Vlad went over the Russion Stepover

Fights
Travis: Ive beaten him 2x in competition but he got me a few times today in randori. I got 1 real nice seonage.

Kev: Osoto,Osoto,Ouchi Lots of em.. i made some attempts at pickups but didnt really get anything going. Kev out grips me everytime..

Leo: He threw me a lot but I got him once with Guruma Gake. He is definitely the Best player Ive ever thrown for ippon

Edwin: He got me a lot. I had one seonage that might have scored.. but probably not.

Might have had some more fights but cant remember.

This is not doing the workout justice. It really was awesome best time i had on the mat in along time. Great great judo on the mat especially for pa.

Monday YMCA

Basically got EVERYONE ready for the promotion. I got 2 sets in of guruma gake. Explained it to John to cause at first he didnt get it. I use this grip when I am out gripped or when I have an outside grip. I generally use it with an opposite stance as my opponent.

Ok so jen ran the warmup.. i ran class for the first 45 mins then the instructor read from haywards book and then we fought. Something interesting/new happened. I didnt do much the first hr of class.. just helped out teaching. Then I fight nonstop til the end of class.. 1st fight was ok.. started dying during the 2nd fight cramped hard lost my strength.. then i got into a grove and was fine.

I got a lot of fights so here are some highlights.

Jeff: hard to throw good newaza..
Brandon: Scored at least 2x maybe 3x on me. I got some good stuff on him.
Doc G: Good Gripping. he needs to attack more.. he is a lot harder to throw now. I didnt score on him
Dana: Short Matwork session.. real short.
John: 1st mnute i figured i would take it easy.. see if he would attack more then i just turned it up a bit to push the attacks.. i got a seonage, teguruma, gurumagake etc.

PMJC AWESOME CLASS!!!!

Ok My life the last week or two has been really crazy/hectic. Job #1 is nuts, Job #2 doesnt let me sleep, Boiler/heating system crapped out on us at the house, Some LAME workouts, Family issues all have built up and were kinda driving me nuts... after lats nites AWESOME workout I feel like a new person!

Great nite again. Chris basically decided that last nite was just gonna be a fight nite. There is a clinic like workout there this weekend so he said we might as well spend all nite banging heads and save the learnin for Sat. Cool Although I learned a ton last nite.

Its a real great group down at PMJC and there were lots of people on the mat last nite to make it awesome.

Started with newaza. I fought matt first. He tapped me with front hadake by rolling through and really had a super tight choke. I got 1 tap with a lapel choke that ive been getting a few people with.

Fought Mike, I think I got one armlock.. we kinda played arounda bit.. for some reason on the ground he fights a bit different.. guess its the bjj

Joelle, not sure how to spell the kids name but he can play.. on the ground he is weaker then standing but hes 15 he sticks with it he will be a terror. I hit a bunch of armlocks and he pinned me 2x

Standing.. no way I can remember everything that happened.. I had a lot of fights .. btw at PMJC almost always standing fights are TIMED 3 minutes. It keeps it nice and fair and leads to very intense rounds.

Chris: I avoided a drop or two. I didnt score but attacked a lot more. I got countered coming in for a kouchi. I need to get lower and on the right side of the body. Grips and movement were pretty good. Near the end of the fight Matt called out 10 seconds left me and CHris both came in to attack.. i tried a kouchi and he hit an osoto that was basically a clothes line WWF style. Pretty cool.

Joe: I had a nice entry for a cross sleeve ouchi and Kata Guruma. Good grips as I stayed pretty disciplined through this round.. cant remember much

Mike: he threw me once. I think I got him once or twice maybe a seonage and a guruma gake.

Gavin (315lb white belt) This turned into the 'fun' match of the nite. I was playin nice and lite.. its his like 3rd day ona mat. But he is so strong and has so little technique that the falls I was taking where very funny.. me rolling halfway across the mat, getting thrown UP HIGH in the air and again getting throwin across/off the mat. Good stuff though.

Lewis (295 GOOD Player) Its strange very strange but Lewis is probably the most dangerous player for me to fight. Physics cant beat that. He is big and Judo is dangerous but I really get a lot out of playing him. He likes big powerful grips and throws. So I really need to focus on grips and good attacks.. You attack Lewis poorly and he just picks you up for BIG Uranages. I have to say though the big man is very careful to take care of you and I really appreciate that. I did catch him with a nice seonage. I even came back up to my feet with it.. making it look pretty cool.. however I got a bit of a break cause he tried to stand up over me and i popped up at the right time. he did stuff about 7 other attacks of mine though and had me once but showed great mercy and just placed me back down on the mat.

Joelle: Some Cross grip Seonages and Guruma Gake. I think he got me too but I cant remember

Joe Part II. Joe wanted another fight so I said why not. Good round I Didnt score and cant remember what/if he got me.

Ok this is long enough.. great workout. I really appreciate what Chris Costello has put together at Pocono Mountain Judo Club. We have 2 white belts coming up to be great players, a 50 year old yellow belt who is awesome, 2 great brown belts and 2 black belts on the mat tonite.. made for an awesome class and it really really got me motivated and looking forward to the next tournament.

Monday YMCA

Not much to say I didnt do anything until fight time.

I did teach osoto gari to 3 new people 1 adult and 2 kids. They got it no problem.

I also did as best I could to help everyone get ready for promotion and things like that.. paired people as best I could...

So no practice just teaching until 845 or so when the instructor got on the mat. Then we talked, he read and then we started fighting about 855

Fought a lot which was good all in a row basically it was Mike, Vito, Tomic, Brandon, Jenn, John,Tank

Ive been working on gripping mainly trying to get good attacks with defensive grips. I also did some straight offensive gripping. Basically looking to dominate and control sleeves. Got my seonages in.. got a few guruma gakes in and a few good foot sweeps.

Tomic was my best fight and I really turned it up a bit against him.

Brandon threw me at least 3 times.. 1-2 ippons or close and one decent taio.. maybe more too.. he was moving good and was picking good times to attack. Kinda got to me at first but hes made a ton of improvements recently and F it I basically taught him everything he is doing at this point so at least I know the stuff Im teaching him is working.

Thats it for today.. I still need to write about the clinic matt and I taught for the US Army National Guard. That was hecka fun :)

US Army National Guard Training

Ok one of my best buds / brother from another mother Capt. Robert Stevens asked me and Matt to come down to his base and train his guys. First it was real cool to see Bobby IN CHARGE of that whole place. So that was a good start to the day just in general.

Bobby asked us to come down and show judo self defense / combat techniques. He asked to keep it fun, keep it safe and keep in on the ground.. no throws. No Problem.

We got to go over a lot of techniques. We kept it pretty informal and a little bit crazy but still under control.

First we went over basics of positioning on the ground. Things like guard, mount, Side body etc. The first technique we taught was a scissor guard sweep. Then we did a guard retention drill. We also got in: Ude Garami (Kimura), Kata gatame (Arm Triangle), Hadaka Jime (Rear Naked), And Okuri Eri Jime (Clock Choke)

Show those techniques took about 2hrs and the last hour was all Randori.. Ground Fighting. It was awesome. Everyone was real into it and the fights where good.. Saw people using guard.. people getting choked.. all good stuff. No injuries either.

Matt and I fought a bunch too.. I got about 5-6 fights and Matt maybe got one more. I had some good rolls and it was definitely a blast.

I learned a good amount about how to structure a clinic for such a large group of people.. there were about 50 people on the mat.

PMJC Sat

Saturday PMJC

Good workout at PMJC

This isnt going to be too detailed.. my monday morning blogs never are.. and I have lots to write about today

Anyway we started with an armlock from the turtle position. I really want to start using this. The key is to trap the blocking arm early in the transition so that they can not defend with it. Also I need to remember to pull up very strongly going 2on1 against the shoulder.

Newaza Randori. Started with Matt. I really like doing Newaza against him..everything needs to be real tight and clean or it wont work.. I cant even come close to out muscling him..

Chris whopped me good but said i was being technical and said he is noticing improvements.. I use to tap like 5+ times against him.. now like 1-2 if im doing good. I think I came close to getting him with... no i didnt he is good though

Brent. I hit a ton of armlocks on him. I needed something after getting whopped by Chris.

Crash Pad. I worked Taio and Seonage.

