Shinjuku triforce

Shibamoto & the Shinjuku team

As Ikebukuro has closed for the new year, I decided to head down to the Shinjuku academy as they are open for an extra two days (last day being today actually – can I get there again??)

Despite it being the 29th and definite drinking season, a fair few guys turned up for training! One major difference between Ikebukuro and Shinjuku? Mat space- the training area is long, almost oblong is shape – which makes the warm ups that little bit tougher!

Bad trains

We all thought we might have to do our last morning schedule out in the cold – 10:15am came and went with the shutters still locked – rumors abounded about late drinking sessions due to the Triforce end of year party held the night before- in the end though, it was nothing more than a delayed Yamanote line which put Miyamoto sensei back a few minutes – sure was nice to see him sprinting down the road to open up!

What u havin’?

Here’s Fukuda San partaking in his post training tipple- perhaps the pinkest drink I’ve ever seen!!

Triforce Challenge

Team Ikebukuro

Great work to all the fighters at the Triforce Challenge! Ikebukuro fighters gave a good account of themselves, with some excellent performances – we even managed to bag the MVP award. This inter team competition is an excellent way to gear up for bigger competitions – I definitely think that some of the guys are ready to enter competitions now and they can have confidence doing so. You can find movies of all the fights here, courtesy of Roger Ver over in Aoyama – cheers Roger!

Nomura san (right)

Taiki Yamamoto

Taiki touches down in Tokyo again 😉

 

50 minutes sparring session

Thanks to Taiki for dropping by and training with us Friday morning – looking forward to you coming back from the states soon!

With the Triforce Challenge just 2 days away on Sunday, I was happy to get some good sparring completed – hope for a good performance come Sunday!

Shimyo sensei takes class!

Shimyo sensei demonstrating a useful arm lock

Morning class today was headed up by Shimyo sensei, because Hayakawa sensei is away in Korea meeting with Oh-Tae and Sun sans (hoping those boys come back soon!)

Even though the weather was decidedly terrible, 8 or so guys braved the elements and came down to train – Sawada kun and myself will enter the Tri-Force challenge this Sunday so I for one was happy for the turn out- it allowed us to get some good sparring in!

I’m was excited to see the 2011 Triforce kimono design – made by Alma, it looks a really cool piece of kit -I ordered mine in black and I’m looking forward to using it – maybe I’ll keep it just for competitions though, not sure yet …..

 

The new Alma kimono - got yours yet??

Talking of competitions, I got warned in the Tokyo international about the length of my kimono pants – the adjudicator thought they were a little short, but as I’m tall, he gave me a pass – can’t believe they have shrunk so much – I’ve gone for the A4 with the Alma – hopefully over time it will shrink to fit me perfectly 🙂

Heavy hitters

Hayakawa sensei & Nomura san sparring

Yesterday’s 19:30 regular class was attended by Nomura san, (recently promoted to brown belt) Ito ‘Ebisou’ san (Purple belt) and a rack of top end blue belts which made for a really demanding session!

We skipped the usual warm up in favor of some Judo / take down repetition / drilling – it was nice to begin the class in a different way 🙂 I wonder what happens in various BJJ clubs…. same stuff or completely different?

Top 9

Sparring - working the caterpillar

Nine guys turned up for morning class today, beginning at 10:30 – Sawada Kun will participate in the Triforce challenge on (I think) the 19th, so he was going hard at it! Matt turned up a little way into the technique part of the class – Matt will go home on the 19th so unfortunately he cannot participate – bad news, but have fun back in the US, Matt!

Back 2 back

Yusuke sensei heading up beginner class

I watched a little bit of the beginner class after regular class on Thursday – there are always good numbers there! Some of the guys also looked pretty sharp, I’m sure they’ll be migrating over to the regular class soon….

Friday morning class was a cosy affair – only 4 people trained! Still, we got some quality instruction from Hayakawa sensei on effective sweeps after the opponent has broken your full guard – as always I have to remember these!

The second picture shows Shinsaka san working through one of three sparring rounds – even though numbers were few, we were made to work! One guy stayed in and fought each of the other three guys in order, 3 minutes each – tough work out!

 

Shinsaka san working from full guard