These students in this older kids session on Thursday have really stepped their training intensity up and the results are showing clearly in the quality of their Judo, the class was started with a stint of running, knee ups, seat kicks, running backwards, side shuffles inside and outside facing.
Once these were completed we moved into a specific set of exercises that are designed to build strength and endurance for Judo students, some of the kids found these a little tough going but all completed the routine which was fantastic and rewarding for those involved.
One the initial exercise were completed we moved into a dedicated session on the art of balance and taking the intermediate kids though a series of technical focused exercises that illustrated how balance in Judo works, the level of importance in throwing people larger than yourself with ease.
The students paired up and ran through a series of balance focused and breaking balance structured exercises that allowed both the participants to deliver and feel the action of balance and the effect it has on your ability to respond to this movement.
The room swapped partners several time and go the feel of different level of height, body weight, strength and execution ability, this is so important to build awareness of the so varied types of persons they may have to deal with in competition and or on the street where this really counts.
From this we went back onto our Osoto gari and practiced the movements of the throw entry, balance breaking, foot positions, attacking leg motion and then final completion to ground. this was a great use of training time as it allowed the complete integration of the movement with breaking balance and for the students to how the results of this throw improve dramatically when all the components come into play together with timing.
We then moved into a one count for the complete technique and all of the stepped training really paid off the throws were executed with timing and precision, the kids are really beginning to see the power of what they are learning.
The last phase of the nights training was the introduction to ground work and over the next month we will spend a solid portion of training time getting the kids hold down skills honed, the importance of this is critical, their ability to throw an opponent is growing and now their opponent is on the ground they need to learn how to control them with precise movement of use of body position.
For their first taste of this we did some back to back starting position work and when they are told start, they turn around as fast as they can get grips on the other person and then work to take the other person to the ground and hold them.
I have to say the kids took a little too much pleasure in seeing Keanu my youngest son trying to dominate me in the ground work demonstration, I think 100% of the room was barracking for him to win :-) Where is the support for your Sensei!