Randori. I fought Chris and got thrown once with seonage for a yuko. Had good grips and fought hard. I need to attack more against him.. My first priority with him recently has been trying to not get thrown.. not good.. I need to attack more.

Tommy: One of the Costello Brothers. Great guy and was cool to see him on the mat again. He got me with a seonage and I returned the favor. Good guy to fight againt for me he is a strong right side player with a good seo.

Brent: Got a lot of foot sweeps in and a few pickups.

Matt: I was working on stuffing his throws with my right hand and floating over his yoko's not bad. Good transitions again. he got me up with a double but i floated out.

Vito: Not sure but again I cant remember what happened... I know he has been catching me...

Joe: Some good gripping.. cant remember much else..I need to work on setups and combos against him

LOTS OF FIGHTS!!!! awesome! makes it tough to remember but its worth it..

Also tournament update. PMJC brought home a bunch of medals from Clydes tournament.

Joe took 2nd
Brent took 3rd
Frank took 1st

Congrats all those dudes train hard no bs good hard training gets you medals. its not a secret!

No workout.. No blog.. No

Ok So I wont have an official workout today. Im gonna get a lil cardio in with my kettlebell/dumbell workout though.

I need to crank up the Strength and Conditioning portion of my training. I dont blog much about that but maybe ill start but i write that down and that is working for me for now.

In other news I pulled my head out of my butt and Im ready to go. I am going to start traveling more .. again.. I am going to look to travel any day except Tues and Saturday past 5pm.. those are PMJC days and I dont want to miss those.

I want to head to Clydes more and hopefully a few other places in the area. Im also thinking about going to one of the many grappling schools in the area during the week.. at least once a week.. maybe miss a monday/wednesday Judo session for some BJJ or Sambo or even No Gi.. Mix things up a bit get a good workout in and maybe well never mind that.. keep reading and all will unfold soon enough :)

Again I wont go into detail but a few people reached out in one way or another recently who know me and know my situation and it really helped. Not that I shouldve gone all emo in the first place but it helps to know your not crazy and other people know what you are going through.

Judo is great but sometimes the traditional aspects can really really get in the way and thats when you need to side step all the BS, Drama, politics.. whatever and just push on and get the results you want.

So tonite is just S&C (Strength & Conditioning)

Tomorrow is PMJC

Sunday I go teach Judo/Self Defense/Grappling to a bunch of Army National Guardsmen for my buddy Bobby. That should be cool.

Oh and in non judo tom news..
NEXT WEDNESDAY!!!! WU-TANG in PHILLY!!!! Get your W's Up!!!!

Some GZA lyrics:

Swordsman:

We were on the same ship when the slaves were checked
I had to pull your card you was on the top deck
So I plotted my escape, I saw the Thin Line Between Love and Hate
And fast from the hog on the plate
I suffered brutal pains, from whips and chains
Punishments that were set to wash the brain
So look listen observe and also respect this jewel
drawed up, di-tect and reflect this
light I shine, that cause my power to be find
through the truth, which manifest through eternal minds
Purified gases and masses the same elements
that helped spark civilization classes
I see brothers quote math plus degrees
Look at professor ass niggaz can't feed they own seeds

ShadowBoxin-

I slayed MC's back in the rec room era
My style broke motherfuckin backs like Ken Patera
Most rap niggaz came loud but unheard
Once I pulled ut, round em off to the nearest third
Check these non visual niggaz, with tapes and a portrait
Flood the seminar, tryin to orbit this corporate
indsutry, but what them niggaz can't see
must break through like the Wu, unexpectedly
Protect Ya Neck, my sword still remain imperial
Before I blast the mic, RZA scratch off the serial
We reign all year round from June to June
While niggaz bite immediately if not soon
Set the lynchin, and form the execution date
As this two thousand beyond slang suffocate
Amplify sample through vacumn tubes compressions
cause RZA, to charge niggaz twenty G's a session

Y

Great title if you know me :)

Ok I don't even know where to start so don't complain if this is unorganized or all over the place. I'm just gonna write a long list of ideas/thoughts today. No real structure just a little dump out of my brain.

- I love Judo
- I want to get really really good at Judo
- I want tough, hard and challenging workouts
- PMJC is awesome
- I hate DRAMA
- I wont go into details about some things on THIS site
- I will have another site up SOON :)
- PMJC Rules
- I like Grey / Black http://www.nextleveljudo.com
- Yeah thats me/us... stay tuned
- That coaching clinic (Scroll DOWN) Ruled.
- I really cant say what I wanna say here..
- I have 4 HUGE tournaments in the next 6 months
- I need to Ignore the BS, Push through and train.
- I need to stay focused on what is important.
- I need to study / train more

- DONT PECK AT IT!


I'm done. I did workout yesterday but not much to report. I was told something that made me feel like I got kicked in the stomach. Ruined the whole workout for me. It shouldn't have but I let it get in my Loop so to speak.

Anyway Just cause I want to keep track of what happened I will say this

1 set of fit ins for the night. I spent most of the workout watching / helping others because the instructor was not on the mat until 840 or so.

I got 4 'matches' Elle, Brandon, DR George, Tomic, Dana. Not sure of the order.. don't matter much. Yes I can count too btw.. ELLE is new so it wasn't a match really.

Thats it.. I have no idea what I'm doing this weekend. I think/hope that I will be teaching Judo/PT/Self Defense some people in the Army National Guard who will be heading to Afghanistan in a few months. I might also compete. Who knows....

PMJC

Good class last nite. Im writing this quick so it will not be too detailed. We were late.. I hate getting to PMJC late.. oh well Luckily Chris was cool with it and no big deal.

We started Drilling the clock choke and a sweep when someone is turtled. Ive hit this sweep before in competition but it is really starting to get better and better.

Did Uchikomi. I was working on a double lapel grip. I actually like the way this lets me control the upper body.

Worked with Matt on a Kata Guruma where he uses the lapel. Looked good.

Newaza. First against Matt. Dont know what it was but I had one nice pin. Matt forces me to keep everything real tight and precises. He had some stuff going too like a lil sneaky guard pass and almost had me pinned up once or twice.

Tony. Tony likes to keep his arms outstretched and stack me up. I armlocked him a bunch and swept him a bunch.

I was feeling weak by now.. no sleep for this long is no good....

Randori: Joe got me 1x and I think I got him once but im not sure maybe nothin. Good gripping and moving.

Chris Dumped me 1x for a yuko. I avoided a seo/single. Decent gripping

Tony. I worked some foot sweeps and 1 or two kouchi/seo type stuff.

Mike. He got me with a whizzer. I got him with a seo and a kouchi.

Fought the new guy. some foot sweeps not much else.

I think thats it. I felt terrible and weak. I need to get my conditioning going and get some dam sleep.

Monday YMCA

I got there and started running the drills from the West Point Clinic. Unfortunately for me there was a new person at the club so I didnt get to do the drills instead since the instructor was not there yet I taught OsotoGari.

I ran the drills for about 35 mins or so.. people were getting tired.. not everyone was getting it but there is a learning curve. At about 830 the instructor shows up.. says hes not getting on the mat gave a bunch of instructions and then left.

We had to do static uchikomi for a while.. i just walked around and helped out.

Then we fought.. I'm not making any excuses for anything but I just wasnt into it and was just going through the motions except for a bit when I was really trying to get sumi gaeshi with a right hand power grip (right hand over the back left hand left lapel) that was fun.

I fought Jeff he armlocked me.. nice flying armlock.

Everyone one else was just kinda blah.. I just wasnt into it... dont know.. I was just kinda upset that the instructor came in seemed upset we were doing drills and then tried to give a mandate about not doing drills until after the promotional.. so ok his club go for it. ill have everyone doing static uchikomi.

Im not gonna.. I'm not testing.. I don't need that I'm gonna pick the partner I need and do moving drills over and over while they do static uchikomi. I love helping out and teaching its basically the only reason I go to the Y but I need to improve not just watch Judo. If I just wanted to watch Judo I would stay home and go on YouTube.

So tonight I really didn't get anything done.. oh well.. I really hope some of the students liked it especially the competitors and I hope it gives them some ideas about what training should be like.

Tonight is PMJC.. THANK GOODNESS!!!!!! I know Ill get a real good one in tonight.. I need it.

