Training Blog

Lifting

Pecs…
4 sets of bench.
3 sets of chest press machine.
1 set of incline dumbell bench.
3 sets of grippers

Oh and I broke ANOTHER resistance band. I need to find stronger ones.

Judo

Sacrifice throws (sutemi waza) and triangle (sankaku jime) escapes. I didn’t do the former, except some fits.

Will was very nice and acknolwedged my existence by telling me to do uchikomi either with him or other injured folks. Overall, I got about 80 osoto gari fits.

I like uchikomi in general, but each type of throw I like for different reasons. I like  osoto gari uchikomi especially because it’s not tiring, and thus allows me to get into a rhythm of fast hard fits and really feel the body of the uke, going off-balance, and visualize the throw. With most other throws, after about 20 fits, I start breathing hard and begin to slightly loose the ability to think about the throw, instead focusing on the cardio aspect of uchikomi.

I think I’d like to get together with someone from the class for 500-1000 uchikomi 1-2 times a week. I’d video those sessions at first to make sure that the form is not incorrect. Just have to find a willing partner…

I can’t quite capture in words what I feel when I have to sit out in training because of an injury. I still show up though, and I think people don’t realize how hard it is to do that.

I would be lying if I called it frustration. Sometimes it’s just plain anger. I don’t want to speak on the subject much more because it’s just ugly. Belive me, you think running intervals and hard sparring is tough… NO. That’s the “tough” that is extremely fun. The hardest challenge is sitting, dry, fat, and tired on the sidelines watching, day after day after day with a dull persistent ache in your shoulder (or whatever other body part has got you out and off the mat).

Anyway, I did about 200 uchikomi that included all the basics. Was sidelined in the second half of practice. I felt like I could definitely do fits, but people seemed to be insistent on throws, so I had to sit out. A bit dissapointed about that. I did one randori session against Joan (40 pounds lighter than me) very lightly going for a few pick ups. It felt pretty good.

Still at the end, I felt very beaten emotionally. It’s really a mild form of suffering that drains all my energy. It was tough to come home, and start up work again over coffee. I usually really enjoy working on Friday night, but tonight even that was tough.

Lifting

Leg day. SOB. Given how much I deadlift, I can’t believe how tough lunges with 135 was. I should be able to do 225 ten times I think by June. I’ll at least work towards that. Anyway, I did squats, lunges, grips, and core.

Judo at Drexel

Two throws that cause me much grief. Uchimata and Ouchi Gari. Not only are these two throws my main concern in competition, but also, they are just damn hard to do. They both involve generating ALOT of power on one leg while balancing yourself and getting the opponent off balance.

Will showed uchi mata. Matt showed ouchi gari, first to the right, then to the left, then to the left with a left leg grab, and finally the big daddy: to the right with a left leg grab (both simultaneous and leg-grab first). Lot of nice variations and a long road to even begin getting this throw.

I did about 100 uchikomi total.

No lifting, just judo (at Main Line) today.

I successfully escaped being thrown, and actually got a chance to throw about 30 times (te guruma, seoi nage, osoto gari, harai ogoshi, ouchi gari).

Overall it was a very nice training sessions in the sense that Tom closely looked at the way I was doing the Koga seoi nage and made a few details very clear to me. However, most of the uchikomis we did towards the end of the practice, were off of movement, which REALLY highlighted how my balance is not proper for seoi under dynamic conditions. I kept leaning to the left which could easily be taken advantage off in a counter by a good judoka.

Tom’s correction on Koga seoi was to keep my head up and not bend over so much. Also, he said that I need to place my pivot leg (right for right seoi) back farther and place more weight on it. Of course, if I can do a one legged seoi with a tani otoshi. That felt very natural, but I want to try to get down the Koga seoi in the next several weeks. It feel like I could get a lot of power behind it if I get the balance and body position right. I noticed that my legs got a bit tired (burning) when fitting the Koga seoi for prelonged periods of time which means I need to work on my lunges.

I did about 200 uchikomi total.

Did osoto-gari today. Around 50 uchikomi in class, and FINALLY allowed myself to be thrown. It felt great. Shoulders were a bit cranky but no real pain rose up. I really like the “fit 4, throw on 5″ pattern. It’s good for my shoulder and soul.

Also did about 100 seoi nage uchikomi with resistance bands (about 70 in the free weight room and 30 in the dojo). I can do 200-400 a day. Need a program!

