Judo Pics of Brazil Trip

Sau Paulo World Cup

Sau Paulo world cup overview.

First off, I had a pretty good draw but didn’t manage to fight anywhere near my potential and so I lost first round to the Mexican, I lost by 2 yukos. I had 2 shidos and with 40 seconds to go he threw me for a yuko to really shut me out of winning the fight.
Making weight for me went really well, I trained and used the sauna for only about 2kg and was fresh as a daisy making weight. Night before comp I didn’t have the best sleep, the traffic out the window was very loud and because sometimes you get paranoid that you can’t sleep and so then you can’t.
I woke up at 5:50am and hopped on the trial scales, I was 200grams heavy so I quickly went up to the gym and ran on the treadmill for 7 minutes and lost 300 grams to weigh in at 59.9kgs.
I drew the Mexican first round and I knew who he was as I had trained with him last week at the training camp in Rio. I knew he liked drop seoi nages and ground work.
Most of the fight was actually spent on the ground me trying to lock up a half guard and stay out of hold-down’s and arm locks, I don’t know if he was really going for them or he was just wasting time but I think about 2 minutes of the fight was spent on the ground.
Throughout the fight I didn’t raise the intensity or use my feet very much and this, among other things really did cost me the fight. He ended up losing the next round and coming nothing. I really really need to be winning those fights if I have any hope of making the Olympics in London, good draws like that one don’t come around every day and I need to step up and take advantage of them.
Anyway now today the others are fighting so I will go and watch them before having a few days off (doing who knows what) before we leave here on Tuesday arvo. I am so looking forward to coming home and having a quick rest before fighting in the nationals as my weight management has been fantastic since being over here and I am looking at building on it when I return in order to prepare myself for the times when I am fighting a few competitions in a row.

Talk soon
Matt

Awesome escapes

Training Camp

Now in Sau paulo...

After training today we had an afternoon off where we went sightseeing. Unfortunately the jesus statue was so covered in fog we couldnt see it at all. It was crazy we were standing about 10 metres from it and couldnt see it at all.
Attached are some photos of the beach, noticed the huges waves.
We also want halfway up sugarloaf mountain but once agin it was too foggy to seeanything from the top. Although i did get to see one of those little spider monkeys i saw last time.

We left Rio this morning at 5am and travelled to sau paulo by plane and arrived at around 2pm. tomorrow i will train in the morning and then depending on how much weight i have to drop i will probably sauna the remaining weight. I am keen as to fight this world cup and more excited to win some fights and up my world ranking in order to have the best shot at maing the Olympics in 2012.

Talk soon

Some photos

I got destroyed in Rio

Rio grand slam
At the grand slam I drew Galstyan from Russia. He is good judo player with a world ranking for 9 at the moment. As all Russians are he is a strong player, lefty with uchimata good use of sweeps and grips.
I knew what I needed to do in order to beat him...control the inside and the sleeve but I the first 15 seconds of the fight he entered with a huge uchimata that was so huge I had enough time to over rotate myself and land on my face for no score.
About 30 seconds later he had the inside lapel as well as sleeve control and entered for a nice tai otoshi for waza ari and then landed in a good position for a juji gatame armlock which he got on me.
A massive let down on my part, I knew the strategy I needed to employ for the fight and I didn’t fight hard enough to bust grips off and move. As Danny k says I compromised with the grips and got destroyed. No good no good at all. He ended up taking 3rd place losing to the Japanese in the semi final.
Now we are at the training camp with training in the mornings for one and a half hours of randori (fighting) and tonight we go back again for a another 2 hours of randori. So today we trained, came home for a quick lunch, sat at the beach and talked for a while now I’m back in our room watching some survivor and having a snooze before training tonight.

My weight is all good and I’m so keen to fight in the world cup next week.


Here is a quick cliup on the internet of the uchimata he threw me with, this clip doesnt show how i lost by the armbar though.
Talk soon
Matt

Aussie Team

A equipe australiana faz sua estreia no Circuito Mundial no Grand Slam do Rio de Janeiro. A etapa brasileira será a primeira competição que os "aussies", como são conhecidos, vão disputar e os 12 judocas inscritos no evento estão ansiosos para pisar no tatame e competir.

"Não dá para esconder a felicidade de estar no Brasil. Era um sonho para mim vir até o Rio e disputar uma competição de judô", diz o peso pesado Jake Andrewartha.

O judoca tem consciência que os australianos não terão vida fácil no Grand Slam do Rio.

"Todos os grandes atletas do circuito estão aqui. Não será nem um pouco fácil conquistar pontos aqui, mas é importante viajar e lutar neste início de ranqueamento olímpico", diz Jake.