West Point Clinic

Saturday I went to a clinic at West Point. It was fantastic. This clinic taught moving dynamic partner drills. The material they covered and how they covered it was great. Not only did the drills help me for that day but I will be able to take these drills and use them at the YMCA. The clinicians Bill Montgomery and Joan Love were great. They had a very very similar outlook/philosophy to Judo training that I have which makes absorbing the info much easier when you are already on the same page so to speak. I wont go into details on the philosophies or the drills really at this point but the more free time I have the more I will write about this clinic and what we went over and WHY.

Here is a list of the Throwing drills we did:

3's
1 tore 2 uki tore runs up to uke uke moves in one direction tore fits in for throw

ouchi - kouchi down the mat

seionage moving backwards JUMPING IN

seionage moving forwards

slide all around mat clockwise fit in

slide around mat counter clockwise fit in

tori moving forward taitoshi

tori moving forwar tsuri goshi

tori moving forward kouchi - taio - left seo uke does osoto dont break grip

tori moving backwards right osoto left osoto

tori moving forward left deashi right deashi

sideways okuri to harai

backwards Hiza guruma/ Sase

Here are some Ne-waza Drills

Four breakdowns:
1. Power half- run it into Kami Shio gatame

2. Power half uke raises up you go under grab elbow

3.Power half- uke pulls arm in to prevent armlock, you raise arm up and then switch up arm rick hawn style

4. Waki gatame armlock

Also a spinning juji jatame armlock

and a Celita Schultz style roll into a pin

Ok so maybe some of those drills make sense by reading.. maybe they dont. I just needed to write them down so I could refer back to them. Not sure when but I will video tape myself and some people doing these drills and get them up on YouTube.

We also got to do a good amount of randori both standing and newaza which was cool.. I got to go w/ a few real good black belts as well as a whole bunch of other people both from West Point and some of the visiting clubs.

I also earned my national level coaching certification which means I can OFFICIALLY sit in the coaching chair at any US tournament, open an official Judo club, etc etc

AHHH this post does not do the clinic justice it really was the best overall clinic Ive ever been to and Ive been to a decent amount. I really hope the Y people take to these drills.. if not oh well then they can just hate doin em cause IM gonna run these drills as much as possible in the next few months :)

YMCA

Ok I taught most of the class last nite. I ran drills/randori til 835 and then the instructor got on the mat read from a book talked and then we resumed randori til the end of the nite.

I paired people off and did some of the drills we did at PMJC the nite before as well as the crack the turtle game. A lot of these were done for like 30 seconds and then switching.

I had to go to drills because I couldnt do nothing again all nite. It might seem a bit selfish but I dont want to go somewhere pay $$ and teach all nite not do any judo adn then just have to fight everyone. These drills are not just for me they will definitely help everyone on the mat and I sat out more then anyone else anyway to watch and supervise.

Then we did grip fighting and then we did Ground fighting. The grip fighting were 1min rounds and Ground fighting was 3 minute rounds.

I just switched in people as best I could and tried to keep it at a good pace.

Then I got some randori in. I fought Brandon and it was a good fight. He has taken a strong interest in Guruma Gake and although he should probably be working some other throws he has it working, he competes a lot, he has all his points for his next promotion so IMO im in no position to stop him. And it was cool cause it gave me a good insight into what the other person will see / do when i come in for the throw. I tried to play him as loose as possible trading throws/techniques and not using much power. He responded and lightened up and tried a lot of throws. Thats what more of these knuckle heads need to do. But they are getting it and coming around nicely.

Vito ducked me cause he is scared :) j/k but I did see him shakin a bit :)

Then Jenn not much going on there.. worked mainly newaza and i tried to work last minute pin escapes or crap im stuck better get outta here pin escapes.

Then Jeff. He armlocked me... again he kinda let it go that happens again i think i might poke him in the eye. He also is starting to get uchimata. Id like to see him work that a bit more its close.

Tomic. Good strong righty stance/player. he got me a few times and i got him a few. good times he is definitely a good player great to have him join the club.

all those fights were in a row then i fought the instructor. I was able to pass guard 2x, pin 1x for a long time, 1x for a short bit, got close on an armlock. I was able to roll him when he turtled up and hand a was working a transition to an armlock but he stopped it cause he was kinda posted on his neck. he said i could recieve a penalty for this if it was a bad ref but im not worried about that. its the same move Jimmy Pedro showed me, same move Rick Hawn showed me and same move Chris Costello showed me.
I also got swept, pinned and armlock at the end of the match.

Dang.. another long post.. I got to figure out a way to shorten these up.. oh well..

Personal:
My laptop crashed on me wed morning. I was up at 6 to do work but it wasnt working.. i went out and bought a new one and had to spend most of my time getting that up and running. things are good now and i can start working my 2nd job again.. i need that job the extra $$ is really going to come in handy down the road

Today is an off day i think.. might rest up until saturday when I am going to a clinic at west point.

PMJC

Chris is on fire. He always finds a way to make sure we had a great workout. A few people didnt show or were hurt but it was like it didnt even matter.

Started working turnovers with Matt. When I turtle if he can punch an arm in from the front he is pretty good to go from there. We worked the finish mor then anything else and I think what he was doing was real valuable I'd love to see him pop someone over with these.

I need to work these more and more. When someone turtles if you really want to turn them you gotta work at a fast pace with loads of intensity and then still probably need a bit of luck. Chris also demonstrated the value of HOOKING an arm during newaza transitions. He didnt really go over this just got people around and started turning me or pinning me and as I transitioned he just showed that its never to late to hook an arm and pin the guy.

Then we did a guard pass / guard retention drill. I rocked at these :) J/K but seriously I did. I like guard work. Ive spent a lot of time working passing the guard and submitting from there. I used to suck now I'm decent. But I got paired with matt and Brent. I passed or sub'd each time in guard and passed guard each time too.. or close to it.

Worked with Matt on these too and he picked up LOADS of stuff just doing these drills. I think his best bet was to get off to one side and just crush/trap an arm and hold a guy in. He was able to generate some pressure by squeezing together but his arms is where he was really controlling.

Then we did Newaza Randori. I went with Matt first I dont think either of us got anything. Thats cool no probs there. Cant remember much.

Then I went to Tony.. maybe Brent too but cant remember. Lots of guard stuff again. Mainly sweeps and armlocks from there.

Crashpad. Some Cross grip seonages and Kouchi. I want to work straight Kouchi makikomi more then my ippon seonage style Kouchi.

Randori. I think I fought Chris first. I hadnt fought him in a while and very little changed. He threw me for one real nice ippon with an ankle pick off a seonage fake.. Great stuff.. i was just bracing waiting for the seonage and he dumped me on my back. I didnt score but had some decent entries... he might have gotten a few smaller scores also and I did manage to avoid some of his throws.

Fought Tony/Brent Worked on footsweeps a lot and my normal throws as well.

Fought Mike. Mike is a good wrestler with some bjj exp. Great combo to walk in to judo with. This guy will be real good if he just sticks with it.

Ok long ass post.. stinks I will not be at PMJC for a week because this weekend IM going to a clinic at west point.. should be cool.

crazy...

Ok so this weekend I got 4 different workouts in but no blogging..

I also had a ton of work to do..

My family came up to visit

and I Carved a pumpkin. Pics coming soon.

I need to refocus a bit though. I need to get more strength/conditioning going off the mat. I need to lose some weight and I might need to prioritize some workouts.

Some of the workouts which I just cant replace are the Pocono Mountain Judo Workouts. They are really really helping me. The saturday country club workouts are the first to go.. I probably wont be back there for a while. I feel bad but if those people want to train they should seek me out or seek some other clubs out. They know where they are but a lot of the people there are not serious and that is fine but at this point its not really for me.

I wish I could get the YMCA workouts to be as intense but that is not the style. I wish I could get more done then just teaching but I fear that the Y is just going to be me teaching a lot. If this happens Im gonna bail on one of the days and just start doing BJJ or something like that. I looked at some blogs of mine from a while ago.. not on this site.. and I realized that all i was doing was teaching at the Y and my competition results where not good. So I refuse to let that happen again.

Dont get me wrong. I want to teach. I love to teach and help people get better but right now my focus needs to be on me. Thats judo. You only have so long to compete at a high level until you fall apart. Thats when you teach. Thats when Ill open my own club to train champions at. It will not be a rec center style workout. ahh I just dont know what to say.

