Ippon!

Well, not really—it was just randori, not shiai. But still—

It doesn’t happen every class, or week, or, well, honestly, it doesn’t happen every month, but every once in a great while I manage to pull off something well enough that I come home feeling good about it.¹ Today it was a pretty much picture-perfect judo technique (so I believe; so my training partner claimed). It went something like this:

1. Other guy comes in for a throw
2. I block the throw; he’s in an awkward position, so
3. he backs out and pulls his right arm free, leaving a gap; so
4. I step in before I can even think about it and pivot into a left-handed² o-goshi; he goes down, and I look rather surprised at how well that went.

I do love o-goshi, though. It’s a great throw for a short, stocky guy like me—my centre of gravity is nice and low, and with most of my equal-weight opponents (and many people lighter than myself) I’m shorter, so my hips are below theirs, and my arm can very easily swim under and around for their back.

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¹ If it happened often, I’d feel rather odd blogging about it. I’m not going to post on Livejournal every time I pass somebody’s half guard…

² Had you asked me before today, I would have said that I can’t do a left-handed o-goshi at all.