Following the injury to my Toe 4 weeks ago I decided I had rested enough and finally made it to Yoshin Ryu for some training as Dorking JC is still closed until the 8th September. As always I was accompanied by Oli.
Yoshin Ryu is located in an old church but is a permanent Dojo with matted floors, changing areas and showers and even a nice reception area where you can watch the lesson taking place via a nice TV up on a wall.
Oli and I were greeted by the head instructor and shown in to the changing rooms which are oddly situated across the matted floor area, so shoes had to be removed. Once we were changed we were told that our warm up would consist of a game of football. Whilst the game was going on we were joined by more and more guys who nearly all were wearing Black Belts. The football match seemed to be going on quite a long time and I’d be lying if I didn’t say that at this point I wasn’t a little worried that maybe I had made a mistake coming here and that maybe we would not be doing any Judo at all.
Once the match was finally over, my team losing 10-9, the head Instructor asked if we were all suitably warmed up which to be fair we all were. We then proceeded to go through some stretches before we partnered up for some Uchi Komi. We changed partners a couple of times, whilst still doing Uchi Komi before we then were then told to pick a throw we wanted to do and then to practice various set ups and entries to this one throw. I decided to pick O-uchi-gari and drilled various set ups such as Tai-otoshi, and Ko-uchi-gari. My Partner, a black belt, picked Drop Seoi-nage as his throw but rather kindly he dropped very slowly allowing me a very soft ukemi.
On to Newaza and I was paired up with the same black belt. I pulled guard and was able to keep him from passing my guard by using my legs and my hips to great effect. I even managed to catch him in a san-gaku-jime but was unable to finish him from this position. He did finally manage to pass my guard and got an osaekomi on me but matte was called shortly afterwards.
My next opponent was another black belt and again I pulled guard and did manage a nice flower sweep in to Tate-shiho-gatame. He did manage to turn to his side to escape this but I then took his back and worked for some sort of collar choke. I thought I had him but he refused to tap and eventually he managed to get out and again matte was called.
At this point I was pretty tired; I had just had two hard rolls with Black Belts and wasn’t feeling too strong anymore. The next couple of rolls went the same way, we knee wrestled, they got me down and passed my guard and either pinned or subbed me with a cross collar choke. Of course being submitted by Black belts is nothing to be ashamed of but I know I could of put up a better fight had I had more gas in the tank.
Randori was next and luckily half the class had to sit out due to mat space so I got a quick breather. They guys I did end up sparring with took it pretty easy on me, which I was grateful for, especially as at this point I was physically unable to put up much of a fight. As I mentioned when I attended Westcroft, I was dominated by grips again. Of course I was by far the lowest grade attending so it’s to be expected but I must work on ways of defending against dominant grips and learn to recognise when I am being out in an inferior position by my opponents grip.
After 3 rounds of Randori of which I only performed one throw successfully, a sloppy Tani-otoshi, the lesson came to an end.
Oli and I chatted briefly to the guys afterwards and it seems that we had missed a Brian Jacks visit by only 1 month which means if I hadn’t had broken my toe I might have been able to have taken part in a lesson by him, which as per my previous post is a real shame.
On reflection the standard at the club was very good and it was a friendly and welcoming atmosphere. I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending this club and I will be back there myself next week.
Friday, 26 August 2011
Friday, 5 August 2011
Injuries and thoughts
My summer training plans have been ruined somewhat by a freak accident that occurred to me the weekend after my end of term Judo lesson which resulted in me breaking my second toe on my right foot. I would like to report that this happened in Judo Randori or whilst someone attempted an ankle lock in BJJ but alas that is far from the truth. The truth is that in the early hours of Sunday morning my wife and I were woken by the loud meow’s of my blind Cat Freddie. Freddie often does this when he cannot locate my other cat, Frankie. The reason he wants to locate Frankie is so that he can beat him up.
Well Frankie was clearly hiding and not making a sound and as such Freddie’s meows got louder and louder. Fearing that these loud meows would wake my 5 month old daughter, Florence, I leapt out of bed and ran downstairs to make him quiet. Unfortunately, with the lights switched off I fell down the stairs and broke my toe.
Just to rub salt in the wounds I have been advised to lay off the weights for 10 days to allow my suspected tendinitis in my wrists to calm down which means I cannot run nor do any upper body exercises, which has left me nothing more than a keyboard Martial Artist for now.
I have therefore been trailing YouTube for some training advice and have been reading lots of Martial Arts related forums and have been thinking about the type of Martial Artists who have or continue to inspire me.
