December 2007 kohaku shiai

Today's club shiai was a blast. The parents got fired up and had nearly as much fun cheering as the kids had grappling. The champions for the month are:

• 1st place - Mason Alford (8 wins)
• 2nd place - Gavin Jarrell (5 wins)
• 3rd place (tie) - Whit Parker, Knox Parker (3 wins)

Our goals for the month after last month's shiai were to work on the crawling man game, making each person a little better at holding and each person a little better at shucking off the holder and escaping. Everybody did much better. The crawling man game was the most exciting event and they were definitely thinking on their feet (on their knees?) because they would roll over the holder to keep going and they would dig in with their feet and drag the holder and they would roll around resistance, even crawling backward in order to make progress. Overall some great grappling. Amazon wrestling was a blast too. last month or month before they were only using the knee grab tactic but this month they were securing side/rear bearhugs and attempting sweeps too.

Our goals for next month will be to add another skill or two (i.e. crawfishing) to the crawling man game and work more on Amazon wrestling and standing randori skills (i.e. osotogari).