Equipe de Austrália:

Hannah Trotter (-48kg)
Emily Bensted (-57kg)
Marguerita Corfios (-57kg)
Matthew D´Aquino (-60kg)
Kylie Koenig (-63kg)
Ivo dos Santos (-66kg)
Dennis Iverson (-73kg)
Stephanie Grant (-78kg)
Brent Iverson (-81kg)
Janelle Shepherd (+78kg)
Mark Anthony (-90kg)
Jake Andrewartha (+100kg)



www.bjwt.com.br

Day before Rio Grand Slam

All i swell here in Rio. We have trained everyday for an hour or so but very intense training sessions. Today as it is friday, i will back it up a little bit as i have to sauna this arvo but only 2kg so should be pretty easy.
Nothing much else is really going on, the first day we were here we walked up and down copacabana beach a few times and then tried to deal with the effects of good ol jet lag.
Im pretty excited to fight tomorrow as the Rio grand Slam is a pretty big competition. Im feeling pretty good and fit and because ill make weight relativley easy im very confident in fighting well.

Today im just going to take it easy, watch a few movies, got to the gym and have a sweat up, get my lower back rubbed down and thenmaybe have a light lunch and hit the sauna tonight before weigh in tomorrow morning.
The draws are done today at 2pm, it is always interesting to see who you will draw and whether you know anything aboput how they fight.

At the moment the weather hasnt been very rio like with overcast days and rainy weather, it s abit of a shame because its always easier to make weight when the weather is hotter.
Also the massive Jesus statue is closed at the moment, what a massive shame that is. I was really looking forward to going up there and having a look but its getting refurbished so the road is too dangerous to go up and the entire statue is covered in construction.

Thats it form me.
Have an awesome weekend.
You can watch thr Grand Slam live on www.ijf.org if you have decent internet connection.

Rio Grand Slam

Grand Slam of the River has 390 judokas from 42 countries registered - 14/05/2010

The Grand Slam of Rio de Janeiro, which will take place on 22 and Maracanãzinho May 23, will be the biggest event of the sport in the country since the 2007 World Championships, also in the Marvelous City. In this Friday (14), the number of subscribers reached the mark of 390 judokas from 42 countries, including major powers such as Japan, France, Russia and Holland. In 2009, were 200 athletes from 25 nations at the event.

The Grand Slam of Rio de Janeiro is the first event of this category to distribute points that define them for the London Olympics in 2012. Brazil will be represented by 56 athletes, including Olympic medalists and world. Grand Slam countries can inscribe up to two athletes per category, and Brazil, as host country, is entitled to four seats. The gold medal is worth 300 points in ranking, silver and bronze 180 120. In 2009, the Brazilian rose tenfold on the podium at the Grand Slam of Rio de Janeiro. We won a gold medal, four silver and five bronze.

See the list of countries and more details at the Brazil Judo World Tour
www.bjwt.com.br

Calf slicer in Comp

I saw this video the other day and i thought i would post it up because the guy won with a calf slicer when he was on the bottom. Ive never seen the calf slicer/crusher done like this.

Seoi nage setup

Pic of the week

Huge Sasae

Almost a Harai Tsuri komi ashi..

Asumbani's uchimata

How is your arm...

This guy had a great attempt at escaping this armbar although next time he shouldnt be leaving his arm out there) but the person applying the armbar also did a great jjob keeping the arm under control.

Pic of the Week -Reverse Sankaki

This judoka has used her body really well by keeping her hand there means the fight is still within the compeition area.

Video of the week

Roy Dean has wonderful videos and great DVD's and really does give a good depiction of bjj.

Gripping for Judo & BJJ

Gripping exercises for Judo and BJJ.

In Judo and BJJ a strong grip is very useful when breaking grips, holding your opponent but more importantly when applying a strangle using your opponents gi.

What makes a strong grip?
A strong grip is simply strong forearm muscles (wrist extensors and wrist flexors) as well as strong fingers and wrists.

How do you get a strong grip?
You grip will get stronger straight away by just training consistently with people wearing gis.
But you can speed up your grip by adding a variety of different exercises into your gym routine.
These exercises include:
- Farmers walk
- Rope climbing
- Wrist roller
- Heavy deadlifts
- Heavy lat pulldowns and seated rows
- Forearm curls and reverse curls
- Sled pulling using a rope
- Squeezing your hand open and shut in a bucket full of rice
- Kumi Kata (grip fighting)

Just implement some of these exercises into your gym program and you will see the results in a matter of weeks.


Matt D’Aquino
29/09/07


Honoroto throwing Yoshida with a huge Uchimata at the Sydney 2000 Olympics

New Bicep Slicer video