Monday YMCA

Pretty big class 4 kids 2 new kids.. more moscow crew.. 1 guy 1 gal great for dana if they stick it out

Jeff Reese on the mat again which is great. Jeff runs the Gracie school in scranton and I will be teaching some judo there thursdays. Come check it out. best of both worlds :)

I didnt do anything til randori because the instructor got on the matt at 830 then talked to 845

fought some big guy who i dont remember his name right now..sorry.. mike maybe? hes good for his experience.. only knows mat work at this point. He fights hard and doesnt give up. Great attitude to have.

Fought Tomic: he got me with a tani off a seo- kouchi. very nice for him. I got some seonages, a teguruma.. real low at the ankle and a sumi gaeshi

Fought sheryl she threw me for ippon. real nice sumigaeshi.

Saturday PMJC

Cant remember much from this one.

Had a new guy on the matt.. great wrestler some bjj. Should be an awesome addition if he joins.

Just another great workout up there. I really wish I could train with Chris Costello more at PMJC. He is really helping me take my judo to the next level.. where that will lead who knows but I always thought I'd look good on a wheaties box.

I know Joe slammed me with a hiza-Osoto.. F'er got me real good. I was motivated and did get him in return.

Frank threw me. You know you are at a good club when a 50 something year old Yellow belt can throw a kick ass shodan like myself.. BIG props to frank the tank

Again not really sure what happened it was a while ago and who knows...

Saturday Country club part I

I havent been up to the country club in a long time. My schedule is just too nuts. I do love working with the kids and some of the adults up there but this is a very recreational level workout.. not really what im looking to do.

I did get to work with Dan Van Ness. Was fun hitting throws on someone I havent fought in a long time. People you train with get used to your attacks and things get sloppy. I made good focused setups and attacks and everything was working.. ALL my seonages, guruma gake and te guruma.

Saturday Privates
Short but sweet. Fought Dan again same thing really. Fought Fred the instructor on the matt for a bit.. hit an omoplata sweep and pinned for a bit.

Friday MFS

Ok go figure my schedule is nuts.. im juggling my job, my consultant job, judo, girlfriend, cats, friends, family and going crazy.. keeps me real busy.

Anyway this was a great workout. I went over to matts house and we worked out in his wrestling room.

Got a new drill.. crack the turtle.. 20secs.. then switch.. very nice

did a pin escape drill same thing

we also did some randori.

Matt tapped me once with ude garami, turned me over 1-2x and i think got a choke or another armlock.

Wed YMCA

I think sometimes I just spoil myself.

Last night at the Y the instructor decided to start getting people ready for an inhouse promotional tournament that he will be running. This will be a little different then the promotional I attended last weekend. Since I am not seeking promotion I just taught and helped out some other people as they were getting ready.

This took us until 9pm the first hour of class was just speeches and this promotion stuff.

Then we moved to randori.

I got to fight Jeff. We've trained together in the past but he has gotten so much better. I guess he spent a few months training with Jim Simrell doing sambo/bjj/mma there and it really shows. He did do something that kinda annoyed me. He was in a position where he had about a 93% chance of armlocking me but he kinda just let it go. Im all for safety but you gotta lock the arm when its available. His armlock transition started as I passed his guard to side body. Yeah for me on the guard passing but I relaxed and he got a nice arm lock. Pretty slick for a white belt.

Then I fought Tomic. Everyday this guy gets better and better. Grips are strong its real good. I found out a bit more about how he plays and things like that so its getting more Judo'ey out there when we fight. He has strong right side throws and right side counters.

Then Jenn. Not much went on She had a real good escape maybe two. I didnt try many throws against her.

Then Dana. She got me with a pretty good seonage again... and again I dont think anyone saw... very strange..

Fighting was good but drama is bad. There hasnt been too much drama at the Y recently but I have a feeling in the next few weeks it will probably get out of hand. The instructor is looking to 'tighten' things up or something so there will be a lot more speeches, we have a promotional coming up and some other behind the scenes type drama as well. All I know is that I am tracking what goes on here in this blog.. and if Im not doing Judo at the Y meaning if there is more drama then Judo Im out.... Ill come back after the drama settles down or something. I just dont have the time for it. I want to train Judo. I want to get better and better and that doesnt happen by talking or getting no technical work and only 15 mins of fighting. I took a look at blogs I wrote a year or so ago and there was very heavy amounts of drama at the Y and very little Judo for me. I will not go through that again.

Another great workout at PMJC.

Lots of cool things at PMJC going on. First a bunch of the Moscow kids came down which was cool. Vito,Brandon and Dana where there. Big Mike was absent. It was great to have some more people on the mat and its really going to help those 3 the more they get down there.

Went over a choke when someone turtles the one where I get my hand in the lapel and step and rollover the person in one motion. I really was focusing on tucking my leg in between the head and shoulders and getting a smooth roll.

Then we worked armlocks from turtle. I had matt which meant my armlocks were not working..I was hoping that I would figure something out that would work... in stead I just found like 20 things that would not work.. still beneficial

Matt worked a nice turnover from turtle he doesnt get to work these often but he was dead on with this one.


Newaza I went with Matt, Dana and Brandon. Good times. Matt had a strong pin on me. I dont think I sub'd him at all. Dana is doing well. Against Brandon I had some nice guard passes. Its all in the grip and posture. My guard passes have gotten a lo better.. dont help a ton in Judo Comps but still cool. I used to have terrible Guard passes. Thanks Greg!

Crash pad. I worked Uchimata.. I dont know.. this throw... ahhhhhh .. kills me I'd love to have a nice uchimata. I can hit it. Meaning if things are good I can throw it but in a static situation the flaws in my technique show big time.. oh well..
I also got to do right side kataguruma.

Randori. Started against Frank and he was whoopin on me good at first than either he got a lil tired or I got a lil sharper and started hitting some throws.

Joes first fight I couldnt throw him. stunk.

I fought louis and survived.. yeah me :) I had some decent Seonage attempts against him and I got one Kouchi but he might have just bailed on that.

Matt. His defense was good. I didnt get at Subs. I was really trying to stuff his takedowns as he started them.

Dana. She got me with drop seonage. No one saw it.. it dont count :)

Joe got one big seonage. Countered one of his taniotoshi attempts.

Thats all..

I hope tonite at the Y is cool

Monday YMCA

Ok lil bit different type class tonight.. kind of a 'throwback'.

Some good points though. One the new guy Tomic is getting better and better. We got to fight and he got some scores in. Definitely a good player just needs to get his wind back up. Good gripper and a european style which is nice.

Jeff is still on the mat He has been there every Monday for a while now and hopefully Ill start training Thurs with him at his school too. I fought Jeff and he had a nice flying armlock on me.. he took it a bit easy on me and might have been able to finish if he had not. Lots of newaza and again I was able to stay defensive enough to avoid getting tapped. His gripping is OK and his movements and reactions are getting good as well. I just learned he was/is a wrestler so now I have a few new throws I can show him.

So I started class and was going to go through our uchikomi drills.. however the instructor got on the mat at about 8 and ended that. Instead we did a throwing drill where you threw everyone in line and then the next person would throw everyone..etc

ok not a bad drill but just too slow paced. I threw like 9x and then sat around for 15 minutes while i took 9 falls??

then we did a pin escape drill.. i coached people through it and then ran through it myself... again not a bad drill but I did 9 bridges and sat around for 15 mins...

not bad but our class just doesnt have that type of time imo.

then i fought.. i fought some kids... jenn, tomic and jeff oh also did matwork with new guy about 280-290 ish.. hes new so he didnt have much but i was able to do a few reversals and control him in guard nicely.

i wasnt too pumped up about judo after this workout.. i would much rather go through a super intensive brutal workout.. but oh well...
so what did i do.. i went home my girlfriend came over we drank wine and watched a movie and ate food.. good times :)

tonight PMJC.. Cant wait :)

Fights from East Coast

Here are links to two of my fights from the east coast.

Thanks to Vito for getting me the links!

Win via Te Guruma:

Win with Guruma Gake:

Hudson Promotional

I really dont know what to say in this blog. Normally after a tournament I really just want some time off to relax and heal a bit. Normally after a tournament the only thing to talk about is how you won and why you lost. This tournament was much different but Ill start with the basics.

