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Combinations and Weight Loss Update

I went to practice on Wednesday night - it was our last practice of the year and it was followed by our holiday party. Some of the people brought their kids, but I didn't - it was a little too late for me to be able to send Mitch. Unfortunately I wound up being a bit late, but I still got a lot of Uchikomi practice in, and I also got in 3 rounds of Randori. I have been doing a lot of thinking about ways to improve and I decided that I would take extra efforts to do two things in Randori:

  1. More consistently look to be challenged - i.e. Stand up first for Randori, play the biggest guys in the room, and don't sit any rounds out.
  2. Try new things

 

The first is something that I think we all need to work on. While I don't mind playing the smaller and less-experienced people in the dojo, I am trying to more actively pursue the bigger guys - because they present the biggest challenge. I managed to play 3 different people - one a Sankyu who is slightly bigger and beat me in our club competition, the second is a Shodan who is very experienced and sneaky - albeit a little smaller. The third guy was a Green belt who is a former football lineman, and has a good 60-70 lbs on me at least. I had one of my toughest Randori challenges in a while, and Only managed to get one or two throws (as well as gave up 1 or 2 as well). I tried some new moves, and while they didn't work yet, I could tell that I was still a bit hesitant, I need to get over that quickly.

 

As for my weight, I was about 201 this morning. A Big drop-off from my mid-summer 218. I feel thinner and better, but I need to get down at least another 10 lbs - hopefully within the next 6-8 weeks. My goal is to get down to 190 or so. If I could hit 185 (a long shot) I could then cut weight and fight in the -81s but that would be difficult too.

Nonetheless, my wife even noticed the change - so its making me feel good already. I have a couple of rashguards that I wear for swimming, and each week I wear them just to see how bad my gut looks. Their finally starting to look half-decent to the point where it doesn't seem like I am trying to smuggle a 15-lb turkey under my shirt - but no washboard yet.

I hope to get to Oishi's once or twice to get some practice in over the next few weeks until the next semester starts.

 

In addition to all of this, I have been thinking about Combinations. I generally view combinations in three different vanes - one is the idea that every attack has a follow-up. So if I attack with Ko-Uchi-Gari and it fails, I can quickly shift and switch to Seoinage, and vice-versa. In Putin's Book, he has combination wheels for all of the throws he illustrates that show what attacks can be used to set-up or follow-up a specific technique. There is also the idea that I can feint or bait uke into a specific reaction so that I can execute my throw. Finally, one of the many things I've picked up from Sensei Watanabe is the notion that if I learn to perform combined entries, I can enter in a way that uke isn't sure what attack I'll be using, and I have a lot of options. This final method is very powerful, and I have only recently begun to scratch the surface with it. More on this idea as I start putting it to good use.

In any case - Happy Holidays (whichever ones you celebrate or have celebrated) to you and yours and thanks for reading!

Comments

Unknown said…
Looking for the biggest guy in the room first? Hmmm...I'll be right there! LOL.

Happy holidays to you as well bud.

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