A Judo Exercise Explanation

Okay, a co-worker of mine has started checking out my blog, and he says that he doesn't know what half the exercises I list from Judo class even are. Well, this video provides a bit of an explanation of the chest-crawl and ebi (shrimp) exercises. This was made by another dojo, and they do thing a bit differently than we do, but you get the basic idea. What we call chest-crawls he calls drags or mat-pulls, and where he says don't use your feet for the ebi exercise, we say to make sure you use both for the sake of the exercise.

They say to train the same as you compete, but that isn't exactly the way it should be, because during competition you are making split-second decisions and rushing techniques. You shouldn't rush the techniques, but you will, and you will have to make it work. They won't be as pretty as in practice, and you will lose approximately 30% of your proper technique, at least for a while. That is the reason we over-emphasize certain things--yes, we use the legs in the ebi exercise, but in doing so we are also using more muscles that we may need later when that adrenaline rush comes, so the same basic motion will still accomplish what we need.

This is especially true for uchikomi (entry practice). You can see a video of what a basic entry practice drill looks like here, although it is advisable NOT to swing your foot back before the entry like the person in the video, because that WILL develop into a telegraphing movement prior to your throws, even if you lose 30%--remember, it only takes a hip-twitch for someone more experienced than you to see you coming. This basic uchikomi drill is useful not just for the footwork, which can be applied to nearly every forward throw, but also to develop kuzushi (off-balancing). As you watch the video, you will see that the tori (person who would be doing the throwing) is essentially yanking the uke (person who would be thrown) all the way across the mat. Do you need that much of an off-balancing, lifting pull to successfully throw your opponent? No, but it sure as heck helps! The bigger and more powerful your "explosion" (as Sensei Adrian likes to say) the more likely you are to be effective with it in competition. This is something that EVERYONE can ALWAYS use more work on, because without proper kuzushi, you will very seldom succeed at throwing people, because the only way for you to do so would be to use their own movement, which requires very good timing.

Aaanyway, that was a fun rant. As far as the rest of the exercises, here are some more videos to show you what the heck I'm talking about:

Bear Crawls (We do these between exercises to get from one side of the mat to the other)
Wide-Stance Pushups
Diamond Pushups
Off-Set Pushups (Alligator Pushups)
Judo Pushups (Japanese Pushups, Hindu Pushups)
Side-to-Side Hops (We do these up and down the mat, not standing still)
Hip Twisters (Jumping Hip Twists) (We do these up and down the mat, not standing still, and without the stick)
Knee-to-Elbow Situps/Crunches (We do these with both legs at the same time, not one at a time)

If there are any other exercises that I've mentioned that need explanation, leave me a comment and I'll see what I can do!