Table of Contents

Self-Defence/Judo/Terms

Summary

Having an understanding of japanese terms leads to a better understanding of the intent of the moves, and therefore leads to more effective learning.

Terms

The terms are loosely broken down into the following:

Formality

Japanese culture is very formal and ordered culture. Formality leads to attention to detail, and attention is the basis of learning. So japanese or not, formality is good for you.

Secondly, this isn't dance…it's a martial art. Being thrown around can lead to injury to yourself or your practice partner if incorrectly done.

The risk of injury is removed by being in control.

For this reason alone there has always been in dojos the world over a strict policy of paying focused attention in order to learn the moves precisely. When your instructor says stop – immediately freeze. He may be doing it to get you to feel/understand a precise part of a move – but he may also be stopping before its too late someone getting hurt. Don't take it lightly. As they say, “Goofing around is all fun…until someone gets hurt” – don't do that in a dojo.

In other words, if your teacher is being strict (but fair), it's a good thing: it's to ensure you don't hurt yourself.

Respect

Respect is very very important in the martial arts.

For one, respect your practice partners. You're asking your practice partner to put up with being thrown around by you, which isn't always fun – especially when you haven't mastered the move well, and they risk getting a little hurt in the process. Respect the fact that that person is willing to do that for you.

For another, your instructors and sensei aren't frozen burgers flippers down at the local fast-food joint. Have respect for their skill, and the investment in time they've put in to be good, and then the time they're putting in to teach you. Respect their dedication, their learning, their humility.

Right. With Formality and Respect expressed first, let's continue…

Ryu (School) and Dojo (Place of Learning)

There are many ryu schools of the martial art (Judo, Karate, etc. etc.)

You're learning one of them, in a dojo (class room/establishment), which was set up by the head teacher (sensei). You are studying under one of his chosen instructors.

Parts of the Dojo

Training Outfit

Manners / Etiquette / Respect

We've said that formality and respect is important.

You apply it right from the moment you enter the dojo.

Hopefully, in time, the respect and humility to learn while being in the dojo will one day extend beyond the end of the class, into your everyday life…

The rituals are most apparent at the start and end of each class.

Start of class

PS: alternate is “O negashimas sensei/s” and “Domo Arigato Gozamashita sensei/s”

End of class

Same as start, except you start with Rei to instructor, before Kamiza. In other words:

Learning
Be considerate to your training partners
Be considerate to your whole class

* Learn to tie your own obi fast and securely, rather than holding up the whole class in between bouts.

Ryu Foundation Principles

Judo is based on some basic principles that underlie everything else:

Kuzushi (Unbalancing)

A smaller person can knock a larger person over either by having great strength, or smarts.

A core concept of judo nage (throws) is for tori to use smarts – not strength – in order to keep balanced, while using the least force (see the Seiryoku Zenzo above) to unbalance uke and knock uke over.

Tip: Consider how you use the Hiki-te to lift up and Tsuri-te pull forward, in order to kuzushi so you can safely tsukuri without being thrown off balance yourself:

Goal

Why do we do all this?

It isn't about a 'goal'. There is a do (way of life).

But a benefit of learning the do is:

Keywords: Directions

You're learning Judo waza (Moves/Techniques).

Moves, by their very nature, imply movement of some kind in a direction…

Therefore, it stands to reason that before you learn any Judo moves, understand which direction the name of the Judo move is implying you are to move yourself, or your opponent.

Keywords: Counting

To learn moves/techniques, you have to listen/watch carefully your instructor to break down the technique (waza) into parts – and then you have to repeat the operations over and over again until they become second nature.

Repetition implies counting…
* 1 - Ichi * 2 - Ni * 3 - San * 4 - Shi * 5 - Go * 6 - Roku * 7 - Shichi * 8 - Hachi * 9 - Ku * 10 - Ju * 11 - Juichi (10 plus one) * 12 - Juni (10 plus 2) …

Keywords: Body parts

In judo many of the forms and techniques learn have names that describe the part of your or your opponents body involved.

Knowing the body part helps you understand the intent of the move, and therefore learn it better.

