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.