Power uchikomi; and, I learn judo

One of the drills the judo instructor likes to have us do on occasion is what he calls power uchikomi. Uchikomi is a drill where you practice the entry into a throw, but don’t actually throw your partner (if you do, it’s technically nagekomi). Uchikomi comes in many variations—static uchikomi (your partner stands there and you enter for throws), moving uchikomi (typically walking down a line), and so forth.

In Scott’s power uchikomi, we get into groups of three. If I’m the person doing the drill, I will be practicing on person A, with person B serving as an anchor—standing behind with his arms around A and keeping him safely grounded. That way, I can enter for my throw with as much power as I can manage without worrying about denting the floor with my training partner.

Scott likes to say that you should be trying to throw both people. He’s not a big guy—probably weighs less than I do—but when he demonstrates it, well, he may not throw the pair, but he certainly gets them moving.

Today I feel like I managed, for the first time, some power in my power uchikomi; I certainly didn’t throw my pair of training partners, but I did lift them both off the ground and keep them there for a few moments. Granted, their feet were never more than a few inches off the ground, and it may not be too impressive for the athletically gifted, but if you’d told the skinny nerd¹ version of me ten years ago that I’d be capable of lifting 350 lbs of people any distance at all, well…I’ve come a long way.

It also makes me think that no matter whom I fight, whether I win or lose, at least I do not need to worry about simply being too weak to shift them. Unless they weigh more than 350 lbs, of course…

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In more judo development news, I feel like I’m finally starting to get the hang of harai goshi. It’s a funny thing because it’s long been a throw that I can pull off just fine some days, while other days I couldn’t do it at all—suggesting pretty clearly that there was something I was either doing accidentally (on good days) or not at all. A lot of details go into that throw, but between leaning away slightly, using proper kuzushi to pull rather than bump my uke, and positioning my body properly rather than (as is my wont) as though I were entering for o goshi, it finally feels like it’s coming together. Come to think of it, today may be the first time I did it properly with an orthodox lapel grip rather than the easier overhand.

Heaven knows when I’ll be able to actually land it in randori, of course, but even if it’s just drilling, my technique has improved one hell of a lot.

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¹ I’m still pretty damned nerdy, but I’m definitely not skinny. You could say many different things about my physique, some nice and some unpleasant, but skinny just wouldn’t stick any more.

In fact, today’s BJJ class had a pretty funny moment of illustrating the difference sheer size and mass can make. We were drilling some X guard sweeps and escapes. When one guy, whom I probably outweigh by 50 or 60 lbs, tried the sprawl escape, I just ended up balancing him on my legs in mid-air. —Of course, hard resistance in plain drills would be a crappy way to treat a training partner, but this was the first rep, and I wasn’t trying to resist so much as just keeping the pressure from my X guard; it caught me as much by surprise as it did the other guy. I’d have made a deliberate point of relaxing for the next rep, but we switched up and he had the lucky break of working with a much lighter partner.