So, I can't blog... because I don't have 20 dollars at hand..
First Training was this morning. It was scheduled to have a training of 2 hours together with 3 other students (one girl did MMA, the other 2 had zero experience with martial arts).
I expected nothing, because in all honesty I wanted to go unbiased.
So we did warm up, some of the guys weren't able to do it fully because of a disturbed proprioception. They weren't in the best shape (or I'm just in a very good shape thanks to Mario) but they managed.
Up to holds, we started with kami. Me against a dude that outweighted me by 100 pounds, was 10 inches bigger than me and who was a blue belt. I succeeded in holding down the kami so that he couldn't get up. No explaination needed when I say that he did the same to me without any trouble.
Switched partners and went up against an other dude. I was able to roll out of the kami, bassically because he kept his legs against eachother.
We learned two other holds and than it was time to put them to the test.
We just walked around our laying partner and than sensei just called out one of the holds to perform as fast as possible.
We ended with greeting and tapping off.
Then came the big suprise. Apparently the first hour is for level 3 people. The hour after that is dedicated to level 1 people. Suddenly a whole bunch of blue, green and brown belts pour in. So we warmed up again.
Were shown a new set of holds and now we could use them in randoori!
Alot of the people of level 1 are actually people who have a light mental disability: adhd, dcd, slight mental retardation and so on.
I had fun with one of my classmates because the boys were a bit rough on here (not many girls in their partical group). Suddenly Sensei said that we could use Oshoto Gari (sp?), so I taught her the basic moves and the idea behind it biomechanically (she's also a physiotherapist in training) and she caught on soon enough.
To make a long post short. I had smashing fun with these guys and girls.
They do need extra attention and alot of extra time/patience. Because cerebral palsy, children with down syndrome, and so on also attend these trainings.
They are however very proud of what they do, they are so proud that they always come up to you to ask if they can throw you once. Really hilarious when you ask if you can throw them too in return: "not too hard please".
I was amazed by the fact that they remember the japanese names and really all go silent when Sensei says maté.
Oh yeah
level 3: are the ones who just started, who have a bit of problems with coordination and so on. Or who just seems to be asleep.
Level 2: are the better ones, who look sharp and fresh. You could say that they have a less bigger problem, mentally speaking.
Level 3: top judo. They go hard and they are not afraid of ukime.
This system is just for their tournaments.
Also: they support eachother intensly. When someone is slacking a bit in warm up. The whole group shouts his/her name. And they mean it, it comes from their hearts.
I'll keep going on my own account from now on. I'm hooked.