I’ll start with my old Wing Chun instructor Kevin Chan. I started Wing Chun when I was about 19 years old and at this point Kevin only had two clubs, one in Portsmouth, where he lives, and one in Croydon. I remember even back then that Kevin was already cross training in Maui Thai and would often take trips to Thailand to supplement his training and would then incorporate some of the leg techniques into the Wing Chun that he taught us. I guess it wasn’t until I quit Wing Chun that I truly understood what an impressive and inspirational Martial Artist Kevin was and I’ll explain why. Kevin’s Wing Chun Empire had grown exponentially, with clubs covering most of the south London area. But unlike a lot of other traditional Martial Artists, Kevin was not too proud to don a white belt and start training as a beginner in another martial art, namely BJJ. I’m not sure what Kevin’s reasons where for training in BJJ but I can guess that as Wing Chun is focused on stand up techniques he clearly felt he needed to know what to do should a fight go to the ground. Now not only did Kevin win numerous competitions in BJJ but he eventually received his Black Belt from Mauricao Gomes. Kevin now has a couple of Gracie Barra affiliated BJJ clubs where he teaches, in addition to the still expanding Wing Chun clubs that he runs and for these reasons he is truly a modern day Martial Artist and a true Master.
Next up is Brian Jacks, a Judoka who was the first Britain to win a medal in the world Championships, taking a bronze in Salt Lake City in 1967 and also gained a second bronze in the 1972 Olympics. Now I wasn’t born until 1972 so you might wonder why he would inspire me. Well it wasn’t until he started competing in the BBC TV show Superstars that he achieved real fame, winning it 4 times. I remember as a young kid cheering him on as he went on to win nearly every event that he entered. He was especially remembered for that famous gym test dual with another hero of mine Daley Thompson, the 2 x Olympic gold medal winner in the decathlon and probably Britain’s greatest ever Athlete. Jacks still holds the world record for the number of Dips and Squat thrusts he was able to do in a minute.
I had the pleasure of meeting Brian Jacks a couple of times. The first time was when I did Judo as a child and he was the club president and would occasionally pop in and give a lesson. Then a few years later he gave a Judo demonstration at a holiday camp that my dad had taken me to one summer and I was able to get his autograph.
So Brian Jacks was a hero of mine because he showed that Martial Artists could be the fittest and strongest of athletes and because Judo was the first Martial art that I studied.
When I am not training, one of my favourite pastimes is watching, reading or talking about MMA (Mixed Martial Arts). The premier MMA organisation is called the UFC which stands for the Ultimate Fighting Championships. The UFC was established in 1993 and the early events had few rules, no gloves and was marketed as a Style versus style tournament which was held in an octagon shaped cage. These early events were dominated by a rather slim built, unimpressive physical looking specimen called Royce Gracie who was a black belt in Gracie Jiu-jitsu which has since essentially become more commonly known as BJJ. Royce won 3 events by taking much larger opponents to the ground, where there stand up skills were neutralized, and submitting them either via a choke or a joint lock. I remember buying these early UFC videos from HMV in Wimbledon and rather luckily they had already released the first 3 so I had a feast in one night watching all three. At this point in my Martial Arts training I had dismissed the likes of Judo as an effective Martial Art and thought that Kung-Fu was the most lethal form of self defense. I was very surprised then when this little man used techniques very similar to those found in Judo to win all his fights often against Kung-Fu, Karate & Kick boxing experts.
Now fast forward eighteen years and all the top MMA fighters have skills on the ground and on their feet. They are, if you like, a Martial Arts equivalent of a Decathlete as they can do everything very well indeed and just like a Decathlete will probably have an event that they excel in so does most of the top MMA fighters. Let’s take George St Pierre (GSP) as an example of a modern day MMA fighter. He has a 3rd dan Black belt in Kyokushin Karate and a black belt in BJJ. He also has some seriously good wrestling skills, so much so that he has considered trying out for the Canadian Olympic Wrestling team for next year’s Olympics games. Added to those skills he also trains extensively in boxing and Maui Thai and he comes across as a bloody nice bloke and a true gentleman and champion.
Royce Gracie at the age of 39 made a comeback against the then UFC Welterweight champion Matt Hughes. Unfortunately for Royce he hadn’t evolved like other MMA fighters and Royce still relied on the one thing he did exceptionally well, his BJJ. Matt Hughes was not only able to neutralize Royce’s ground skills but he almost finished Royce with a Kimura before finally stopping him via ground and pound in the first round. I think this fight showed how far MMA had evolved and Matt Hughes was then beaten just as easily by GSP, who does not appear to have any weakness in his game.
So Royce Gracie is the reason I wanted to explore grappling again and is the reason that so many people are now training BJJ but GSP, in my opinion is one of the finest Martial Artists that ever lived so I salute you both.
