I worked out with Slav, Omar, and a couple other guys tonight. I got a little banged up and my bad knee was achy after class.

Many of my work buddies showed up for the workout.

Workout is on Monday only (for now), and starts at 8:30pm. Have no idea of what it costs. The guy who owns the place is Anthony Brewer. They also have bbj on other days; may be worth checking out.

The address is 21463 Foothill Blvd # B . If you are at the enterance to Walgreens, walk to the left side of the store and on the back corner of the building is where you will find Brewer's place.

Map can be found here: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=21463+Foothill+Blvd,+Hayward,+CA+94541,+USA&sa=X&oi=map&ct=title

Here is the link http://brewerkarate.com/

Team Brewer Karate Center
21463 Foothill Blvd. #B, Hayward, CA 94541
Tel: 510 581 9697
Email: info@brewerkarate.com

No, this is not an April Fool's joke.

Today I went back to Judo. I have not been cleared to start working out again, but I needed to go and get back into shape. My goal for the night was to do the warm up with the class and practice very light uchikomi. I was able to do most of the stretches (I can not [will not] sit on my knees yet). I did not do any of the ukemi for fear that I may injure myself. I practice very lightly on the uchikomi with many different partners. Everyone I practiced with I told them to take it very easy on my right knee. Everyone was very accomodating. I was able to do some uchikomi myself. I had to leave early when my knee started to ache some.

Saturday 6/21/2003

Today is 12 days after my sugery. I have had three physical therapy
sessions. I am walking without crutches everywhere and short distances
without the brace in the house. The new ACL is apparently very solid. In
about 12 more days, I will be given clearance to drive again.

I was instructed by sensei Ed. We worked more on ukemi from a standing position along with foot
sweep practice. Working on moving into position for ippon seoi nage, I trained with a partner (Margret)
to slide my feet just in front of hers with my back straight. Then we worked on a new throw, o goshi
[1]. A little later, we worked on the first two
easy katame techniques. My partner and I learned hon kesa gatame [1]
and kami shiho gatame [1].
Lastly, I partnered with an advanced
student (Dennis) who was instructed to sweep my foot with de ashi harai
[1] so I could practice ukemi.

I was instructed by sensei Keith to start with a basic grab and work up to my first
throw. Yeah, Baby, Yeah! My first technique comes from the Gokyo no waza (Nage waza) group 1. It was
the Seoi-nage. This is a more difficult technique than the ippon-seoi-nage for me. Tori's right wrist
has to be strong and uke should be the same height to help tori learn. Getting in close and low to uke
is tori's goal. The second throw is a variation of the first. It is called ippon-seoi-nage
[1, 2]. This was easier on the
wrist, but had more mechanics to master. When the right arm of tori goes under the right arm of uke,
tori's arm at the elbow needs to pinch uke's tricep. If tori goes in to uke's right arm too high, uke
can turn this into a choke.

My second night. There were a lot of new faces this night. The warm up was more rigorous than I was expecting. During warm up, I realised that it would be beneficial to learn to count to ten in Japanese

My first day. Wow, this was great. I learned how to fall. Sensei Keith had me work with Carl (a black belt). Carl introduced me to ukemi. Most of my falls started on my butt. I did back falls, side falls, from my butt and then moved up to a kneeling position. Then I added a forward roll from kneeling. There are 8 positions to break someones balance (kuzushi): forward, backward, left right , left forward, right forward, left backward, and right backward.

Remember: bow in, bow on, bow off, bow out. Bow when entering the "dojo", bow when stepping onto the mat, bow when leaving the mat, bow when leaving the dojo. Also, bow to your training partner.

Why Judo?
I made the decision many years ago that Judo would be the martial art for me. I came to this conclusion in Junior High School during PE class. We were learning to wrestle from our teacher Mr. Shone. Mr. Shone was a big guy (to a puny Junior High kid--he was a giant). He must have been
275 lbs and he was strong like an ox. During class he demonstrated a backward ukemi that he learned in Judo. He leaped up and landed with a huge slapping thud. It was awesome. That did it for me. If a guy his size can land on his back without suffering pain and anguish, Judo was my kind of sport.