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....