Tomoo Torii is awesome, one of the most technical judo players of his generation. Gave me the biggest randori beating of my life at Tokai in 07!
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
I DID IT!
wow, its now monday night and 24 hours ago i was in one of the most testosterone-fuelled fights of my life. nationals went well i had a bye first round, won my next fight with uchi mata(which is a monumental moment and worthy of it's own blog entry) and won the semi final by throwing the fella for wazari with uchi mata (again i know!) and then choking him.
the final.......... my game plan had been to grip fight my butt off, pressure my opponent and get as many shidos on him as possible. i was breaking even on grips and not dominating how i wanted and we both got a shido for not engaging. We engaged in some attacks that ended up off the edge of the mat and instead of walking past me back to his line my opponent decided to get in my face and try a bit of a stare down, i didn't flinch and the line in the sand had been drawn so to speak. after another minute or so i managed to lock down one side and was looking for a reaction to drop under for sumi gaeshi. the referee's penalised me for one-sided grip and not him for dropping to his knees. after some more gripping me both got shido's and it was yuko for me wazari against and i was in a bit of trouble, another shido and i was disqualified. that realisation triggered something in my brain because the next time i got a grip i dragged him along and launched into a drop seio that planted him flat on his back. considering i was planning on not committing into a single full fledged attack in the whole fight because of my bad shoulder this was unexpected!
I couldn't celebrate straight away because the side judge froze and neither signalled that the throw was inside or outside the fighting area so i walked back to the line hoping one of the referee's would make the bloody call, i heard a bit of a noise from the crowd and saw that the ref commission had walked to the side of the mat, that meant one thing, they thought the throw was valid.
When the center referee came back and signalled my ippon i was ecstatic!!!
I won't get into the lack of sportsmanship that followed but i will say that if i provoked any of it i am sorry i was caught up in the emotion of it all.
AFTERMATH.........
Well my shoulder hurts like hell and i will get some more scans this week and find out what sort of rehab i will need to do. hopefully couple of easy weeks and i'll be right to train my butt off for Oceania, NSW Open, Miami World Cup, US Open and the Worlds (all in 1 month aug-sep)
the final.......... my game plan had been to grip fight my butt off, pressure my opponent and get as many shidos on him as possible. i was breaking even on grips and not dominating how i wanted and we both got a shido for not engaging. We engaged in some attacks that ended up off the edge of the mat and instead of walking past me back to his line my opponent decided to get in my face and try a bit of a stare down, i didn't flinch and the line in the sand had been drawn so to speak. after another minute or so i managed to lock down one side and was looking for a reaction to drop under for sumi gaeshi. the referee's penalised me for one-sided grip and not him for dropping to his knees. after some more gripping me both got shido's and it was yuko for me wazari against and i was in a bit of trouble, another shido and i was disqualified. that realisation triggered something in my brain because the next time i got a grip i dragged him along and launched into a drop seio that planted him flat on his back. considering i was planning on not committing into a single full fledged attack in the whole fight because of my bad shoulder this was unexpected!
I couldn't celebrate straight away because the side judge froze and neither signalled that the throw was inside or outside the fighting area so i walked back to the line hoping one of the referee's would make the bloody call, i heard a bit of a noise from the crowd and saw that the ref commission had walked to the side of the mat, that meant one thing, they thought the throw was valid.
When the center referee came back and signalled my ippon i was ecstatic!!!
I won't get into the lack of sportsmanship that followed but i will say that if i provoked any of it i am sorry i was caught up in the emotion of it all.
AFTERMATH.........
Well my shoulder hurts like hell and i will get some more scans this week and find out what sort of rehab i will need to do. hopefully couple of easy weeks and i'll be right to train my butt off for Oceania, NSW Open, Miami World Cup, US Open and the Worlds (all in 1 month aug-sep)
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Flavio Canto Compilation
I have a massive man-crush on Flavio Canto. The guy is an an unbelievable judo player and someday will get himself a nobel prize
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/columnists/holt/2009/10/14/olympics-special-report-on-the-rio-de-janeiro-that-the-world-won-t-see-115875-21746397/
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/columnists/holt/2009/10/14/olympics-special-report-on-the-rio-de-janeiro-that-the-world-won-t-see-115875-21746397/
Friday, June 4, 2010
Home....
Got home yesterday from Brasil. It's not easy picking yourself up after such a failure like Brasil was for me.
It has been good to be back home and sleep in my own bed. My training has been really battered in recent times. after posting 10-12 weeks solid since Feb i got really sick before going to Brasil and then at training camp in Rio i hurt my shoulder and was unable to do much from then on.
It is really frustrating to look at the best lead up to nationals i had been involved in for a long time and then have to accept that a good portion of that was compromised. At this point i have just over a week to prepare for the National Titles and instead of tapering off i am going to bust my butt with some really hard sessions running right up to next weekend to see if i can sharpen up my judo.
Given that i started my preparations for the nationals 16 weeks ago it is an understatement for me to say that i am pumped up to fight next week. A good result (winning) will be a massive milestone for me given the ups and mostly downs i have had with my judo in the last couple of years.
Next weekend will be very interesting, fingers crossed i can put it all together and win my first nationals since 2007!
I am pretty excited too at the prospect of a little bit of time off, staying in and watching tv and being able to work properly and save some $$$ for the second half of this year
P.S. CHECK OUT THE JUNE ISSUE OF BLITZ MAGAZINE I AM ON PAGE 15, 68 AND 69!!!!!!!!
It has been good to be back home and sleep in my own bed. My training has been really battered in recent times. after posting 10-12 weeks solid since Feb i got really sick before going to Brasil and then at training camp in Rio i hurt my shoulder and was unable to do much from then on.
It is really frustrating to look at the best lead up to nationals i had been involved in for a long time and then have to accept that a good portion of that was compromised. At this point i have just over a week to prepare for the National Titles and instead of tapering off i am going to bust my butt with some really hard sessions running right up to next weekend to see if i can sharpen up my judo.
Given that i started my preparations for the nationals 16 weeks ago it is an understatement for me to say that i am pumped up to fight next week. A good result (winning) will be a massive milestone for me given the ups and mostly downs i have had with my judo in the last couple of years.
Next weekend will be very interesting, fingers crossed i can put it all together and win my first nationals since 2007!
I am pretty excited too at the prospect of a little bit of time off, staying in and watching tv and being able to work properly and save some $$$ for the second half of this year
P.S. CHECK OUT THE JUNE ISSUE OF BLITZ MAGAZINE I AM ON PAGE 15, 68 AND 69!!!!!!!!
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