All of them look easy as pie, until you try to do it yourself...
As the Sensei went through the techniques I thought to myself that this will be simple, I've used the basics of these throws many times in wrestling. However, as I found out, there are many complications you don't have in wrestling. The biggest one is also the most obvious: THE GI!
Even though I've been doing Judo for 6/7 months now, I still struggle with getting rid of the wrestling muscle memory. If you try doing things with a wrestling mentality, you just end up frustrating yourself, because the gi always 'gets in the way'. This is something that is an ongoing struggle for me, but hey, nothing in life is easy!
Coming back to the throws, I felt like real plank, because I just couldn't get all the mechanics right in one go. I would get the entry right, but then lose my grip. Next time I would get grip perfect, but then mess up the footwork. Then I would get the entry and the grip right, only to forget to look in the right direction as I'm executing the throw. I eventually got it somewhat right towards the end, but it will still need a lot of practise.
One thing that I'm taking from Judo in general is learning to have patience. I am a very impatient person in general and I get extremely frustrated with something in a matter of seconds. However, as I've learnt so far, if you don't have patience, you will never get far in Judo. This is probably true for most sports or martial arts, but I've never realised it as much as I am doing in Judo.
It reminds me of a quote I read last night by Jigoro Kano, the founder of Judo:
"The man who is at the peak of his success and the man who has just
failed
are in exactly the same position. Each must decide what he will do next."
are in exactly the same position. Each must decide what he will do next."
So with that in mind, it is onwards and upwards!