OK first things first Pocono Mountain Judo Club Did a really good job. Joe won 3 matches in a row to get his next belt. Chris Costello our instructor did a great job and had 3 great wins. I had 2 wins. Definately a solid performance in a tough competition. Also Tommy Costello, had a win and earned his last point for his black belt promotion and that was real cool to watch. His fights were really cool to watch.

Ok my fights. First this tournament is a lil different. Its a line up. Two guys go out to fight. Winner stays on to fight a new fresh heavier opponent all the way up the line. So you definately see some interesting matchups.

My first fight was against a guy my size. I had good grips the entire match and was really in no danger of being thrown. I tried a bunch of pick ups like uranage and te guruma but couldnt get scores and 2 of those throws counted against me both wazari and I was done. I felt horrible I didnt even get how I lost and was really down and out.. what helped was Matt and Chris. They didnt give me the oh you tried hard or ohh do better next time.. they both just said "Hey you got screwed.. go out there and throw the next guy through the mat.. dont leave anything up to the judges." Good advice and exactly what I did next time through.

In my 2nd time through the line I fought a good lefty player for Tech Judo. I had watched this guy all day and had fought him once already. I knew he would let me take my outside lefty grip and that if I got that I needed to attack quick. We came out, got grips and I threw with lefty KataGuruma for ippon. I will say Chris did tell me to look for this throw. Made me more confident when I realized it was there. I had a lil bit of a different finish then most KataGurumas but it was a big definite ippon.

The next guy was about 30lbs heavier then me. Again I had good gripping and wasnt really in any danger of getting thrown. I was having difficulty throwing him but was all over him with counters and pickups. Near the end of the match I got a very nice uranage for ippon. I was getting tired at this point :)

Last match.. stinks.. I was kinda manhandled to be honest. I fought a 190lb jacked up maniac .. thats a compliment. He was a black belt in judo and a good wrestler. About a minute into the match i got sloppy... and a lil lazy. It was the 2nd or 3rd attempt he made at choking me and he got enough time to work it in deep... and I tapped..No shame losing to a good player but still very frustrating. I KNOW that if i was in better shape I couldve won.

What was cool is that guy won his next match and then fought Chris... Chris had no trouble with him.. threw him on his head with seonage and got the ippon.

So anyway for those keeping score at home that is six wins in seven days. Not bad... Ive won with Pickups, Seonage, Kataguruma and Guruma/Gake. My main focus for the next month or so will be conditioning. I really want to be able to win some easy matches on strength alone.. and I want to be able to take every fight the distance if necessary. One of the things I'm most happy with is the fact that I have not been thrown these last 2 tournaments.

Also there is a lot of behind the scenes type goodness that I just dont really feel like talking about now but I have to say that going to this tournament with Chris to fight in his promotional at his Sensei's Club against some of the best people in this area really means a lot to me. Kinda got that whole.. your not in this alone type feeling..

Im really lucky to be training with the people that I am training with.

Tournament this weekend and Wednesday YMCA

Wednesday YMCA

Ok So I decided I will compete again this saturday at a promotional tournament. Promotional meaning that it is mainly for people seeking there next rank. I am not. IM very happy with my rank now and train with some ridiculous people who are also 'just' first degree black belts so no rush for me. I was going to go to this tournament just to coach and help out some of my training partners. Then Chris suggested I fight. He had some great reasons so I agreed. I will fight this saturday. Mainly for fun it will be interesting... first I dont have to suck weight.. no suana no dehydration no starving and I dont even have to wake up that early... Ill probably do terrible.. just kidding but I hope to fight some really really good people who will be very hungry to win. Not that IM not or dont want to win but I just dont have as much pressure on me this weekend. MIght get to try out some new things.. Might not

Anyway.. Wednesdays class..

Moved back towards the uchikomi drills I have been doing.. again thanks to Chris Costello and Clyde for getting these drills into my head :)

Did a lot of moving uchikomi, counter attacks, Counters, and combinations. Then moved onto GripFighting and newaza randori. all good times.

Got another 'new' guy on the matt last nite too.. Jeff who I used to train with is back.. hopefully for a while.. who knows.. he has a crazy work schedule. He had been training with Jim Simrell for a while in BJJ / Sambo and he got GOOD. Jeff used to be all power. When I fought him that nite he felt real smooth and fluid and didnt need any power to stay out of trouble.

Cant remember much about the randori really .. well I got dumped on my head by Tomic. In a good way Im glad he can throw me. He definately has skill and as he gets back in shape Im sure he will get even better. I need to remember to ask him a thing or two now that I think about it.

What else.. Fought Dana Vito and Brandon again they are all improving.. Did a lot of newaza with Brandon for some reason and he did real good on the matt.. played very smart too not just the usual strong aggressive style.. not that there is anything wrong with that but its better to have a few options. Cant remember the Vito fight.. if there even was one... Fought Dana... she just needs to attack more and just needs more matt time.. all those kids will be real good if they stick it out.

I got a new seonage working...I really like it and it works great in conjunction with my Single Leg aka Guruma Gake :) I cross grip with my left hand to there left lapel and throw right ippon seonage. Very Nice :) I also am just about ready to start working on another variation of Seo but lets not get ahead of ourself just yet :)

Ok so thats that until I compete.

I also hope to have some video of my fights from the last tournament. I know my club has my last match for silver and 1 quater final match at least.. not sure about the rest... they werent as exciting anywyay

Tues Pocono Mountain Judo

Tues Pocono Mountain Judo

Great clas.. what else is new..

We got there a bit late and just jumped in to what the class was doing which was some newaza drills. We did Turnovers, Chokes and Armlocks from the turtle and from Guard. Real cool.

Then we moved on to the Crash Pad and I worked a few different throws including the Guruma Gake :)

Randori: Mainly did a winner stays up type of Judo today. It was to prep the people who are going into a promotional this weekend. At the start of class I thought it was just Joe and Chris going to the promotional. Now that might not be true :) More on that later..

anyway it was cool.. I really focused mainly on just being aggressive and trying to out work Chris and Joe. I did pretty good against Chris I think he threw me once real nice. And I got him with one seonage. Joe was real hard to throw I think I got him once but it was just a Sukashi.. meaning I really just got out of the way of one of his throws.. but hey a scores a score.. he did get a nice flying armlock on me.

Great Class again in Stroudsburg at PMJC

Monday YMCA

Monday YMCA

Ok first workout after the tournament and first workout after tim officialy takes his 1 year break. SUX

Anyway it was a decent turnout 2 kids 2 brown belts myself a BJJ instructor and a few white belts. With the instructor showing up about 830 or so

Jenn Ran the warmup. Then we started just with open practice and uchikomi. I figured I would just give people a chance to work on anything they wanted and I wanted to make sure I had time to work with mike and jeff.

Mainly talked with mike. He was doing Osoto and there isnt much to correct. He was a bit bummed about his losses at the tournament but is still motivated which is great.

Then I worked with Jeff. Mainly went over gripping with him. Just some basics and a few theories on controlling. Jeff is a fighter already so I really just want to introduce a few things and see what he takes too. But I explained you have to start with grips. Then we went into Seonage. He has this.. jsut needs to work it. Showed it from sleeve and lapel.

Randori.. ok this is a bit late so just some things i remembered.

I went straight through and fought Jeff, Tomic, Brandon and Dana... might have been more but i forget.

Jeff is doing good and forces me to stay tight on my transitions. He had good posture gripping and movement and caught me with one pretty cool sacrifice. Brandon fought good and got me with an ankle pick.
Dana is fighting good too just needs to turn in a bit more on some throws.

East Coast Championships 10 6 2007

East Coast Championships 10 6 2007

Ok so I was up at 6. Left to meet Tim and Matt to to leave for the tournament. On the way we meet up with Chris, Joe and Frank. Chris and Joe didnt compete and it was Franks First competition. Which I didnt even realize. He definately didnt fight like it either.

Anyway we were weighed in by 10 and I didnt fight til like 215 or so. I was feeling pretty good when I was called for my first match. This was the first tournament where I didnt spend the whole day coaching. Although it is somewhat selfish I think I am going to stick to this for several reasons. I was much more prepared for my matches. I spent lots of time warming up and fitting in on throws and doing some grip fighting. It really got me focused and ready. Also It didnt seem to hurt the results of our competitors. Most still medaled and did very very well. Obviously I would love to do both but I really feel it takes too much out of my fights both mentally and physically to do at big tournaments. Its unfortuante but true. One of the main things I didnt like about it was that I really dont know how everyone did.

