rachelelm replied to your post: My body has really let me down lately. I could...
I know very little about judo, but aren’t there techniques that use your opponent’s strength and momentum against them? I imagine not in groundwork but what about throws?
In theory, yes. But throws, as opposed to trips/reaps, have to be done almost perfectly to throw a large opponent. Your entrance, posture, center of gravity and throw movement have to be on point and timed with the movement of your opponent, otherwise they won't work, and a failed throw results in nothing but exploitable confusion and compromised balance. I'm not saying that it can't be done - just that I'm not good enough yet to pull it off, especially since the only throws that would work against Uddeep's wrestling stance would be shoulder throws, which I'm really weak at.
I hold myself to unrealistic standards. It's totally normal that I shouldn't be able to throw someone who outweighs me by more than a third of my body weight. I know I'm performing above average because I threw someone fifteen pounds heavier than me with at least twice as much experience as me three or four times last night while he only managed to down me once. But I don't want to be just above average. I intend and expect to totally bowl over people bigger than me at something I have minimum experience in. I'm extremely competitive. It's who I am.
I hate incompetence in any form, and I hate it most in myself. I know that failure is a natural part of early learning, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. When stuff like this happens, it doesn't discourage me - rather, it makes me reassess my approach and survey what else I can do to succeed. Hopefully one day I'll have the technique to blow through bigger guys on momentum and balance alone, but until then, I'll need strength to compensate, and even then, technique applied with strength is better than technique applied without.
