I’m often fascinated by the number of Judoka who complain about BJJ rules – and the number of BJJ’er who complain about Judo rules…

Judoka: BJJ doesn’t give enough points to effective throws and/or takedowns.

BJJ’ers: Judo doesn’t allow enough time on the mat for an effective ground game.

But as I see it, Chess has entirely forgotten the use of a .45 in settling the winner of the game. (Yeah, I think I saw a few of you raise your eyebrows at that comment!) Rules define what sport, game, activity you’re engaged in. Take the rules of Judo… make a few judicious changes, and what do you have? BJJ, of course. And visa versa.

There’s enough problems with the rules without trying to match them to what other sports are using. Judoka should be concerned with the rules of Judo, not BJJ; and likewise with BJJ’ers.

BJJ’ers can do very well in Judo tournaments – if they learn Judo. Ditto with Judoka who wish to learn BJJ to enter BJJ tournaments. But don’t give excuses for not winning a BJJ tournament if you’re a Judoka with superb throwing skills, and a so-so ground game.

The rules of Judo have evolved in ways that aren’t entirely perfect, although I grant that no matter what set of rules you use, you’re bound to disappoint someone. How many people realize that Judo used to use a ‘best out of three’ Ippons in competition? And think about this for a moment, do you think you’d improve the attacking aspects of Judo should we re-adopt such a rule? Judoka wouldn’t be afraid of using Yoko Guruma as a counter-attack anymore – and would be willing to take more risk with attacking. Think too, of the spectator response – you’d have far more exciting matches… instead of the tremendously defensive matches, you’d have exciting and active attack, with beautiful throws.

Yoko Guruma is one beautiful throw (and one that illustrates underlying principles of Judo so perfectly!) that has virtually disappeared in competition because of the rules… for even if you do it perfectly, a referee who was out of position could call the score against you – and with a single Ippon being the measure of winning or defeat, this throw is simply too dangerous for Judoka who want to win to use…

Other changes in the rules that backfired was when ‘Kinsa’ (minor advantages) was moved from the referee’s mind, to the scoreboard. Judoka would note that they were winning by a koka, then merely try to ’sit’ on that score… so the next evolution in rules had to take place – ‘Non-combativity’ rules… which, of course, provoked Judoka into creating attacks that didn’t provide openings for counter-attacks… so we had to move to the next rule: ‘False Attacks’.

This whole sequence could have been avoided by moving Kinsa back where it belongs… in the referee’s mind. Penalty rules, too, have gotten to the point where many matches are decided not on good Judo – but on arbitrary penalties. Let Judo skills decide the winner – not our concept of what a match is supposed to look like.

But perhaps I merely long for the good ole days?

 

Combinations are popular and well-known in Tachiwaza, if not used as much as they should be… but many Judoka forget that combinations are just as powerful on the mat.

I often refer to the ‘Triangle of Techniques’ to illustrate the simple concept that there is always something you can do to uke on the ground. You have Katamewaza, Shimewaza, and Kansetsuwaza (Pins, Chokes, & Armbars) to work with on the ground. The key is to use each to set up the next.

For example, if someone is turtled, and resists the turnover, he cannot simultaneously stop a choke. He must be posting hands, elbows, and head to prevent a turnover, and this prevents him from guarding the throat. Vice versa – when uke is strongly defending against a choke, it’s relatively easy to roll them out of the turtle – they have nothing to post with!

One of the strongest defenses to Okurierijime, for example, is to grab your own lapels, and deny control of them from your opponent – but in doing so, you restrict your ability to use your hands and arms in other locations – such as posting out to prevent being turned.

So the next time you are stopped – even for mere seconds – when trying a technique on the ground; shift into the next leg of the ‘triangle’… it’s simply not possible to defend against all three possible attacks at the same time. For exactly as stepping around a Seoinage sets uke up for an Ouchigari (a typical combination), posting an arm to prevent the turnover sets uke up for either an armbar or a choke.

This same concept applies just as strongly when someone is in your guard – if they resist the sweep by posting, they set themselves up for the choke or armbar… if they attempt to resist the choke, they set themselves up for the sweep…

Judo is not much different from driving a car. You learn specific responses to certain stimuli. For example, experienced drivers just know when someone is about to pull in front of them from a nearby lane, and take their foot off the accelerator, and are ready to touch the brakes.

Likewise, good Judoka will without even thinking about it, apply Kosotogari to someone who steps forward and across their other foot. It’s just instinctive, but it’s an instinct that is a trained instinctive response. How do you train such instinctive movements? Constant practice, of course.

But what is not nearly as obvious, is just how do you get this constant practice? Not the way most Judoka attempt to gain it! Most Judoka practice uchikomi, and try training with the best (highest ranking) partner that they can. I’d like to make two suggestions to improve your Judo.

