Things that make you go grrr...

Thought: 'There is no "i" in team but there is in win.' Michael Jordan.

A simple thing helped me make a lot of progress this week.

Ever since I have been studying judo, learning to do tai otoshi (body drop) effectively has been tough.

In fact, I'm not sure whether judo has helped or hindered me in performing this throw.

I came to judo a year or so ago after studying sub grappling and could do tai otoshi in this class.

Then I start judo and lose the ability to do tai otoshi!

I then spent large amounts of training time trying to relearn it in the judo way.

Believe me, I examined this throw from entry into completion with hands and feet position.

I even did the classic tai otoshi 'throw where the head's looking' and nothing helped me improve.

This throw had become clunky, even difficult for me.

Until this week.

Then, suddenly, after the club coach made a comment about feet position, I got it!

It clicked.

Tai otoshi became natural for me to do and I can't stop spinning around with the footwork (and hand position sometimes too) when no one is looking.

Am I the only one who does that? ;-)

Now I could say that I'm delighted to be able to do tai otoshi (which I am).

However, what's given me even greater pleasure is the fact that I have persisted, in the face of growing frustration, and achieved a key objective.

Despite overwhelming feelings that I would 'never do it'. I have done so.

With this in mind, I would like to hear from you about what has frustrated or caused you problems in your judo.

It would be great to hear people share how they achieved despite circumstances being against them and what they learned from the process.

In this spirit would be grateful if you could focus on issues you personally have had to face rather than judo politics or personalities.

Look forward to hearing from you soon on this.

Till next time.

Mike

PS sending out motivational Twitter quotes from @goodkuzushi.