Keywords: Basic Technique name elements

Keywords: Student Thrower/Throwee

Once you know how to stand, and move yourself, let's learn to move someone else.

PS: When practicing all the following, know who's doing the technique (waza).

The kake (execution) – the final flashy move that throws a person – is visually the first thing people see/remember.

But it's rarely (if ever) the one to concentrate on to get the move right. Instead, it's the setup (hands in right place, rotation, posture of back at that point, location of head, and chest, and therefore your distribution of weight, therefore your own balance, are the lego blocks you need to isolate, understand, get right first, before you can Kuzushi (break uke's balance), and tsukuri (turn into and fit into the throw) in order to kake (execute) the throw.

Taiso (Warmup)

Before you start learning kata(forms) and waza(forms), you have to warm up.

Ukemi (Breakfalls)

After doing basic taiso (warmup) and strengthening, you start your lesson.

The first lesson is to learn how to handle being thrown, without being harmed.

It can't be stressed enough that when you do ushiro ukemi 4), you have to tuck your chin in as you fall. All the way in. You do that so that as you fall backwards, your shoulders protect your head from ever hitting the mat. Being thrown onto your head – even on a nice soft tatami – can stun you, and make you lose. Never ever let your head hit the ground. If it's tucked well in, it won't.

Standing Positions

If kuzushi (breaking balance) of uke is the basis of being able to knock over uke, then it stands to reason that you should invest some thought in how you keep your own balance while standing: you don't want your balance to be taken away from you easily (or you will be uke rather than tori)

Standing positions include:

Movement

Once you have throught about learning how to have a grounded posture, consider how you move:

Grabs

Before you can grapple, learn how to hold the opponent.

Avoid getting stuck holding only one way – or you'll limit yourself to only being able to throw in the same direction every time – and even a dim opponent will start seeing a strategy to exploit that weakness…

For example, if your hold the eri with the right hand, and the sode with the left, you will have a natural limitation to throwing to the left. Learn to Grip, but without getting stuck. Then learn to quickly swap grip (left hand shoots from sode to eri, and right hand from eri to sode) in order to throw to the right.

(Nage) Throws and Grappling (Katame) Categories

Judo can roughly be broken down into two primary groups, which can be subdivided again:

You can find out more about the moves in each section further along.

Randori (practice)

Randori = free practice of applying the (kata) forms and waza (techniques) you've been taught.

Hashime! (start)

The words used during practice (and later during Competition) are:

Competition

You compete to win the most points: * Ippon = Full technique point, which ends the bout decisively. * Waza Ari = Nearly a Technique Point

Competition: How to win points

A forceful well executed nage gets a full ippon (10 points), which wins you the bout. If you can't win by throw, you go for controlling uke on the floor for 25 seconds. It's about showing you have full control over the person.

A near perfect throw, or 20 second holddown, gets a wazari, and the fight continues.

Wazari azasete ippon: two wazare makes an ippon, and that too ends the fight.

Sore made: the fight has finished, and a winner is declared.

If you are being pinned down, you have to show that Tori doesn't have full control over you, using: * Osae komi Toketa = escape from Osae Komi Waza = ie, escape from (pin)(hold)(techniques)

Nage (Throws) - In Detail

Nage Waza are the techniques to throw.

Each throw has 3 parts to it:

Throws can be sub-categorized as:

Osaekomi-waza (Pins/Holds) - In Detail

Once you've dropped someone, you have to quickly pin them down. * Osae-komi Waza = (Pin/hold)(downward/inward)(techniques)

Too often beginner Toke throws, and then stands there, a bit surprised that the throw actually worked, and precious time is lost: uke quickly gets back up, and Toke has to start all over again. Whereas if a pin, had been quickly put in place, uke would have been finished off…duh!

Escapes

References

* http://judoinfo.com/terms.htm * http://judoinfo.com/dalien2.htm * http://www.bigginhilljudoclub.co.uk/Dojolayout.htm * http://kendoinfo.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/definitive-dojo-layout/ * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_judo_techniques * http://judoinfo.com/kuzushi1.htm

1) , 3)
http://www.kodokan.org/e_waza/04taiotoshi.html
2)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suwari_Waza
4)
backward)(breakfall