We had a small class at judo last night. It was just four people, plus the instructor. What was especially nice was that everyone was "small," meaning no one was more than about ten pounds heavier than me.
We went right into generating power for forward throws and moving opponents because, yeah, we need that. I know about taking big steps to off-balance bigger opponents, but as the sensei pointed out, the problem with that is that you then give them time to also step or counter. Still often worth it, but we worked on moving opponents without moving your feet.
We spent most of the time on practicing a hip spin movement. He kept comparing to swinging a baseball bat, which I don't ever do, but it did help to think about that. With a two-handed sleeve grip, spinning your hips like that can move a larger guy fairly substantially.
The rub comes in when trying to do that with actual throws. With ippon seoinage, you have to swing diagonally down, plus there's all the stuff with locking up the opponent's arm. Often, by the time I've done all that, I end up throwing with my arms again.
Ashi guruma, though, is easier to adapt to the swing by virtue of not having extra arm steps. Grip, spin your hips, then stick your foot out. I should have tried it randori.
Most of the class was actually not exhausting because we spent so much time on learning this movement. But then randori came around, and I did only two rounds and was dying. I do not know when I'll be in "normal" (fifteen years ago) shape, but it's not after six judo classes.
I did try the hip spin thing, but I can't do it fast enough yet. Again, all of the throws I landed were backwards throws: osotogari, tani otoshi. In my exhausted state, I did "muscle remember" the seoinage/osotogari combo I used to do, which is handy. In turn, I was thrown with osotogari a lot. I can counter it when it's the first attack, but I'm always somehow surprised when it's a follow up.
It was nice to get confirmation about this
idea that lifting someone upward as a prerequisite for a lot of throws isn't necessary. It's extremely hard to do.
There's no judo for me until the new year. I'm a little concerned with my conditioning dropping, but I have to remind myself that I'm just trying to get whatever may fall my way with this once-a-week judo campaign.