There's not much progress happening in The World, but there is a little bit of progress happening in my judo game, as I'm sure you're thrilled to know.
I didn't throw anyone with kouchi gari tonight, but I did actually cause opponents to misstep with it. That's a huge, uh, step for me because usually my timing is way off.
I was also able to land a
sode tsurikomi goshi, though I lost my balance and landed on the opponent, which I need to avoid for safety's sake. It is very rare for me to learn a throw one week then actually throw someone — even a white belt — in randori with it the next week.
It has always struck me as counterintuitive, but it turns out to be way easier to close the distance after you've pulled someone's arm out of the way. It's also nice that I don't have to carefully time torso contact the way you have to with seoinage or uchimata.
Finally, I was able to do four rounds of randori with one break, and I wasn't dying by the end. I was definitely very tired, but I was still able to think about what to do and to try to do it. So, the conditioning is coming along a little, too.