Ok on to my fights.

First fight went the distance. I won on points I threw him twice with Seonage but had 1 penalty against me for illegal entry to mat work from doing a Seonage.

Second fight went the distance as well. I lost this match and it was a real close and good match. I got thrown twice and threw him twice but my throws didnt score too high. I might have had a penalty too. not really sure. I shouldve one this fight. Shows me I need better conditioning and strength.

Third fight I won when I countered a throw with TeGuruma for ippon.

Fourth fight went the distance I was ahead the whole match and stuck mainly to Seonage I had 1 Wazari and was quite content to 'ride the match out' to take the W.

Fifth fight was for silver. This match lasted about 20 seconds. I got to use my new Guruma/Gake throw. It was pretty good and was ippon. I won and took silver.

So here is what I am taking away from this tournament. Time to get stronger and in better shape. Work Guruma/Gake on the other side. Work hiza Guruma to Seonage. More foot sweeps. More 'Reser' attacks.

I recieved some great coaching both on and off the matt during the tournament and it really helped me during some of my matches and im really greatful of that besides my official coach I got great tips from Chris Costello of Pocono Mountain Judo. I also got some great tips from Serge from Mayo Quanchi and that was great.

Still lots of work to do but I feel pretty good about my performance.

Thanks to all who came out there to support me.

Wed YMCA

ok i think that was my last workout before the tournament.

kinda a strange day again at the Y. Tims last class before leaving. sucks.

but we got a good one in. Did some turnovers. I dont like the way that most class did the turnover so me and tim stuck to sankaku style turnovers which was nice to review. then we did a pinning/escape drill for a while.

then randori I fought tyler and aaron and that was cool..

then dana. her combos are improving.. she needs to rotate in more on her attacks and get her back leg up. she just needs to commit more and have more confidence. i did get some nice ankle picks on her.

then tim. he got me a few times.. gripping was good.. but attacks werent. im hoping he just has figured out how to stop some of my lefty attacks and that my opponents wont. i did hit a nice tani which was cool.. it was 100% from doing the drills i learned at clydes. they are definately helping and will be a staple of my training from here out.

woke up at 145.8 very nice :)

PMJC

Ok this was the last workout at PMJC before the tournament. I had a real good day and did real well fighting. My endurance felt ok... didnt punk out at all during the fighting.

I did a good job of grip fighting vs chris and didnt get dumped too bad against him which is nice.

Fought tim well but didnt throw him and he got me at least once if not more.

Everyone else I did real good and got some ippons in. it was nice to work full randori at a fast pace with good transitions into newazaza.

I need to use my 'reser' attack a bit more and really push the groundwork in the upcoming tournament.

my weight is good and thats nice :)

MON YMCA

mmmm interesting class some good stuff some not so good.

anyway East coasts is on saturday. not much time left. If things were up to me i would train my techniques that i am going to use doing lots of movement and get a lot of reps in. then i would do some grip fighting and some randori. all very intense and with short time intervals. that is a proven way to peak before an event. keep the intensity high and the duration short.

however as things go i was not in charge so i really had no say.

first i had to teach falling to the kids and to some new adults. the kids are getting it and the adults new. again not what i would do before a tournament.

i also had to take a bunch of falls from the new guys... yeah i love that.. wait no i dont. reasons might not be what you expect. i can say it had nothing to do with taking falls per se. i can take them.. i can take them well. i can make the thrower look good. as to why it did bother me... well thats a GGJCT secret

i did that and then the instructor talked to the class for a while.

finally i got paired up with tim and we were told to work on what we needed to for the tournament. most of the class just started uchikomi. cant blame them but me and tim took it differently and started doing all the movement drills we had being doing at the Y while i ran class. again everyone else was doing static uchikomi for the most part.. some were working combos...again i dont feel its as beneficial to be doing static uchikomi the week b4 a big tournament.

we worked on counter atttacks, counters, combos, etc. we were just about to do gripfighting but didint get to.

randori. i knocked out someones tooth last nite.. i felt real bad. i knocked out Doc Georges tooth. I feel bad. he is a professional and doesnt need that..and at the time it got to him.. so again i felt bad. ok well a few things were worth mentioning from this fight. george is good and i didnt throw him or if i did it was small nothing good. i did have an armlock in newaza but not sure about it .. anyway i didnt get thrown and had good gripping.. but couldnt really set up attacks either.. kinda a stalemat and i would say george did a great job... he is really coming along.. i hope he sticks with it and trains more and competes more.

fought vito. he played real defensive. or at least thats how it seemed.. cant blame him.. he might have just wanted to focus on that or might not have wanted to get thrown by me.. he did good too. and stuffed a bunch of my attacks.

then i fought dana not much to say she had some nice combos she just needs to commit more.. i had some nice kosotos against her that i need to work on more.

hmmmm.... thats how i felt about the workout.. again i wish it was a bit more focused on the competitors or was more a competition style workout but oh well.. not much to say.

tonite is at PMJC so that will be awesome.. cant wait.

Thursday 9 27 GOLDS GYM JUDO

Ok so we met up for a workout at golds gym. me timmy and matty

we were kinda aiming to keep it on the short side and did ok with that. the intensity was definately high. I had a sweat going the whole time and was very comfortable with it.

first we did 3mins of uchi komi each. I focused a lot on uchimata.

i snuck some extra rounds in with matt when timmy needed a break.

the we did 2 mins of atack/counter attack we did that a few times

then in between those 2 mins we would do newaza with matt.

did that a few times then did gripfighting rounds 2 mins

in between grip fighting we would do newaza with matt

then we did ashiwaza randori and inbetween we would do newaza with matt

i also did some burpees.. these whooped me good.. got to do more of them.

then we finished all doing newaza.

ok so thats what we did. I really want to workout like this more and more. the old way of just doing static uchikomi is not what i want to do. i want to do more workouts like this and like chris runs. I need to make that happen too.

the uchikomi was good.. i feel my technique is ok. the newaza was def. good. i need to use that in the tournament. take people to teh mat. either tire them out a bit, make them worry or just beat them.

my grip fighting is good.. def. made some improvements against tim today gripping.

gonna do it all again tonite at golds.. sat might be an off day... well i get something in like a run or something..

Wed sept 26 YMCA

Ok I wanted to get as much cardio type stuff in today and i wanted to get alot of clydes drills in again so people would remember them and we can keep focusing on them. we started with the following partner drills:

attack/counter attack
combinations

then we went on to do a bunch of 2min newaza rounds

then a bunch of 1min grip fighting randori

at this point the instructor got to class.. it was about 825 or so.. we talked a lot about some upcoming events and then got back into newaza rounds.. these were nto timed and went much longer.. i went one real long round with stephen.

i think i also went with tim

then we did standing.. i went with a bunch of kids and mike.. not sure about anyone else..

so i really didnt get much in after the drills.. im really liking them and hope to do them at the next workout i have with Matt and tim.

it was cool cause those drills are real new to the YMCA crowd but i could already see some improvements in there randori after doing them.

in other news at west point on oct 27 there is a 2day judo clinic that will focus on partner drills.. strange.. coincidence..who cares it should be awesome.

ive been dieting real hard for the east coasts and im now within 'suana' range. i still want to get abit lower just to make things easier but being this close this far out is nice.. it will allow me to eat better after workouts which makes things much nicer.

Another blog worth reading

not that my blog is worth reading but if you got another minute or two in your day..

check out Matt's Blog here http://mmarcinek.blogspot.com/

Matt is one of my best friends and training partners.

PMJC

PMJC

another great workout at Chris Costellos Judo club: Pocono Mountain Judo Club. Just incase anyone is reading this and has a free saturday or tuesday and is within a driving distance to stroudsburg, pa I highly advise stopping by if you want to improve your sport judo.

anyway. we did some choke drills, some armlock drills and chris really helped me with the arm lock drill and that got me to help myself had some of my best transitions. really focused on controlling the arms quickly with my legs/hips!!!

crash pad i worked uchimata its coming along but i wil probably never use it in a tourny.. oh well.

newaza. first i went with tim. I can honestly say that we have both improved a ton in newaza. which is why i was so happy when i got an armlock on him. after that he stayed on the attack and i was able to defend. we go back and forth in randori basically someone gets guard and is the attacker and the other one is looking to pass guard. my guard passing is getting much better.. i pulled off a sweet guard pass. if you want to see a vid of the guard pass i used check out this vid i posted on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqrpD1kP73g

then randori.

