A couple of weeks ago I had a glorious first at judo: namely, getting a throw after a couple of attempts.
Normally I find throws a frustrating exercise; I have a hard time co-ordinating the major components (breaking my opponent’s balance, getting my grip, footwork, and body placement correct). This time I got shown a throw a couple of times, and had it working tolerably well after a couple of goes with my uke.
Tomoe-nage is my friend.
It’s a great feeling to have a throw snapping in correctly. It’s even better in the context I learned the throw; the class was working around the points of balance and each pair of us would practice and then demonstrate a throw the breaks balance backward, forward, and so on. For the diagonal throw everyone else did tai-otoshi; Jack, our visiting Dutch player, decided to teach me something a little different. So not only did I get to learn a new throw, but having got to grips with it, I got to show off to the class, because it’s a spectacular move when you’ve got a couple of heavyweights throwing each other across the dojo.
All in all it was a really uplifting moment in my judo. If I get to Jack’s skill levels I hope I can be as generous with my time with rank beginners has he is. I also hope he decides to stay in Wellington; he’s a hell of an asset to the Budokan.
(The quote, incidentally, is from Syd Hoare’s excellent book, The A-Z of Judo.