Kids' judo announcements

I have a handful of announcements for my judo kids and their parents.

No class today

First, remember there will be no class today (Thursday, October 8, 2009.) It's QuinZilla's birthday, and we'll be at Fox's Pizza Den instead of the dojo. Y'all are welcome to meet us there if you like! Check with Elise or me for time and details.

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It's uniform time again

The hottest part of the year is over, so our no-uniform classes are coming to an end. The judo kids should wear their judo uniforms and their belts to practice because the uniform makes them feel like a part of a special group and the belts help to give them some motivation to strive to improve. It's also easier to do some of the exercises and wrestling with the jacket than without.

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If your kids have grown and need a new uniform, the ones at Amazonare about as inexpensive and good quality as anywhere, and I get a small commission for referrals if you buy from there.

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Progress toward the next rank

We'll be having our next rank demonstration in March 2010, so we're about halfway through this judo class year. Time for some progress reports...

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Whit

• Great osotogari (outside leg reap) that he is making great use of in randori.
  
• Good defensive ground game, needs work on offensive ground skills - we'll be working on getting and holding specific, named pins
  
• needs more variety in his standing game - we'll be working on osotogari, taiotoshi, and deashi combos
  

Knox

• Good osotogari that pops up fairly often in randori.
  
• Good defensive ground game, needs work on offensive ground skills - we'll be working on getting and holding specific, named pins
  
• Knox needs more variety in standing technique - let's work on pull-push-deashi and push-pull-osotogari.
  

Quin

• Fast with the leg picks. Could stand a little better technical form with the leg picks.
  
• Needs to improve defensive ground game and osaekomi skills
  
• let's work on practicing all throws into ukigatame and moving from ukigatame into specific, named holds
  

Zack

• Generally good aggressive randori with good control
  
• Must avoid running at opponent like in football. The bull rush is intimidating to beginners but they will quickly figure out how to smash him when he does it.
  
• Needs more reps with osotogari and deashibarai
  

Mick

• really improving at ukemi (falling properly) attention and control is improving too.
  
• avoid trying the bull rush in randori (as with Zack above)
  
• more reps on osotogari and deashibarai
  

Brandon

• Great attention to technical detail and great technical variety in randori
  
• needs to improve his sense of synchronization and use that to build combinations
  

Shelby

• improving at falling, improving attention span
  
• needs more reps on osoto and deashi - she'd probably benefit from more work on the push-pull setups for these
  

Luke

• improving falling
  
• luke does great at partner drills and does well in randori
  
• more reps on push-pull osoto and deashi so that he can start trying these in randori
  

Jacob

• improving falling
  
• good aggression in randori, perhaps too much aggression/competitiveness in basic drilling
  
• We need to work on attention and basic drills, including osotogari and deashi
  

I know this isn't everyone, some players are taking some time off to play football this fall, but when your kids get through with football they'll still have time to get some judo training in before the March 2010 rank demonstration, so come on back.

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Patrick Parker is a Christian, husband, father, martial arts teacher, Program Director for a Cardiac Rehab, and a Ph.D. Contact: mokurendojo@gmail.com or phone 601.248.7282

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Suggested great books on aikido, judo, and strategy.

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