Judo Posture

Tonight me and Bryce went over how important good posture is in Judo. We've beaten it to death in Aikido but you see a lot of leaning and bending in Judo, especially competition. While being active and not just waiting for the other guy to try something is important, keeping your posture correct while doing so is just as important. It all started with us going over hip throws and what I need to work on once Bryce is gone and Andy moves in. While exploring the timing of the initial contact of the hips or thighs, we got into a discussion about reversals and how by keeping good posture, a lot of the time they become self evident. As your opponent goes to throw you, you can just keep your back straight and sink a little. As he rises, you rise with him and continue his upward momentum, from there, you can do almost a reverse engineered hip throw, or even ko soto gari. After practice we started discussing exercises Pat used to have him do like knee walking from the mount as the guy on bottom rolls left and right, barrel rolls, and shrimping. In case anyone's wondering what barrel rolls are, it's when a student rolls from one end of the mat to the other, laying down, without letting his arms, hands, legs, or feet touch the mat...good times.