Well Frankie was clearly hiding and not making a sound and as such Freddie’s meows got louder and louder. Fearing that these loud meows would wake my 5 month old daughter, Florence, I leapt out of bed and ran downstairs to make him quiet. Unfortunately, with the lights switched off I fell down the stairs and broke my toe.
Just to rub salt in the wounds I have been advised to lay off the weights for 10 days to allow my suspected tendinitis in my wrists to calm down which means I cannot run nor do any upper body exercises, which has left me nothing more than a keyboard Martial Artist for now.
I have therefore been trailing YouTube for some training advice and have been reading lots of Martial Arts related forums and have been thinking about the type of Martial Artists who have or continue to inspire me.
I’ll start with my old Wing Chun instructor Kevin Chan. I started Wing Chun when I was about 19 years old and at this point Kevin only had two clubs, one in Portsmouth, where he lives, and one in Croydon. I remember even back then that Kevin was already cross training in Maui Thai and would often take trips to Thailand to supplement his training and would then incorporate some of the leg techniques into the Wing Chun that he taught us. I guess it wasn’t until I quit Wing Chun that I truly understood what an impressive and inspirational Martial Artist Kevin was and I’ll explain why. Kevin’s Wing Chun Empire had grown exponentially, with clubs covering most of the south London area. But unlike a lot of other traditional Martial Artists, Kevin was not too proud to don a white belt and start training as a beginner in another martial art, namely BJJ. I’m not sure what Kevin’s reasons where for training in BJJ but I can guess that as Wing Chun is focused on stand up techniques he clearly felt he needed to know what to do should a fight go to the ground. Now not only did Kevin win numerous competitions in BJJ but he eventually received his Black Belt from Mauricao Gomes. Kevin now has a couple of Gracie Barra affiliated BJJ clubs where he teaches, in addition to the still expanding Wing Chun clubs that he runs and for these reasons he is truly a modern day Martial Artist and a true Master.
Next up is Brian Jacks, a Judoka who was the first Britain to win a medal in the world Championships, taking a bronze in Salt Lake City in 1967 and also gained a second bronze in the 1972 Olympics. Now I wasn’t born until 1972 so you might wonder why he would inspire me. Well it wasn’t until he started competing in the BBC TV show Superstars that he achieved real fame, winning it 4 times. I remember as a young kid cheering him on as he went on to win nearly every event that he entered. He was especially remembered for that famous gym test dual with another hero of mine Daley Thompson, the 2 x Olympic gold medal winner in the decathlon and probably Britain’s greatest ever Athlete. Jacks still holds the world record for the number of Dips and Squat thrusts he was able to do in a minute.
I had the pleasure of meeting Brian Jacks a couple of times. The first time was when I did Judo as a child and he was the club president and would occasionally pop in and give a lesson. Then a few years later he gave a Judo demonstration at a holiday camp that my dad had taken me to one summer and I was able to get his autograph.
So Brian Jacks was a hero of mine because he showed that Martial Artists could be the fittest and strongest of athletes and because Judo was the first Martial art that I studied.
When I am not training, one of my favourite pastimes is watching, reading or talking about MMA (Mixed Martial Arts). The premier MMA organisation is called the UFC which stands for the Ultimate Fighting Championships. The UFC was established in 1993 and the early events had few rules, no gloves and was marketed as a Style versus style tournament which was held in an octagon shaped cage. These early events were dominated by a rather slim built, unimpressive physical looking specimen called Royce Gracie who was a black belt in Gracie Jiu-jitsu which has since essentially become more commonly known as BJJ. Royce won 3 events by taking much larger opponents to the ground, where there stand up skills were neutralized, and submitting them either via a choke or a joint lock. I remember buying these early UFC videos from HMV in Wimbledon and rather luckily they had already released the first 3 so I had a feast in one night watching all three. At this point in my Martial Arts training I had dismissed the likes of Judo as an effective Martial Art and thought that Kung-Fu was the most lethal form of self defense. I was very surprised then when this little man used techniques very similar to those found in Judo to win all his fights often against Kung-Fu, Karate & Kick boxing experts.
Now fast forward eighteen years and all the top MMA fighters have skills on the ground and on their feet. They are, if you like, a Martial Arts equivalent of a Decathlete as they can do everything very well indeed and just like a Decathlete will probably have an event that they excel in so does most of the top MMA fighters. Let’s take George St Pierre (GSP) as an example of a modern day MMA fighter. He has a 3rd dan Black belt in Kyokushin Karate and a black belt in BJJ. He also has some seriously good wrestling skills, so much so that he has considered trying out for the Canadian Olympic Wrestling team for next year’s Olympics games. Added to those skills he also trains extensively in boxing and Maui Thai and he comes across as a bloody nice bloke and a true gentleman and champion.
Royce Gracie at the age of 39 made a comeback against the then UFC Welterweight champion Matt Hughes. Unfortunately for Royce he hadn’t evolved like other MMA fighters and Royce still relied on the one thing he did exceptionally well, his BJJ. Matt Hughes was not only able to neutralize Royce’s ground skills but he almost finished Royce with a Kimura before finally stopping him via ground and pound in the first round. I think this fight showed how far MMA had evolved and Matt Hughes was then beaten just as easily by GSP, who does not appear to have any weakness in his game.
So Royce Gracie is the reason I wanted to explore grappling again and is the reason that so many people are now training BJJ but GSP, in my opinion is one of the finest Martial Artists that ever lived so I salute you both.
Friday, 22 July 2011
End of Term
Not much to write following last night’s lesson as with it being the end of term lesson we generally don’t have a structured lesson and last night there were only 4 seniors on the mat. Quite a shame really as someone came in to watch the class, which is the first time anyone has actually come in to watch a class since I’ve been here. It was explained to him that what he was watching was not the normal class and that the club would now be closed until September. I hope he does come back.
I have decided to have a week off from Judo next week but after that I will attend Westcroft or maybe Yoshin Ryu in Coulsdon and will likely be accompanied by Oli. I’m also hoping that my old sparring partner Richie makes it down from Liverpool sometime in the summer and I have promised him a BJJ class at Nova Forca for his efforts.
I’m hoping by having next week off that the pain I have been getting in both my wrists and my left elbow may subside. I’m assuming the wrist pain is some sort of repetitive strain/tendinitis and have been dosing up on Ibuprofen. I’m also laying off the free weights for a couple of weeks which means I have been running a bit more this week and have already seen the benefits as I have been getting closer to the times I was recording when I was training for the marathon.
On another note, I hit 39 next week. Yikes, where did those years go?
I have decided to have a week off from Judo next week but after that I will attend Westcroft or maybe Yoshin Ryu in Coulsdon and will likely be accompanied by Oli. I’m also hoping that my old sparring partner Richie makes it down from Liverpool sometime in the summer and I have promised him a BJJ class at Nova Forca for his efforts.
I’m hoping by having next week off that the pain I have been getting in both my wrists and my left elbow may subside. I’m assuming the wrist pain is some sort of repetitive strain/tendinitis and have been dosing up on Ibuprofen. I’m also laying off the free weights for a couple of weeks which means I have been running a bit more this week and have already seen the benefits as I have been getting closer to the times I was recording when I was training for the marathon.
On another note, I hit 39 next week. Yikes, where did those years go?
Tuesday, 19 July 2011
half butterfly guard sweep
Just thought i'd add this as its a very simple and effective way of sweeping someone from the half guard and something I must try next class
Friday, 15 July 2011
Sumi-Gaeshi
Before the class tonight both Oli and I were discussing ways of increasing the profile of the club especially with respect to getting more seniors through the door. Inez then walked in and has the exact same discussion with us both so I’m glad I’m not alone in realising we need more students.
Thankfully Ryan was present tonight but it appears that he is only managing to attend every other week at the moment. He was the first to congratulate me as he walked in as he noticed my shiny new, un-blood stained orange belt. I told Ryan that I had recently seen him on YouTube as I was watching a video of Tim getting his BJJ black belt on Nova Forca. Its traditional at this club for the recipient of a new belt to get whipped by the other students and seeing as Tim was getting his black belt he had to take the whipping with nothing but his boxer shorts to protect him. I was very grateful for the firm handshake I got from Peter for my orange belt and was glad we did not copy BJJ in this regard.
The throw for tonight’s lesson would be Sumi-gaeshi, a throw we have been shown before and a throw that I often try in Randori but very rarely am successful with.
When I was shown it last time it was with Tori gripping uke over his back and almost grabbing his belt. It was a good throw to do against someone who was bending over and being defensive or against someone who was maybe attempting a leg grab. Tonight we were shown how to do this throw with the normal collar and sleeve grip, first as a direct attack and then as a counter to Tai-otoshi. I was paired with Inez at this point and she proved to be an excellent Uke and really helped with my technique so that I was able to perform the throw and then follow straight in to Tate-shiho-gatame.
Unfortunately as this throw favours a taller person, when she attempted the over the back belt grip, she proceeded to pile drive my head straight in to the mat. For the sake of my head and much to my relief, she decided that maybe that version of the throw was not for her, at least not against someone over a foot taller than her anyway, and decided not to attempt it again.
We drilled this for quite some time which was refreshing as often we are shown 2-3 throws and never really feel like we practice them enough. However after 20 minutes of drilling the same throw, albeit with different grip variations, I felt like I could possibly pull this off in randori.
We moved on to some Newaza and kept with the same partners. Peter told us to flow from one technique to another and conscious that Inez always remarks that I use to much strength I tried to use little to none at all. This actually proved to be a really good roll with Inez as we both freely moved from one technique to another and by being loose and not using strength I felt I was able to react better to what she was trying to do and the whole roll probably looked very technical.
Next I was paired with Ryan and if my roll with Inez was gentle then this was completely the opposite. As mentioned before, Ryan is a BJJ blue belt and as such his ground game is pretty good. I spent most of my roll with Ryan trying to stop him passing my guard and was actually quite pleased that I managed to do so. I really enjoy the Newaza aspect of Judo and do wish they would give us longer to roll with each person before calling matte.
Peter then stood us up for some randori and Ryan and I continued our battle on our feet. Peter remarked that this was Randori and not shiai as we were both going for it a little too much. Of course there is no malice between Ryan and I, we are just quite evenly matched both in skill and physically and therefore we often reach a stalemate when we spar.
By the time we changed and I was paired up with Oli, Peter told us to go throw 4 throw. Oli was clearly working on his left handed throws and to be honest I was left completely flummoxed by them. The technique he had the most success with was a left handed Tai-otoshi. It’ll be interesting to see how he fairs when we go back to Westcroft in a couple of weeks time.
We then went on to some situational Newaza, where we took turns starting on our back or with Tori in our guard and then Peter went on to show us some nice broken variations of Yoko-shiho-gatame and kami-shiho-gatame.
Thankfully Ryan was present tonight but it appears that he is only managing to attend every other week at the moment. He was the first to congratulate me as he walked in as he noticed my shiny new, un-blood stained orange belt. I told Ryan that I had recently seen him on YouTube as I was watching a video of Tim getting his BJJ black belt on Nova Forca. Its traditional at this club for the recipient of a new belt to get whipped by the other students and seeing as Tim was getting his black belt he had to take the whipping with nothing but his boxer shorts to protect him. I was very grateful for the firm handshake I got from Peter for my orange belt and was glad we did not copy BJJ in this regard.
The throw for tonight’s lesson would be Sumi-gaeshi, a throw we have been shown before and a throw that I often try in Randori but very rarely am successful with.
When I was shown it last time it was with Tori gripping uke over his back and almost grabbing his belt. It was a good throw to do against someone who was bending over and being defensive or against someone who was maybe attempting a leg grab. Tonight we were shown how to do this throw with the normal collar and sleeve grip, first as a direct attack and then as a counter to Tai-otoshi. I was paired with Inez at this point and she proved to be an excellent Uke and really helped with my technique so that I was able to perform the throw and then follow straight in to Tate-shiho-gatame.
Unfortunately as this throw favours a taller person, when she attempted the over the back belt grip, she proceeded to pile drive my head straight in to the mat. For the sake of my head and much to my relief, she decided that maybe that version of the throw was not for her, at least not against someone over a foot taller than her anyway, and decided not to attempt it again.
We drilled this for quite some time which was refreshing as often we are shown 2-3 throws and never really feel like we practice them enough. However after 20 minutes of drilling the same throw, albeit with different grip variations, I felt like I could possibly pull this off in randori.
We moved on to some Newaza and kept with the same partners. Peter told us to flow from one technique to another and conscious that Inez always remarks that I use to much strength I tried to use little to none at all. This actually proved to be a really good roll with Inez as we both freely moved from one technique to another and by being loose and not using strength I felt I was able to react better to what she was trying to do and the whole roll probably looked very technical.
Next I was paired with Ryan and if my roll with Inez was gentle then this was completely the opposite. As mentioned before, Ryan is a BJJ blue belt and as such his ground game is pretty good. I spent most of my roll with Ryan trying to stop him passing my guard and was actually quite pleased that I managed to do so. I really enjoy the Newaza aspect of Judo and do wish they would give us longer to roll with each person before calling matte.
Peter then stood us up for some randori and Ryan and I continued our battle on our feet. Peter remarked that this was Randori and not shiai as we were both going for it a little too much. Of course there is no malice between Ryan and I, we are just quite evenly matched both in skill and physically and therefore we often reach a stalemate when we spar.
By the time we changed and I was paired up with Oli, Peter told us to go throw 4 throw. Oli was clearly working on his left handed throws and to be honest I was left completely flummoxed by them. The technique he had the most success with was a left handed Tai-otoshi. It’ll be interesting to see how he fairs when we go back to Westcroft in a couple of weeks time.
We then went on to some situational Newaza, where we took turns starting on our back or with Tori in our guard and then Peter went on to show us some nice broken variations of Yoko-shiho-gatame and kami-shiho-gatame.
Monday, 11 July 2011
Fighting or Playing? The Martial Art vs Sport Debate
I was at work the other day and was walking back to my desk with a nice cup of tea and as I walked past this new guy’s desk I noticed he had Google open. Now there’s nothing wrong with using Google at work but what drew my attention was what he was Googling and that was Jiu-jitsu in Guildford. As I don’t work directly with this new guy I’ve never really spoken to him before but I had to just stop dead in my tracks and speak to him about this as I was very excited at the prospect of someone in my office being a fellow grappler.
So I asked him if the type of Jiu-Jitsu he was looking for was Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and he said yes but not specifically for him, more so for his girlfriend but he would accompany her anyway. So I told him of a website he could go to that has links to all the BJJ clubs in the UK and when I got back to my desk I swiftly emailed him. As there aren’t any BJJ clubs in Guildford and he wasn’t willing to travel far I suggested Judo to him and gave him links to a couple of Judo clubs in the Guildford area.
A week passed and I bumped in to him in the gym at work so I asked him if he had found somewhere. It turns out that his girlfriend really wanted self defence so has taken up Taekwondo. I could see that I would be wasting my time trying to explain what a good self defence Judo is, especially compared to Taekwondo, so I just said fair enough and I haven’t mentioned it to him since.
Now, why am I writing about this? Well I hear a lot of ill informed people discuss Martial Arts and quite often you hear people say that Boxing, Judo, BJJ, Kickboxing etc are all sport orientated and not really for self defence whereas Aikido, Wing Chun, Karate, flip flan foo (that last one was made up btw) is the real deadly stuff that will protect you on the streets and in fact it is so deadly that they cannot spar as they would kill each other. I recently came across this piece By Neil Ohlenkamp, which explains the difference between the training methods adopted by different Martial Arts and I think he says perfectly what I and a lot of other Martial Artists believe.
Many people think of Judo and Taekwondo as sports because they are included along with other major sports in Olympic competition. Boxing, wrestling, Judo, taekwondo, and kickboxing are examples of martial sports. I often hear martial artists who use the term "sport" as if referring to a game with no usefulness. The implication is that a sport is only for "play" and cannot be effective for self defense, fighting or combat. Many martial artists think that the distinction between sport and martial art is that martial artists train for real life.
Actually the distinction is more complex and rather surprising. In discussing it I will make generalizations that may not apply to the way you train in your sport or martial art. However I hope to give you a new way to look at the potential value of sports principles for martial arts training.
One of the primary differences between martial sports and arts is in the value of the training methods. Because of their alleged danger or lethality, many martial arts engage in artificial and even counter-productive training which involves "pulling" techniques, modifying the point of contact, and adding in a precautionary element of movement that, rather than training the body, can inhibit its natural action and the ultimate conclusion of a technique. Slow, careful, non-contact training is not an effective approach to prepare for actual fighting situations that require the opposite reactions. Typifying this approach is a student who falsely equates the ability to break boards with the ability to punch a person in the face. As another example, I have never seen realistic training in throat strikes or eye gouges in any martial arts class, even though these are often recommended for self defense. The teaching generally done for these techniques helps students to understand what to do, but does not provide effective results for fast, reflexive and accurate application of these techniques against an unwilling opponent in real life combat.
Sport, by removing some of the potential dangers, achieves the opposite. That is, sport more typically produces natural, fast, reflexive movement with full power application, achieving a result against a struggling opponent who is also utilizing full power while engaging in strategic and tactical resistance using all of his or her resources and training. Techniques that don't work are soon abandoned, and successful skills are honed against different attackers under a variety of conditions. Maintaining control in various combat situations, both in attack and defense, is difficult when faced with the unpredictable nature of an opponent's efforts, but facing these situations in contest prepares you for similar situations. Each opponent in competition is operating at the limit of physical and psychological skill. By pushing that limit contestants are continually realizing and expanding their potential.
Sometimes the "combat" arts substitute intellectual perception, a highly subjective and deceptive frame of reference, for genuine training of the body and mind. Some martial arts don't train effectively for self defense and combat because they can't train for combat without severe risk to training partners. Many martial arts have instead adopted highly stylized, ritualistic, and even dysfunctional training methods. Ironically, martial sports may provide the superior training in effective combat techniques because martial arts can't be practiced in a real life way without injury.
In martial sports, one purpose of competition is to take the place of the older shinken shobu (life-and-death fights) in developing technique, knowledge, and character. You never see yourself so clearly as when you face your own death. Competition can provide a safe, controlled glimpse at this kind of defeat. Fighting spirit can be developed only through fighting. Surely it is not the same as the battlefield, but it serves a similar purpose, and it is closer to a combat situation than any other form of training.
Of course this can go wrong. Winning and losing can become too important and start to pervert the training process. The ultimate goal should not be the winning of medals. Using sport competition as a metaphor for real fighting can be quite different from playing it as a game. Matches, along with free practice and sparring, are simply different methods for training the mind and body to deal with the adversity of fighting situations.
Just as non-competitive martial arts training may not provide the benefits of competition, training for sport competition may not provide the full scope of self defense training. Martial sports often include non-competitive components. For example, competition is only a part of the Judo curriculum, and Jigoro Kano, the founder of Judo, was very concerned about preserving those self defense techniques that could not be used with full force in competition. However, Judo remains a remarkably effective self defense training, even after the development of other modern "combat" methods, and even when Judo is practiced today largely as a sport. Jigoro Kano applied modern sport training methodology to the traditional koryu jujutsu and found that it produced a better combat art, which has proven itself again and again over the last 120 years.
Although martial arts and sports both have loftier goals, it is still a fact that many people train in martial arts primarily for self-defense. For those who have never used sport training methods, or those who have never explored traditional bujutsu training, it is easy to discount the effectiveness of the other. As martial artists we should continually seek opportunities to challenge ourselves by examining the weaknesses in our training and keeping our minds open to other methods. I encourage you to discover for yourself how "playing" with a partner in sparring or free practice, or competing against an opponent in contest, can be an effective method of training for self defense.
So I asked him if the type of Jiu-Jitsu he was looking for was Brazilian Jiu-jitsu and he said yes but not specifically for him, more so for his girlfriend but he would accompany her anyway. So I told him of a website he could go to that has links to all the BJJ clubs in the UK and when I got back to my desk I swiftly emailed him. As there aren’t any BJJ clubs in Guildford and he wasn’t willing to travel far I suggested Judo to him and gave him links to a couple of Judo clubs in the Guildford area.
A week passed and I bumped in to him in the gym at work so I asked him if he had found somewhere. It turns out that his girlfriend really wanted self defence so has taken up Taekwondo. I could see that I would be wasting my time trying to explain what a good self defence Judo is, especially compared to Taekwondo, so I just said fair enough and I haven’t mentioned it to him since.
Now, why am I writing about this? Well I hear a lot of ill informed people discuss Martial Arts and quite often you hear people say that Boxing, Judo, BJJ, Kickboxing etc are all sport orientated and not really for self defence whereas Aikido, Wing Chun, Karate, flip flan foo (that last one was made up btw) is the real deadly stuff that will protect you on the streets and in fact it is so deadly that they cannot spar as they would kill each other. I recently came across this piece By Neil Ohlenkamp, which explains the difference between the training methods adopted by different Martial Arts and I think he says perfectly what I and a lot of other Martial Artists believe.
Many people think of Judo and Taekwondo as sports because they are included along with other major sports in Olympic competition. Boxing, wrestling, Judo, taekwondo, and kickboxing are examples of martial sports. I often hear martial artists who use the term "sport" as if referring to a game with no usefulness. The implication is that a sport is only for "play" and cannot be effective for self defense, fighting or combat. Many martial artists think that the distinction between sport and martial art is that martial artists train for real life.
Actually the distinction is more complex and rather surprising. In discussing it I will make generalizations that may not apply to the way you train in your sport or martial art. However I hope to give you a new way to look at the potential value of sports principles for martial arts training.
One of the primary differences between martial sports and arts is in the value of the training methods. Because of their alleged danger or lethality, many martial arts engage in artificial and even counter-productive training which involves "pulling" techniques, modifying the point of contact, and adding in a precautionary element of movement that, rather than training the body, can inhibit its natural action and the ultimate conclusion of a technique. Slow, careful, non-contact training is not an effective approach to prepare for actual fighting situations that require the opposite reactions. Typifying this approach is a student who falsely equates the ability to break boards with the ability to punch a person in the face. As another example, I have never seen realistic training in throat strikes or eye gouges in any martial arts class, even though these are often recommended for self defense. The teaching generally done for these techniques helps students to understand what to do, but does not provide effective results for fast, reflexive and accurate application of these techniques against an unwilling opponent in real life combat.