Tony: got some seonages a right uchimata to left kataguruma and a huge tegurama type throw... kinda stealing this from ryan reser

Tim: still having trouble getting off righty attacks on tim. i avoided 1 tomonage, got throw with 1 or 2 HUGE uchimatas but i got him with 1 guruma gake.. endurance and mental focus was a big issue during this fight

louis: i survived!!!!! seriously thats enough when you fight this guy. i got 1 seonage to kouchi and almost got a teguruma and a kataguruma.

brent: got some seonages, a teguruma and a nich uchimata to kataguruma.

Great Great Great judo workout!!!

Monday YMCA

ok i new i wasnt sure how much time i would have so i started things quick. we did partner uchikomi drills again. Moving attacks, counter attacks, and random attacks. then we went and did a bunch of newaza and then randori.

this workout had me smoked. I ran the first half of class and kept it very aerobic to say the least.. everyone was sweating good. i also kept the kids together for the most part, I stayed with tim and then had everyone else switch on there own. last time i tried these advanced type drills the partner switching was becoming a problem so i just eliminated it.

I did a lot of randori. forget details but recently ive been getting seonage, guruma/gake, and te guruma. ive been working on an ouchi-kosoto, tomonage and uchimata.

i also fought nonstop..normally that wouldnt even get to me but i was hurtin by the end of class.. i hope the endurance comes back quick

PMJC

Ok so I really cant remember anything about this workout. Sorry.. i know it breaks your heart.

I read matts blog http://mmarcinek.blogspot.com/ and then remembered that we did some partner drills and i worked uchimata.

ohhhhh K now its coming back.. this is the night i hurt my neck.. sucked.. i had to take 6 days off because of this. but i feel pretty good now.

Monday at the Y

Ok I found out I was going to run the whole class on monday. So basically I just did as many of the drills we did at Clydes with this club.

It was kinda difficult the main problem was switching partners. we have a much different mix then at clydes so that slowed it down a bit but we got a lot in.

speed uchikomi, moving uchikomi, counter attacks, random attacks, newaza, tachiwaza.

Best Saturday ever

Ok this is super late but I needed to get back into blogging again

anyway September 22 was a great day. tons of judo

started out at clydes and it was a great workout. he showed me some drills that i have never done before and they were great. we did:

speed uchikomi: 10 reps as fast as you can.. partner does 10 repeat
Counter attack: partner attacks.. as he exists you enter for attack ... repeat
combination uchikomi: you attack then follow up that attack
moving uchikomi: moving around trying your favorite throw then partner goes
random uchikomi: clyde would yell out 1 or 2 at random when he yelled your number you attack if he called the other number your partner would attack

then we did newaza, grip fighting, ashiwaza randori and then standing randori

ridiculous the gripping to ashi waza had me pukey..

good stuff



then we ate and drove back to PMJC in stroudsburg and had another workout

this one was killin me but i made it through.

cant remember details but i know i hit a bunch of tegurumas. i need to get these more.

I teach at the Y

Wed YMCA

Ok no instructor so I ran the show. First I paired everyone off and had them work there favorite technique. I let the 4 kids get a few sets of osoto gari in. After that I taught them Sasae Tsuri Komi Ashi. At first it was rough but then they all got it.

I got like 20 uchikomi in if that.. figured i wouldnt get to practice for a long time while trying to teach a new throw and while trying to help everyone else. George had some nice questions regarding his harai and his makikomi. He also fought really good that nite.

Ok so then we moved onto the fighting.

I shouldve written this earlier but oh well...

I didnt fight tim.. my leg was hurtin so skipped that...

George: he fought really good.. nice and intense but more controlled and more attacks with movement.. he just needs 1or2 more things to click and he will be doing great. only 1 score and that was when i got him with a lil guruma gake

fought dana/vito/brandon/jen/tank/aaron/steve all of them are improving..

dana is attacking more and fighting very hard

vito is coming along smoothly

brandon is doing more upright judo and starting to relax and play more..spaz less..he had a real nice pin escape last nite against me.. unfortunately for him.. good for me is that i transitioned right into a triangle..

Jen is attacking more.. doing more upright judo less counters.. still goo matwork..

tank is working harder.. has a few throws now.. really likes judo and is even paying attention a bit more.. hes like 7 ...

aaron.. i almost felt bad.. almost.. i threw this kid really really fast. with a ridiculous taio.. didnt mean to.. he was way relazed.. and i really had a nice setup.. but his ukemi was perfect.. then he turned it up and got some nice scores as well...

steve same.. doing better paying attention more trying harder.. all good things

ok sorry its jumbled and stinky.. just wanted to get it out

PMJC

PMJC

PMJC is Judo. It is the best thing I have been a part of for a long time. Everyone there has improved SO much it is impossible to describe. From the 'lowest' rank there Frank a 40-50yr old yellow belt to the instructor Chris Costello. Everyone today is much much more effective then they were a year ago. The club has change a bunch but mainly stayed the same.

Last night I got to talk to Chris a bit about some things with my training and I am really excited about trying his approach out and see how it works.

Anyway..

Newaza Uchikomi. Chris walked us through a little newaza clinic yesterday. Showed about 5-10 chokes when someone is turtled and 5-10 turnovers when someone is turtled. Real good stuff!!!

Chris's philosophy in matt work is just to keep it fast and simple. Judo is Not Brazilian JuJitsu. In judo you have only a few seconds on the ground to get things going if you are ot really progressing after 3 - 5 seconds you will get stood up. So all the techniques were based around this principle.

Newaza Randori:

Chris: 1st time after a bit I messed up he passed my guard and then pinned me. 2nd time he passed.. i kept half guard and went between half guard and him taking my back..sortof.. for like 5mins.. no subs or pins though..

Matt:ok it mightve been luck.. i mightve been ON or matt mightve been a bit off but if not.. i think i made some serious progress in my armlocks last nite. Ive ALWAYS for YEARS AND YEARS now have had problems with my armlocks.. normally my legs are not controlling the person.. well last nite i switched up how i had my legs and i felt much much stronger. I hope its something real.. not some luck or what not.. lets see.

Randori: just some highlights...

Chris didnt throw me :) thats an accomplishment..

Fought Tim 2x he got another sumigaeshi, a nice uchimata to kouchi and who knows what else... I did get a nice guruma gake and maybe something else.

Matt: threw me left sided.. with like an ankle pick/teguruma... ive never had matt try to throw me lefty.. maybe he shoudl try more lefty stuff?????

Dana: I got some tomonages against her.. its starting to make sense!!!

fought a bunch more.. good stuff

Monday YMCA

Monday YMCA

Ok the instructor was not going to show up so I was going to run the show at the Y

We had a new kid show up so up so first I taught him osoto gari and let him work on that.

UchiKomi: worked some footsweeps,tomonage and some guruma gake and well i think thats it.

Fighting: I brought out the interval timer. Normally at the Y you have LOOOOONG fights... you never know how long either until someone drops out or the instructor decides to switch... well

Thats not the way I train at PMJC or at Golds Gym Judo. I feel that having a set time is much more efficient and just fits in better with how I want to train. So we set the timer at 3 mins. I told everyone to keep the pace up and fight hard for 3 mins.

I fought everyone except some of the females and kids.. i just didnt get to them but they all fought.. and yes.. for the TANK fan club.. tank got a bunch of fights in and is doing real well...

I worked a lot on foot sweeps and ankle picks.. and i will continue to until east coast.

I got John with a few seonages which was nice because he has been avoiding them

I got Doc G with a TeGuruma and a seonage

Got Tim with 1 or 2 throws but cant remember.. he got me with sumigaeshi

welll thats about it..Ill be teaching again wednesday so im gonna come up with some cool stuff and see how it goes.. oh and lots of fighting..

Friday Golds Gym Judo

SORRY... for the lack of posts recently.. i had to take some time away for personal/business stuff.. ill be updating the blog and try to stay more consistent.

Friday Golds Gym Judo

This was my first workout back after the tournament. I had banged myself up pretty good during the tournament ant ended up taking 5 days off...

It was strange at first.. so many different things going through my mind and there were so many things I wanted to work on.. anyway we switched it up a bit at golds gym for this one.