I also realized that I’ve probably fitted osoto-gari many thousands of times but threw it under 50 total in the last 5 months. I liked the rhythm I got into with Corey. It’s obvious that the partner I’m working with is really important. Enough said.

In the gym, I trained shoulders. Military press, smith machine shrugs, lateral raise machine. It’s been a while. No pain in the shoulders! Then again, the side of the shoulder was never a problem for me. It’s always the front.

I might allow myself to be thrown (and throw) at Main Line tomorrow. We’ll see.

I really have to develop a concrete training program for lifting, cardio, judo, etc. I am going by intuition in the last several weeks because of the injury. I should have a program that says “if you’re injured do (1) and if you feel no pain, do (2)”. The main goal there is so I get enough rest in. I should be careful not to overtrain on certain aspects while undertraining on other.

Russian, out!

Returned from taking a day off with a vengeance, until energy ran out… I need more sleep. There’s too much work, and as always, sleep is the first thing to go. But… before judo I had a hell of an upper-back workout. I made that 100 lbs dumbell my bitch with single-hand rows of 30, and then I saw a video of a guy doing 225 twenty five times:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7jAIdoORxI

Anyway, these types of movements is what I need to be strong for fighting. I do wish we had dumbbells of more than 100 lbs.

Intensity is on a scale of 0 to 4:

0: very light (lots of walking, yawning, and no sweat)
1: light (same as medium, but with some sitting-out, so basically trying to do medium but failing because of injury)
2: medium (standard training, there should be a good amount of sweat)
3: intense (hard randori, non-stop uchikomi, extensive interval training)
4: epic (should be rare)

• Lifting: 2
• Judo: 1
• Watching judo: 20 minutes (during meals)

Main Line Judo Club

Today was harai ogoshi day, or more generally hip throws with about 100 uchikomi and watching some randori while trying to resist temptation.

I’d like to develop a really strong hip throw (probably harai) from the different belt grips. This is where my power can be used without shoulders. Kuzushi is important as always but not as crucial if their posture is broken already. So I can essentially do an east european harai that loads the uke on me with a deep grip and thus making the kuzushi on the left side less crucial.

Dear Diary,

I didn’t do any moving today. I woke up at 8am and just worked until 3pm when I had to go to my parent’s to celebrate their birthday where I drank, though not as much as I expected. But I did eat. And MAN, did I eat. Stuffing my face with fruit in a desperate (and ultimately failing) attempt to escape the other less healthy food.

I feel fat, heavy, tired, etc. I did get a good amount of work done in those 7 hours (more like 5 hours since eating, showering, etc. eats up time like nothing else).

Speaking of eating, I did watch judo during eating. Lot of great matches in the -90kg men and -70kg women divisions. I don’t feel like writing about it. But I love the power some -90kg people have. None of that ashiwaza crap. Give me big hard bad-ass throws. That’s 90kg for ya. Love it. I look at my fat ass and realize that I need to be 81kg easily instead of with some effort and maybe 73kg with effort.

Too much typing. Back to work.

I guess I should start posts off with some quantitative data on the day’s training.

Intensity is on a scale of 0 to 4:

0: very light (lots of walking, yawning, and no sweat)
1: light (same as medium, but with some sitting-out, so basically trying to do medium but failing because of injury)
2: medium (standard training, there should be a good amount of sweat)
3: intense (hard randori, non-stop uchikomi, extensive interval training)
4: epic (should be rare)

I should make a page for that scale so I don’t have to repost it every time. I should do many things… Anyway:

• Lifting: 2
• Judo: 1
• Watching judo: 1 hour (during meals)

In practice, I did about 100 uchikomi, and thanks to some medicine balls kept the intensity relatively high. However, felt shoulder pain creep up so sat out of about half (maybe a third) of the practice. Will demonstrated Soto Makikomi which is a throw I think I should really get into from the belt grip and also in general. The idea I’m thinking of is to try Seoi Nage and if that’s blocked, switch to Soto Makikomi. I’m yet to throw or even fit this idea. But it’s something I want to do.

On another note, it felt good to do squats today, both regular and overhead. I also did lunges and snatches. These two are exercises which I don’t do enough of, when in reality they should be one of the pillars of my training. If my shoulder gets better, they will definitely become that.

