Tuesday, 6/21:
Here’s something I haven’t done in a while: taken two classes in one day. True, I’ve been pretty tired lately, but mostly the reason is because I get home so late when I take two in a row. 9:45 is the best I can hope for if I do the 8 o’clock class, though 10:00PM is more likely. Those days when I can convince myself to hang around for Round 2 are infrequent, but worth it.
This time both classes were pretty full. For the first class we started with osoto-gari and double-leg takedowns. This was followed by around 20 minutes of King of the Hill training, a popular resort when the class is packed.
The technique taught afterwards was the baseball choke. It’s similar to the cross-collar choke from knee-on-belly, but requires less fiddling with the collar. While getting ready to jump to knee-on-belly, make sure your hand is deep in the back of the collar, behind your opponent’s neck, thumb inside. Once you pop up, slip your other hand, palm up, deep into the collar on the opposite side. The closer your thumb on your first hand is to touching the pinky on your second hand, the tighter the choke will be. Next, come off knee-on-belly and circle your way toward your opponent’s head. Drop your head to your opponent’s side, on the same side you started on, and squeeze for the choke.
Second class involved more King of the Hill. For the life of me I can’t remember what technique we went over this class. One thing for sure: I was dead tired by the end.