We started with UchiKomi. Practicing our throws. I did a bunch of seonage, seonage to kouchi, seonage to armlock, foot sweeps and kataguruma.

We did a few rounds of that and then we did a new drill for us .. it wasnt randori (fighting) and it wasnt just throwing.. we were throwing and moving with some resistance so it was kinda like 1 sided randori but going against someone who was only going like 30-50% give or take. this let you get a good idea of peoples reactions, let you realize how you will actually hit the throw in competition and give you a better sense or feel of whats going on. I really liked this drill and will add more and more of it when i train with good players.

Then we did mat work and then randori.

The mat work was good.. my first round with tim I stayed on the offensive so got to work a lot of that.. the 2nd round with tim he was on the offensive and i played a lot of defense.

Matt: Ive been focusing on armlocking mat as much as possible.. i should say trying to armlock matt as much as possible. My chokes on him just arent working mainly because he is just too tough strong and can just resist.. i dunno...now trying to armlock him is no picnic either if he clasps his arms together it aint happenin.. but that has forced me to get quicker and quicker and stay very very tight so there is no room or time for him to defend. They are coming along.

I honestly dont remember too much about the standing fights....

I was just real glad to get backon the mat.. we did a bunch of 'verbal' judo too.. just talking about transitions.. different attacks and mainly just getting ready and setting a plan up for east coasts which is about a month away...

Tournament recap...

Ok so the tournament is over. I Wish I could have 30 seconds of it back. I did ok/good/decent. I took 2nd place in my division. I really dont know what to say my standing game, throws and gripping was not on the level I want it to be. I did do good on the mat but even there I let a few armlocks go and a a few pins that shouldve ended matches my opponents escaped. not good. In the gold medal match I let 2 armlocks slip away and 1 pin. I also secured a choke... out of bounds. when you have that many opportunities to win you have to take advantage of it or else.. or else you will get thrown and loose. plain and simple.. 2nd place for me.

I am hoping it was just lack of intensity.. i took this tournament very lightly just as a tune up for east coasts (1 month away) That is a very very poor reason for losing but that is something that is easier to correct that just being a stinky judo player.. which i hope I am not.

So what now... thats all ive been thinking about.. First I have to rest up.. i got dumped onmy shoulder.. it is getting a little better and I hope to start working out by mid week...

After thats its 1 month of high intensity training..no more instructor Judo as Chris calls it.. Chris, PMJC head instructor, tells me and tim that instructor judo is one of our biggest weaknesses... I spend so much time on the mat fighting very lightly and going like 20-50% against people that I end up not going 100% at tournaments.

I didnt dominate the grips... i wasnt intense enough both physically and mentally to control the pace of the match.. everything i was yelling to my players while coaching.. gripping, setups, combos.. is what i lacked this day...

dont know what else to say really..

Personal Junk: ahh never mind.. no one cars.. more fight stuff soon... more training.. soon... and more vids soon

144.6

Quick little update...

144.6 is what the scale said after a quick suana session.

Going back to the gym in an hour to sweat the rest out and then drive down.
Im going back to try to get the scale lower so I can have some room for something to eat tonight rather than starving myself all night until weighins.

I just drank a naked protein drink and feel pretty good.. fyi they have 500 cals, 1lb of fresh fruit and 40grams of protein.

I'm out

Travel day 2lbs to lose

OK so today is travel day. I work until about 1pm. Got to hit the suana for about an hour or two then help the girlfriend with some car and moving stuff. Then I have to go home and pack and take care of the cats before I head out.. big shout out to Cow and Tri for all there support... not enough shout outs in blog land to Cats.. pics to come shortly of them..and then back to the suana for a bit... id like to get to about 144 before I leave.. that leaves a little room for error and maybe a lil bit of food/water tonite.

anyway.. no eating til dinner and that just might be a protein bar or two.. very very very little if any liquids today..

and then a 4hr drive.. i just realized its labor day.. to me its just a tournament weekend like every other but now im wondering if we are gonna hit crazy traffic on the way down..

anyway thats my plans.. all i need to do really is get to baltimore wake up and weigh in at 145.0 after that im pretty sure my training over the last 2-3months will take care of the rest :)

Thanks for all the support! Hopefully ill post again soon with some good news.

bjj techniques

Here is a video of me demonstrating some bjj techniques i had just learned the day before at a clinic.....

YMCA 8/29

Ok not the best workout for me by any means but oh well. No instructor tonite he had a courier run and class starts at the U this week for him. Large class though.. anyway tournament is right around the corner. Looks like this may have been my last judo workout before the tournament.

Started the class, per the instructors orders, of another nite of just open class. Meaning you can practice whatever you want.. which means I run Around and help people will all there techniques. I did get to work my seonage a bit.. it felt good and I was just working on the action/reaction I Am trying to get.

Randori. I had my interval timer with me so I just set up 3 min rounds. I had to fight a lot of the new people, females and kids which didn’t leave a lot Of rounds for me to go against experienced people but oh well. Here are some highlights:

Vito: I got Vito with one pretty lame seonage and one decent Guruma/Gake. And that’s about it. We worked a bunch of different gripping situations.

Brandon: kinda similar to vito. He attacked more but while standing still.. you need movement.. I got him with a Seo or two and a Guruma/Gake or two.

Timmy: He launched me a Tomo. Almost got me with a SumiGaeshi and Came real close on some Seo’s. I got him with a Guruma/Gake and a Nice Seo. The Seo I had a cross lapel grip with my left hand and threw right side Seo as he stepped in.

I ate a small dinner after Judo and then woke up at 146.0 That should make being 145.0 on Saturday very easy. I got a lil caught up with sleep last nite

And hopefully will do the same tonite.

PMJC - Aug 28

PMJC - Aug 28

Great workout..

Thats all there is to say. Covered everything that Judo is supposed to be about. First the tournament is coming up. Chris pushed all of us like always and I think all the competitors walked away feeling better and more confident going into the tournament. I just kept thinking that Saturday was going to be much easier then what I was going through.

It was tough. Started out with the normal warmup, some newaza drills and then newaza. My first round of newaza was with a new 17yr old blue belt from France. Strong fast .. just had a good round with him.

Then Matt.... I dont know what happened or why all I know is we went forever. I just kept trying to get subs after subs after subs.. turnovers/chokes anything.. I only got one sub. A decent choke I kinda stumbled on.. but the great thing is if it worked on matt and if matt tapped it means that it will work on anyone. and definately gives me confidence going into the tournaments. I dont win much on the ground but id still like to sneak out some wins on the ground to. but anway we were fighting and next thing i know everyone else was on a water break and i was beat but we just didnt stop.. kept fighting.. and fighting.. and fighting.. it was awesome. good mix of technical skills, toughness and strength. It also really pushed the endurance too. I was real glad chris let us keep going and going... im guessin somewhere in the back of his head he was laughing at us.. but at the same time respectin what we were doing.. he didnt stop us until the crash pad came out .... this fight i thought wiped me out for the workout but i was able to recover and got some standing fights in too.

Standing randori.... highlights..

Julian: for being rusty hes good... he is fast and strong and has nice commitment to his attacks.. very PMJC of him! He got me with a gake..

Matt: had a nice no waki on me.. good timing but not good rotation good seonage too.. we went over it a bit and i think with time this is gonna be a great tech. for him..

Chris: its the little victories with chris normallly.. only getting thrown for wazari instead of slammed for ippon.. avoiding the katagurma but take the fall for the te kouchi.. but last nite was pretty decent. I was able to stop all his throws.. i was also able to match some strength with him.. at leat from time to time and with some good gripping, movement and posture. I stopped one really nice attack of his.. his back and forth combo.. made me feel good. he STUFFED all my throws.. oh well..

Joe: Couldnt throw Joe either but i learned a bunch about the setups I need to use.. pretty confident they will work on other 145lb guys

Tim: He got me with a few throws.. i know one NICE uchimata maybe two.. i avoided 1-2 tomonages... got out of a HUGE teguruma... I got him with 1 good guruma gake and 1 little one.. also hit a strange seonage thing but unsure if it would score.. he got out of a huge teguruma too..

ok just some more random junk.. my weight is good.. today is an eat day.. probably have like 3 whole meals :) crazy i know :) but i need a refuel day and my weight is good

i need to catch up on sleep... badly..