Well Thursday night was a cracker, boy did everyone train hard and the speed that these students are picking up the Judo and BJJ is staggering.
It was really great to see the increase in numbers of judo kids from Werribee and Hoppers Crossing. It is obvious from talking to parents that the word of mouth from very happy students and parents is getting around and we want to increase the word on what we do and how well we are doing it. So thanks to all the parents spreading the word of Kaizen Martial Arts Australia.
Whether it be the 11 to 16 year old class or the adults class that follows they are really pushing them selves but as you will see from the photos even in the midst of training they always have a smile on their faces and I think that says it all…
The focus of the nights training was to measure how much they had learned and then how they used these techniques in standing and ground based situations. The kids first went onto breaking balance and this is a crucial skill in being able to throw and deal with opponents much larger than themselves.
The kids have really taken this on board across all the age group classes and they can now clearly demonstrate the ability to break one anothers balance during training. This was first carried out in the standing position and then transferred to the ground where the same process of balance breaking was again tested.
The next area of testing was to move the kids to holding techniques on the ground and specifically looking at the scarf hold and how technically correct each of the students were, not only putting on this hold but then in executing the actual hold down on the ground while their opponent struggled to break free.
The children did an outstanding job at technically performing the hold and even more so when they were in the hold down position against their team mates… nobody wanted to lose.. nobody! And the effort that was put in by all was to be commended.
The hold downs or Osae-komi-waza in Judo are very important in the control of your opponent and the children really enjoy this type of training ( especially some of the girls that really enjoy beating the boys even though the boys are stronger ) they learn very quickly that it is not all about size and strength but more about how you use your opponents size and strength to your advantage.
The next logical step was to test the children in their ability to first take their opponent down with a throw and then transition to a hold down where they secured their opponent for the required amount of time.
The adults Judo class was focused on learning techniques from the first gokyo and more specifically learning Ippon Seoi-nage or Shoulder Throw.
They did really well and we started with the throw entry and then to the opponent transition to the completion of the throws. In order to make it safe at the beginning for the students we brought in Thumper, our faithful training and throwing dummy.
The students really took to giving Thumper a real beating but as always he was up to the challenge and kept on coming back for more and more. I have included some photos from the training at that session and from the ground work session and boy you may notice the ladies giving it to the men big time, this caught many of the men by surprise.
PS. Here are just a few of the photos from the nights Adults training:
