I have decided to post this question here as I suspect my training partners that read JudoForum.com probably are not here. If my training partners happen to read this post please do not be offended.

I have been doing Judo for two years. At my club we have a mix of white belts, a couple of brown belts, and a couple of black belts. Well, for a variety of reasons the more experienced Judokas haven't been coming in the past couple of months. This has left me with doing randori with the white belts. Of of them is a yonkyu but the others are still beginners. The other night one of the brown belts and one of the black belts came to the club and in doing randori with them I felt exposed. The entries that I am used to getting with the beginners were much harder to feel with the experienced Judokas. Granted, these are people that have been doing Judo 10+ years so this is expected but I felt I was making more mistakes in posture, grips, and entries. When they were coming more regularly I had been making great strides in my Judo...far greater than I ever expected when I started coming to this club. However, when doing randori with the white belts they give up so much when it comes to balance that I feel I can throw them at will, and one guy is over 100lbs and far stronger than me.

Can anyone give me suggestions as how I can make the best of this situation so that I don't develop bad habits or a sense of complacency? I'm not saying they are bad. They are just beginners. They have made great strides in the past six months....but it's still six months. Heck, at two years I'm technically a beginner too. I'm just a beginner with two years experience over their six months. Would it be helpful if I worked on different techniques that I'm not good with or should I take this opportunity to work on my better throws with lesser skilled training partners?

Hi Dave

Sorry its taken a while to respond, i didnt want to say anything until others may have suggested some ideas, one of the things i would suggest is to entor some shiai, cut your teeth with people your own size and grade, the more you do, the more you will now how well you are dong, another suggestion is to get around a bit, put yourself about at other dojo, on different nights to get some fresh blood, get some chances to try out your techniques on peopl ewho do not know your tokui waza etc.

Then it comes down to the same old thing, which is practice practice practice.