(1808 posts)
Nov 26, 2008 3:19 pm
Envelope Series
Maybe it was the dogs wanting to go out at 5am that woke me up to such a degree that falling back asleep was simply impossible. So, I decided to catch the 6:30am Judo class this morning.The envelope series is a wonderful drill for teaching the top man about proper transitioning technique. Initially, most folks find it helpful to block the patterns in on a stationary uke. The series starting at kuzure-kesa-gatame on uke's right side, moving to mune-gatame, ushiro-kesa-gatame, kuzure-kamishiho-gatame, ura-kesa-gatame, kamishiho-gatame, and repeat the series in reverse down the other side. Think of it as starting at 9 o'clock, with the sequense to kamishiho-gatame getting you to high noon, then reversing the sequence to end at 3 o'clock.
After the beginning sequence is blocked in, uke starts to drive the movement. Tori becomes very passive, focusing on minimzing movement and keeping weight on uke during transitions. As uke drives toward tori, tori will slide out into chest-to-chest or flat position. As uke moves back to his back, tori slides into a side-to-side or sitting position. The sequence should provide a flat-side-flat-side-repeating series.
This is performed as a drill to teach fundamentals. With that being said, it can be utilized as a sincere osaekomi attack, and when performed properly is a pain in the nether-regions to escape. There is a particularly sweet choke that can be utilized to mount an escape, but I need more time to experiment with it before writing about it.