Drills For On The Mat Strength With Satoshi Ishii and Travis Stevens
Two Judo Legends Share Drills For Strengthening Your Judo Lifts
Traditional fitness with barbells and bench presses can help out your overall fitness, which in turn is going to help your on the mat performance. BUT most athletes who get into martial arts like Judo usually get hooked, so the more aspects of fitness that can relate to their sport the better.
Building strength that is specific to Judo is important to your success, but it is hard to replicate with a weight room. Instead, using a partner for targeted drills can not only enhance your strength and endurance but sharpen your entries! Let’s take a look at two leading minds in the sport and some drills that they use to build their strength.
Up first is a quick drill from Satoshi Ishii, Ishii has found himself in the forefront of multiple rulesets including Olympic Judo, MMA, and Jiu-Jitsu. This is a quick drill from his newest instructional Tachi Waza Intensive, check it out below!
This drill is going to require a good partner! The goal of the partner in this situation is to provide resistance that is realistic. Satoshi uses movement and timing to assist his lift which allows him to get chest to chest with his partner. By initiating a snap down motion, Ishii puts his opponent heavy on his heels. This makes the partner have to react. If they don’t there is a good chance that they will go face first into the mat.
Once the partner reacts by getting heavy and pulling away from the snap down, Satoshi transitions into his lift and entry. Now that you are chest to chest you are going to have access to effective throws. The Olympic Gold Medalist teaches great drills like this to reinforce his technique instruction in Tachi Waza Intensive.
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Next up is Travis Stevens. The BJJ and Judo Black Belt has been keeping busy big time on his YouTube as well as adding classics to his instructional catalogue! This demo is from Travis’s latest instructional Mastering Ippon Seoi Nage. Uchikomi is when you practice a specific portion of a technique to really hone those skills. Check out Travis’s lifting uchikomi that will compliment your Ippon Seoi Nage big time.
Travis points out a key point to making your lift effective. If you over bend to get your partner’s feet off of the floor it is going to be harder to finish the throw. An effective ippon seoi nage involves getting your opponent’s feet off of the floor while not over extending to generate lift. Uchikomi plays a key role in how well you can pull off most techniques, but this is especially true with Ippon Seoi Nage.
Like Satoshi’s drill, your goal is to get proper spacing with your opponent. Before it was chest to chest, now Travis is going to get you back to chest with your opponent. BUT getting the proper spacing doesn’t stop there. Where your feet land in relation to your opponent’s will dictate if you can lift your partner without bending too much at the hip. Once you have the correct spacing your initial extension through your legs should get your opponent’s feet off of the floor, and now that they are dangling helplessly finishing the seoi nage will be much easier.
Mastering Ippon Seoi Nage looks to make you a top-tier tactician with the Seoi Nage. Travis Stevens has ways of making complex techniques and concepts easy to understand. Regardless of your experience level you will benefit from Travis’s no-nonsense approach. Use his drills and skills to hone your Ippon Seoi Nage.