Recap of Toni Lettner Clinic at Wall 2 Wall Martial Arts

I wanted to share this from a recent clinic up at Wall 2 Wall Martial Arts in Fredericksburg.  Another thanks to Chuck Wall for bringing such great guys in, and to Toni Lettner for teaching.  I learned some new stuff there, and wanted to share it on my blog to a) let you guys see what we did, and b) keep from forgetting it!

We started with a sankaku entry when your opponent is on his belly or turtled:

Note that before the video starts, I mentioned that you need to get your knee (right knee, if you are on uke's left side) between uke's elbow and body.  And when I roll him over me, I am grabbing the gi behind his far knee and pulling it over my face.

If your opponent decides to stop you by grabbing your ankle to prevent you from stepping over, then you do this:

We then went on to standing work, starting with what what I often refer to as the "Igor Grip" (since I was first exposed to this series by Igor Yakimov at the "Greatest Judo Training Camp on Earth" (and I'll be attending again this year!)) from a Kenka Yotsu (righty vs. lefty) situation.  You start with an Ouchi Gari:

Kouchi Gari can then follow if that doesn't work (note that I didn't demonstrate very good posture here... do better than I did):

Another option from the same scenario that is useful for us stubby-legged folk is the heel pick (Kibisu Gaeshi):

And if he resists that by pressing in to you - Hikikomi Gaeshi (which I inaccurately refer to as Sumi Gaeshi):

After that, we looked at an Ai Yotsu (righty vs. righty, lefty vs. lefty) situation, taking a different grip (maybe I'll call that Toni grip?  Or maybe the Scoop grip?), and again starting with a Kouchi Gari:

And when he learns to fear your Kouchi Gari, you again move to a Hikikomi Gaeshi:

Thanks again to Chuck, Toni, and to Chuck's students at Wall 2 Wall - they were great training partners, and everyone there made me feel very welcome.