Saturday April 7, 2007-Building Stamina

Sensei started off saying we need to build our stamina, so we didn't have our regular practice. Instead it was juppon all night long. Yup, everybody threw everybody ten times. We went through our usual list of techniques, then sensei wanted us to do kokyuunage (呼吸投げ) ten times to everyone. I'm still working on doing tobiukemi when thrown kokyuunage. The knee in my pants got seriously torn at this point.

See what I'm talking about! It's quite a fun waza to perform. One of my favorites. If you can do the tenkan properly, you can throw multiple partners quite easily.
I was the uke for a young guy who is steadily improving. His shihonage is getting dangerously good. My wrist is still pretty sore. This is mostly my fault. When my wrist was twisted, I should have moved my body towards my hand. Guess I was too slow, because I didn't jump properly. Two days later, my right wrist is a bit tender. Ah, live and learn.
Actually, it was a night of injuries. My girlfriend twisted her ankle on the third waza with the sensei. She banged up her hand real good.

Check that bad boy out! She was hobbling off the mat after practice. Next morning she had a sweet eggplant on her hand. Both of us were hurting, but we agreed that was a great session.
The juppon is a fantastic way to practice. Rather than doing the same waza repeatedly, we can learn to perform different techniques without thinking too much. Likewise for our partners. They have to be thrown without knowing what technique is coming next.
By the way, another member estimated that we were thrown over 200 times that night. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday night.