Advanced Junior Training Camp – April 2013
The first of several planned training weekends for Advanced Juniors took place this month under the leadership of Coach Vince Skillcorn. The camps are primarily aimed at those Juniors who are competing on a regular basis and are looking to progress onto county, area and national squad level. That said, any experienced junior who is prepared to push themselves out of their comfort zone is welcome to attend.
DAY 1
The weekend got underway with participants joining in with the Carlson Gracie Brazilian Jujitsu (BJJ) class. This was for most their first introduction to BJJ and an excellent opportunity to learn and work on new ne-waza techniques. With everyone warmed-up and smiling it was time to remind them that not all training is fun and that to be successful you need to be able to push through the pain barrier. What better way to demonstrate this than 45 minutes of various hill sprints in the nearby woods. Some fared better than others but it was one of the youngest, the warrior known as “TK”, who demonstrated what is required when having been sick through exertion he gamely picked himself up, continued to completion and even did the optional extra “just for fun” set. After lunch it was back on the mat for a quick game of football followed by tachi-waza (standing techniques) and plenty of throwing practice. Emphasis was placed on setting up the throws, breaking the opponent’s balance, and good posture and how the techniques may be applied in realistic fighting situations as opposed to simply against a compliant training partner. Everyone did well with regards this work and ended the day on a positive note with good demonstrations of their techniques to the class.
DAY 2
Once again ne-waza was the focus of the opening session, with Vince introducing the class to what has become known as the “Camberley Strangle” and its competition variations. The group showed good understanding of the moves and seemed to enjoy this instruction. Although some of the younger players are not yet able to use strangles in competition, it is important that they get the opportunity to practice in a safe training environment so that they are sufficiently prepared for this element of Judo when the time comes. Next up was “mat conditioning”, judo specific exercises and drills designed to improve fighting fitness levels. The stand out performers were Toby Roberts and Luke Smith, with Oliver Baldwin and Ben Baxter showing marked improvement on their hill sprints the previous day. Whilst some will perform better at certain drills than others, it’s important that aspiring Judo players work on their “limiters” i.e. the areas in which they are weakest, not just practice and do the exercises they are good at. This is definitely an area that everyone needs to work on as there is no excuse for poor fitness. With the hard work out of the way it was back to tachi-waza , looking at how to take the advantage against same sided players ( Right v Right, Left v Left). Some of the concepts were quite complex, but yet again everyone did well to pick up the moves and show understanding of what was being taught.
It was successful weekend and the concentration levels were generally good despite the sessions being longer than most of the juniors are used to. Some would be advised to put in some extra work on their fitness to prepare for the next camp to be held the weekend 25th – 26th May.