Practice at Mainline Judo Club

I drove a couple girls (Sarah, Joan). Matt had to stay home, so we had another instructor: Nick. It was not the same without seeing Matt on the sidelines with the excited/frustrated “I want to get on the mat, but I shouldn’t” look on his face. Not sure if it was because of me, or because he wanted to keep a fast pace of practice, but Nick made most of the practice uchikomi. I had to thank the Gods again on that one.

Every set of 10-20 fits was followed by push-ups or situps, so the whole thing was quite a good work out. Here is a somewhat accurate list of uchikomi:

• Any throw (ten times then ten pushups
  • Osoto: 10
  • Koga Seoi: 10
  • Harai ogoshi: 10
  • Right kata guruma: 10
  • Left kata guruma: 10
• Tai otoshi: 60
• Uchi mata: 20
• Seoi nage: 80
• Tai otoshi: 40
• Total: 250

Towards the end people started throwing, but I and the new white belt just did fits.

My pecs are sore from benching yesterday, but I did a total of about 500 pushups again today and more stretching than I’d like to remember.

I should note that I wanted to go to the gym but didn’t find time because of low sleep and work all day, plus the 1 hour celebration of dad’s birthday in his lab. It took a lot of will power not to dip into the free ice-cold beer there.

I’m glad Tom showed Koga Seoi Nage Wednesday. I’m not sure I like it better, but the different foot positions are helping me think about where my body is at during the throw. I do feel like I can drive more with the pivot foot so deep and in a “loaded” position.

Watching Judo

A total of about an hour of Olympic judo while eating. Some notes here if I’m especially moved by the match.

Bosch (NED) vs Rousey (USA) of 70kg women was an insane grip fighting match. Mostly, it was Bosch being crazy about basically making it very uncomfortable for Ronda to hold ANY grip. There is a lot to learn from that level of strategic aggression.

Watching Judo

• 90kg Hiroshi Izumi (JPN) vs Daniel Kelly (AUS). I need to work on Ouchi and Kouchi. And damn… 90kg is no joke. These dudes are thick and powerful. Ended up going into golden score. And once again ashiwaza gets a yuko and a win. Hiroshi Izumi might be going for the medals.
• Pershin (RUS) vs Trezise (RSA). Ivan Pershin is World bronze. Making a beard look bad ass. Looking for loading type throws such as katagaruma. I have a lot to learn from these type of matches where the majority of time is spent completely bent over and yet no penalties for quite a while. Finished with a katagaruma. The coach kept screaming “put him on his heels”. Strange, given the he was going almost exclusively for forward throws.

Did I mention how much I love watching Olympic judo. Nothing else compares. The quality and quantity of the broadcast is just unbelievable. I basically have like 40 hours of judo to watch. And since Summer I’ve watched it all at least once. I’m not just watching for entertainment, I’m absorbing different styles. Seeing what throws work for people of my body shape, etc. Also it helps me look at video of myself and clearly see where I look a lot different. That may sound funny but a lot of times I really don’t know what I’m doing wrong. Even if I hear a coach say “turn more”, it still doesn’t translate into a good correction for me until many practices later (if it has yet at all).

Drexel Judo Practice (1.5 hours)

• Did most of the warm up.
• Almost successfully avoided ground work. Choking Keola hurt my shoulders. By “hurt” I mean I could feel an echo. So I should try to avoid ground work period for 2-3 weeks.
• Did some uchikomi in a group with Dan (one of the newer judoka). Total: ~100
  • Osoto: 10
  • Ouchi: 10
  • Kouchi: 10
  • Seoi: 10
  • Ouchi - Kouchi: 7
  • Kouchi - Ouchi: 7
  • Ouchi - Seoi Nage: 7
  • Kouchi - Tai Otoshi: 7
  • Tai Otoshi: 20
  • Harai Ogoshi: 5
• I stayed on the mat the whole time which felt good. It was a light practice, but I feel like I may be ready to take a full practice of falls next week, and randori in two.

Weight Lifting

• 8 sets of chest (3 bench, 2 dumbells, 3 machine) - it’s been a long time. With extensive warm up, and res bands between sets pain was only an echo. I’m recovering!
• 3 weighted decline situps (heavy weight)

Bottom line is that I have to weight lift and do cardio. Randori, ne-waza, and falls are all things that are good but are not worth it until I’m healed.

Iced 4 times today when pain came up. Did the exercise / stretching routine twice. Felt good.