Monday, May 3, 2021. Doeth. I got in my car and drove to South Windsor. Found out later there was class in Kensington. “Too much mind, Sri,” is what Sensei Chris would often say to me. “Too much mind.” Yes, Sensei, I was of too much mind today. It was too late to turn back and the S. Windsor crew already waved to me in the parking lot so in I went, daughter and gi in hand. I tend to grab one of the kids and entice the with fast food afterward because the dojo is a positive place for them and who knows maybe they’ll get interested in it someday or at least tell their friends that their dad was a martial artist – hey, it’s better than a lot of other places I could be taking them or going on my own without them, so lay off!

The usual crew there, Sempai Larry teaching, Sempai Kyle as well, myself, Rachel, Yellow Belt Matt, Ed, the two twins and Judah.

Seemed to be lighter on warmups until Sempai went all sadist on leg lifts and flutter kicks, etc. All manner of planks and pushups as well and some fun judo style warmups and rolls to get the class underway. Then it was literally an hour and 10 minutes of rolling. Wow we just went from 30 to 150 in no time flat. But the rolling was interspersed with instruction and some related drilling from back, guard, and standing with an emphasis on self-defense and comparison to BJJ style grips and attacks. The big lesson of today was to defend against an attack by deconstructing the techniques and taking away one piece to stop the technique entirely. This was good and I was able to really focus on my recent mistakes in newaza with Rachel and even Sempai Larry.

I didn’t realize this before but there is a gyaku ude garame from a half guard and how to defend against it very easily.

Also there I found a new way to defend against a straight up textbook ude garame from a mune by posting up on the opposite foot and pressing down all the weight on the elbow. No kidding. That was always there? Sure enough even Sempai Larry couldn’t sneak his hand under my upper arm or lift my elbow when I did that. I’m definitely not as strong as him but here I was doing it.

Now this is a an oldie but a goodie. Say your opponent turtles up and you get a backpack and pull them into back mount. If you can’t put on the choke it’s likely because you need to pull them over to the other side. and then it’s easy to complete that same choke. It’s because you’ll be working against the ground.

Answer the telephone when you feel a neck choke coming on. Sneak your hand in and answer the phone. Not a cell phone. The old school ones that have the curly wire that connects to the wall. Oh for the love of … no one has those things anymore you don’t know what I’m talking about. Your loss. Just try choking me and when you can’t you’ll regret being born after the year 2000. Before then we tied up our parents’ one land line with the dial-up modem to log onto America Online chat rooms and for the lesser technical people (i.e, Apple users), Prodigy but the same concept applies. Facetime, harumph nobody wanted to do video calling, ever. The tech existed in the 1980’s. I even saw a video phone in a boutique electronic store when I was a little boy in Manhattan. I wish I knew jujitsu when I was a little boy. I wouldn’t have gotten picked on as much going to an inner city school in NYC, or later by the spoiled rich suburban kids upstate. Bottom line, answer the phone when you get choked. It’s a universal prevention against brain damage. Even Randy showed me the same thing and he came from a different judo / jujitsu school. It’s evident that nobody wants brain damage or dial-up internet these days. How the world has become so sophisticated.

We then stood up. Oh yeah. On the feet. The world just got a whole lot scarier a few feet off the ground. Now what? There’s a few ways to get throws and they are not a static beast.

  • To get a double leg? Take the head and push it down! His reaction will be to lift his head back up and blammo. Double leg takedown
  • To get an osoto? pull to the side, pull to the other side, or run up and step on his front feet and push him down tearing out his knee in the process on the street.
  • To get a single leg? don’t just shoot down you’ll get guillotined.
  • here’s a tip – push gently not harshly or violently. Why? if you push on his shoulder hard, he’ll look at you like “hey, what’s the big idea, pal?” Believe it or not that’s not the reaction you want. But if you gently nudge his shoulder back, his reaction will be to push forward. Sempai gave the example of a dog when you push a dog it pushes back on you. Now that is the reaction you want out of your uke. Now as he pushes back you go into an ippon seoi nage. That got a few gasps from the white belts watching. Yeah it was quick but it must have looked really cool. It’s like watching the final season of Breaking Bad for the first time. You wish you could go back and unwatch it so you can enjoy seeing it again. Alas, such is not the way of time. Life is unkind.
  • Ogoshi? you kidding? Kick the feet this way, kick the feet that way, get him off balance, trying to regain footing then spin around and ogoshi to your heart’s content.

What’s the common theme here? It’s jujitsu in its purest form. mmmkay?

Lastly, I had a special aside lesson of the “Kunzman Guard” by Sempai Larry. It serves two purposes – one to lock out a leg and keep it captured and the second if they try to rise up on you to kick the over to the side and get rid of them once and for all. Why is it helpful? Because you often end up in this position after a failed guard pass or just find yourself here and lo! It has a name. The name is “Kunzman Guard” named after Professor Jerry Kunzman, Sr. whom was Shihan’s own Sensei some time back. Prof. Kunzman taught this to Sempai Larry himself when he was still alive and visiting to during a seminar at the New Milford dojo. Now that’s some legacy. We will never forget. We keep jujitsu alive by training it and coming and learning all these little things and nuances and positions – who knows maybe you’ll have a position or technique named after you!

All in all I don’t regret coming here. I’m not sure what I missed at Kensington today but I’m sure I’ll find out the hard way tomorrow. That story for another day!