Sport, by removing some of the potential dangers, achieves the opposite. That is, sport more typically produces natural, fast, reflexive movement with full power application, achieving a result against a struggling opponent who is also utilizing full power while engaging in strategic and tactical resistance using all of his or her resources and training. Techniques that don't work are soon abandoned, and successful skills are honed against different attackers under a variety of conditions. Maintaining control in various combat situations, both in attack and defense, is difficult when faced with the unpredictable nature of an opponent's efforts, but facing these situations in contest prepares you for similar situations. Each opponent in competition is operating at the limit of physical and psychological skill. By pushing that limit contestants are continually realizing and expanding their potential.
Sometimes the "combat" arts substitute intellectual perception, a highly subjective and deceptive frame of reference, for genuine training of the body and mind. Some martial arts don't train effectively for self defense and combat because they can't train for combat without severe risk to training partners. Many martial arts have instead adopted highly stylized, ritualistic, and even dysfunctional training methods. Ironically, martial sports may provide the superior training in effective combat techniques because martial arts can't be practiced in a real life way without injury.
In martial sports, one purpose of competition is to take the place of the older shinken shobu (life-and-death fights) in developing technique, knowledge, and character. You never see yourself so clearly as when you face your own death. Competition can provide a safe, controlled glimpse at this kind of defeat. Fighting spirit can be developed only through fighting. Surely it is not the same as the battlefield, but it serves a similar purpose, and it is closer to a combat situation than any other form of training.
Of course this can go wrong. Winning and losing can become too important and start to pervert the training process. The ultimate goal should not be the winning of medals. Using sport competition as a metaphor for real fighting can be quite different from playing it as a game. Matches, along with free practice and sparring, are simply different methods for training the mind and body to deal with the adversity of fighting situations.
Just as non-competitive martial arts training may not provide the benefits of competition, training for sport competition may not provide the full scope of self defense training. Martial sports often include non-competitive components. For example, competition is only a part of the Judo curriculum, and Jigoro Kano, the founder of Judo, was very concerned about preserving those self defense techniques that could not be used with full force in competition. However, Judo remains a remarkably effective self defense training, even after the development of other modern "combat" methods, and even when Judo is practiced today largely as a sport. Jigoro Kano applied modern sport training methodology to the traditional koryu jujutsu and found that it produced a better combat art, which has proven itself again and again over the last 120 years.
Although martial arts and sports both have loftier goals, it is still a fact that many people train in martial arts primarily for self-defense. For those who have never used sport training methods, or those who have never explored traditional bujutsu training, it is easy to discount the effectiveness of the other. As martial artists we should continually seek opportunities to challenge ourselves by examining the weaknesses in our training and keeping our minds open to other methods. I encourage you to discover for yourself how "playing" with a partner in sparring or free practice, or competing against an opponent in contest, can be an effective method of training for self defense.
4th Kyu
I got to class a few minutes early tonight and watched the juniors finish up their training. Judo is definitely a great Martial Art for kids to start with especially as there are no kicks or punches to contend with. It’s definitely something I would like Florence to try when she gets a little older.
Yet another poor turnout for the seniors with only Oli and myself making it along with Peter and Graeme, although Graeme’s son David joined us again.
After we were warmed up we paired up for some Newaza and we all sparred with each other. One of the techniques that I managed to pull off against both Oli and David was Turnover in to Tate-shiho-gatame, which was particularly satisfying as it was one of the techniques that I still needed to perform for my grading. Following the Newaza Peter and Graeme decided I should finish up what was left of my orange belt grading. As I did the bulk of my grading a couple of weeks ago there wasn’t much left to do this evening and within 15 minutes Peter had presented me with a nice new orange belt.
Only a couple more lessons left until the club closes for the summer months and Oli and I have already decided that we will be training at Westcroft Judo club over this period. Hopefully this means that when the club opens again in September I can hit the ground running and concentrate on my getting my green belt, the first of the darker coloured belts and considered by most as the start of the senior belts.
Yet another poor turnout for the seniors with only Oli and myself making it along with Peter and Graeme, although Graeme’s son David joined us again.
After we were warmed up we paired up for some Newaza and we all sparred with each other. One of the techniques that I managed to pull off against both Oli and David was Turnover in to Tate-shiho-gatame, which was particularly satisfying as it was one of the techniques that I still needed to perform for my grading. Following the Newaza Peter and Graeme decided I should finish up what was left of my orange belt grading. As I did the bulk of my grading a couple of weeks ago there wasn’t much left to do this evening and within 15 minutes Peter had presented me with a nice new orange belt.
Only a couple more lessons left until the club closes for the summer months and Oli and I have already decided that we will be training at Westcroft Judo club over this period. Hopefully this means that when the club opens again in September I can hit the ground running and concentrate on my getting my green belt, the first of the darker coloured belts and considered by most as the start of the senior belts.
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