A friend sent me a question about between-class judo workouts...
Hey! so [two of us] practice every Wednesday together (It's just us two) and we were wondering what would be some good stuff to work on? ... I was just wondering what would be good to work on next?
...and the main thrust of my response was...
The best stuff to work on between practices is the fundamentals, for several reasons:
- You generally have a better grasp of this material than the more "advanced" material, so you are better able to work on the fundamentals when your instructor is not there to help you.
- It's also probably safer to practice fundamentals without an instructor than to practice the crazy stuff.
So, for specifics, I'd recommend spending most of your time on:
- You get more benefit from practicing some tiny fundamental thing that will improve everything that you do instead of practicing one complex skill that only benefits you in specific situations.
- the footsweep to control drill that you start every class with
- the ground mobility cycle
- shrimping and bridging with 2 hands on 1 point on your partner's sleeve. Here you can see an intro to this idea.
- get copies of Nick's 3-4 vids on "paired judo walking" and play with that material
- If y'all want to do randori, I'd recommend zero-resistance newaza, again because it is safer and more productive than being more competitive with each other.
Every hour that you put into these activities is guaranteed to pay dividends in future practices and competitions. Continuous practice of the fundamentals (even when you think you've mastered them) always pays off.
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Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com
