We worked on kouchi gari, which I can't land in randori. My partner was a tall person today, and I learned I really can't do it at all.
You need to lean the opponent back on their heel, then reap out that heel with your own foot. I think I simply might not have enough hip flexor power to reap out the heel once all of the opponent's weight is on it. I can do it against people my size.
You might think, oh, just lean them back farther then. A) Easier said than done on a resisting opponent and B) against a taller opponent, your arms end up getting way out in front of you, upsetting your own balance.
So I was thinking, maybe I need to bend my knee instead of swinging my entire leg like a straight baseball bat like you do with deashi barai. Did not seem to help, but I could have been doing any number of things wrong.
It's supposed to be a
giant slayer. I was thinking maybe I need to get really far inside so I could start the reap closer, but people do the throw from
fairly far away even in
serious competition. Well, I'll have to work out what's wrong on a future day.
For newaza, we worked on turning over with the half-nelson, with the point being made that it's easier to get your arm in from the back, even if you end up turning over from the side. Generally, if I have the back, I usually just go for getting the lapels from there, rolling them over, then going for a choke or a pin with kame shiho gatame. It's just way more reliable.
Randori was all newaza. I happened to go with mostly white belts, so I got some rest with pins (which I let go after a few seconds so they could continue to try stuff). Not exactly pushing it to the limit here, but hey, I'm old.
Speaking of which, my back was stiff all day from a workout two days ago. Two days of recovery time is bullshit! Anyway, this is one of those times when working out actually loosened it up.