One of the first things I aspired to in Judo was to use my legs.
When I started Judo, I went to Wellington Judo and Ju jitsu Association to train. While their frighteningly high injury rate (and the broken arm that, in part, resulted) persuaded me to look for a different dojo, they provided me with that aspiration via Brian, one of the two instructors there. Brian is about my height, a lot leaner, and is amazing on the ground; one of the things that makes him amazing is the fluid way he can use his legs.
Up until recently my legs were largely dead weight on the ground. While I use them just fine for driving from a kneeling position or to push someone away from a guard position, I made very little use of them beyond that: on the ground, I would be mostly focused on my arms. If an opponent could tie them up, I couldn’t effectively attack. But a couple of days after last week’s session I realised I’ve actually attained that goal: I use my legs.
Not terribly effectively most of the time, it must be said; I’m still a rank beginner, after all. But the important bit is that I’m trying to do things with them; while direct attacks with the legs (with a leg scissors to the body or neck, for example) aren’t allowed, you can legally augment a strangle (via sankaku, for example), hold and control, defend, augment arm bars, and the like. Some two handed techniques can be executed with one hand and one leg; essentially, it opens up an extra dimension on the ground if you think of using them. And that is the big difference in my ground work: I am thinking about to to attack, defend, and counter-attack with all four limbs.