Uchikomi: The classical way to practice uchikomi is to stand in one place, and repeatedly repeat the intended movement or throw. This is wonderful for ‘grooving’ the technique, and works quite well when you are first learning a technique… but as a method to improve your actual randori, this method has tremendous flaws.

In order to improve a particular skill set – you must repeatedly do that skill set. When baseball players wish to improve their batting skills, they stand the same way, they swing a bat the same way, and most importantly, they hit a ball speeding toward them the same way. In other words, they don’t approximate the skill, they duplicate it!This example bears directly on Judo – for practicing a throw without dynamic movement is like swinging a bat without a ball. Here then, is the first suggestion – practice your uchikomi while moving around on the mat. And not necessarily in one direction… When practicing dynamic uchikomi, (uchikomi with movement), onlookers should be able to mistake your practice for randori.

While it isn’t strictly necessary, in my mind, to throw each time, you must actually lift or off-balance uke. Nothing is more of a waste of time than Judoka performing static uchikomi and not bothering to lift their opponent in the air. Only when the lift is performed, can you judge if the throw would have worked or not.

So, to recap: Static Uchikomi is the classical method, where two Judoka stand in one place, and repeat a specific skill, throw, or movement. Dynamic Uchikomi is the more advanced method of uchikomi, and more realistic method of training, where you move around randomly, and apply your skill, throw, or movement. This duplicates the condition you want to improve – your randori/shiai, without having to deal with uke’s defense.

My second suggestion is to avoid the common idea of looking for the higher ranks to do randori with. For most often, what you are learning is your defensive skills. Remember, in order to improve a particular skill, you need to repeat that skill as often as you can. If you insist on always training with higher ranked Judoka, you’re not going to get very many repetitions of your throws performed…

Look for the white belts, and if you’re a white belt, look for the newer white belts. Of course, if you’re a Sandan reaching for a white belt – you’d better be repeating only the very best ’setups’ and throws, and not merely slam your uke every two seconds. If you’re a Sandan, and you reach for a Shodan or newly promoted Nidan, you can clearly train harder than with a white belt, and still get your repetitions in.

Perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind is that improving your skill REQUIRES you to repeat that skill as often as you can. So, take a break from the higher ranks, and go mix it up with the white belts for a few weeks… see if your randori doesn’t improve because of it!

I ran across a recent post on JudoInfo.com’s forum from a Judoka who was purchasing a gi, who’s sole consideration was a “super stiff collar”… he even stated that “I am only going to wear this gi in competitions so that it stays difficult to grip.”

Then he posed the question: “Is this unsportsman like, or is it just a reasonable use of the rules and regs?”

It seems to me that if the question needs to even be asked, he already knows the answer to it.

I recall in my competition days (admittedly, a while back…) when referees started to bring rulers to check sleeve length and fit.  But no one that I know of was intentionally attempting to stop their opponent with other than merely good Judo.  Judo gi’s were expensive, most of us only had one – and if it was a bad fit, it wasn’t intentional.

What happened to our concept of shiai?  Nowadays, the consideration is only to win – yet you can learn as much in losing as you can in winning.  The purpose of shiai is to go a notch above randori with partners that you do not routinely train with – and thus get a better idea of your Judo skill level.

Jita Kyoei, commonly translated as “Mutual Benefit & Welfare”, can more accurately be translated as “Going Forward, Shining together”, or, as Phil Porter puts it, “You, Me, Shining Together”.  Can anyone think of how this principle would allow you to intentionally do things that are not Judo, to gain an ‘advantage’?

And what have you learned should you be successful?  Did your Judo skills allow you to come back victorious, or did your sly, underhanded strategy do so?

My original Sensei, George Hamm; used to refuse to teach us the complicated rules that apply at the edge of the mat. (The ‘red zone’)  He kept insisting that we keep the match in the middle of the mat, and let the better Judo prevail – rather than the one who had the better knowledge of the rules.

I suspect that my Judo is better for that… at least, I would rather lose a match than let non-Judo related skills win the match for me.  And as much as it’s necessary for Olympic Judoka to master the rules of the game, for ordinary Judoka, I think it’s far more necessary to learn the guiding principles that Jigoro Kano taught.  At least, that’s my thought…

I thought it was time to update BestJudo … as you may have noticed, features that didn’t used to work are now working – I’ve moved BestJudo from the webhost that it’s had for years… and I hope to spend just a tad more time on this website than I’ve done in the past.

My intention is to write from time to time on topics that will interest Judoka.  Hopefully, I can add posts on a more or less weekly schedule.  There will also be an RSS feed from this blog available to Judo or other martial art websites.

I know some people are complaining that they don’t see more recent books being reviewed here – and I’m trying to find more time to do so – but remember, the main purpose of this site is to review books that you can’t hold in your hand before purchasing.  When you go to Barnes and Noble, you can judge right away if you want to spend the money, you don’t need me for an opinion.  But if you’re trying to round out your collection via Ebay or BookFinder, or some other online source, you need to have a way to help you decide whether to spend the money or not.