Ko Soto Gari to Seoi Nage

I was in two minds about whether to attend tonight's class.  I had a very sore Achilles from a long run I did on Sunday, I know its best to rest injuries but as I'm due to be away for work next week I really wanted to make the class.  So I went and bought myself a ankle support and vowed to take it easy.

I'm glad to say that as soon as I had warmed up the discomfort more or less disappeared and I was able to train without too much hindrance.  We began the lesson with some light Newaza and then moved onto some positional submissions and escapes.  The first was a rather complex reverse triangle submission, I'm not convinced I could pull this off during a sparring session, but it did give me some ideas that maybe I can use eventually.  We also practised an escape from side control, this would probably work again a Judo fighter but I'd probably run into problems against a BJJ guy.  We then did some Uchikomi in the usual sets of ten, but also walking in tandem up and down the mat.  I continued to work on my Uchi Mata but also tried the entry for Hane Goshi:



Again I haven't had any instruction on this yet, but practising the entry now will hopefully give me a head start later.

Racky then showed us a set up for Seoi Nage from Ko Soto Gari. When Uke avoids the sweep by pulling his/her leg back Tori then transitions to the hip throw.  I still have problems getting my hips below the level of my opponent due to my height but as always it's still worth practising.

We then moved into some Randoori.  I had the opportunity to train with Sean a 15 year Green Belt.  I'm bigger and stronger than Sean but I really wanted to avoid using my size during the sparring and rely on technique.  There is certainly a difference between a Yellow or Orange Belt and a Green Belt.  On the other belts I can usually pull of the techniques but Sean was tough, I managed a Ko Soto Gari a couple of times, but that was it.  When I went for a Tai Otoshi and Uchi Mata but he was able to counter my attempts with relative ease.  A reason for this was revealed a bit later on when I partnered with Stuart.  He said that I need to be more subtle in breaking the balance as it's actually a quick wrist action as opposed to a large full body movement.  So up until now I've probably been telegraphing a lot of my movements, something to work on.

We finished the class with some groundfighting, my anke held up well so I'm pleased I made the effort.