Principles of Judo

I share below some thoughts from a module entitled “Judo Technical Principles”, about some fundamental judo principles. In particular, the 3 principles of judo as outlined in the Illustrated Kodokan Judo, 1955 edition; the principle of softness, the principle of maximum efficiency, and the principle of mutual benefit. (I led this module as Visiting Senior Lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University, teaching the European Judo Union Coach Award).



Principle of softness

We see the concept of jū, [柔] in Ju-jutsu / ju-jitsu as one of the six martial arts, or Roku-bugei, the 6 compulsory martial arts for all samurai, these are; Kenjitsu (sword), Kyujitsu (archery), Bajitsu (horse), Sojitsu (spear), Hojitsu (gunnery), and Jujitsu (hand to hand).

柔, is also known as Yawara. Commonly translated as softness, yielding, pliable, as in the example of snow falling on the willow tree. 

In the year 700 there was a Chinese military code in Japan, Lao Tzu's "Three Strategies", the "San-Ryaku". In this code we find the four character phrase: "jū yoku sei gō”. Another way to say this is; jū yoku gō o seisu, 柔よく剛を制す, meaning "Softness subdues Hardness" meaning that flexibility overcomes rigidity.

As we all know the techniques of Judo enable a smaller person to utilise the opponent's own power to throw him in spectacular fashion. Thus demonstrating the principle that "Softness overcomes Hardness". Indeed it is this drive to show the spectacular throwing techniques of judo that motivates many of the rule changes to international competition judo, brought about by the IJF in recent years. It could be argued that the implementation of the IJF rule changes are in fact a desire to demonstrate the fundamental principle of softness overcoming hardness, the principle of jū, enshrined in the first kanji of the name judo.

Lao Tzu illustrates the point with the phrase; 

“Water is the softest thing, yet it can penetrate mountains and earth. This shows clearly the principle of softness overcoming hardness.”

In 1922 at the age of 62, Jigoro Kano founded the Kodokan Cultural Council, The Kodokan Bunkakai. This was the 40th anniversary of the Kodokan. He chose the founding of the Cultural Council to launch the two underpinning principles of judo. By considering the date of the launch we can understand that these principles were formulated after 40 years of reflection about the principles of judo. Each of them is expressed as four word phrase.

Principle of maximum efficiency

seiryoku zen'yō, 精力善用, the maximum efficient use of power, also described as; maximum efficiency, minimum effort, or maximum efficient use of physical and mental strength. 

Jigoro Kano realised that the principle of jū alone, did not encompass all of the techniques in judo, for example, armlocks, or atemi-waza. The answer was about applying your power in the most efficient way. This underlying principle for training in the techniques of judo, can be applied to all actions in daily life.

The judoka learns to be efficient with their training, to be efficient with their time, to fit all the training around other commitments of work, study and relationships. The ideas of “not too much, not too little” that underpin maximum efficiency can also be applied to daily tasks, such as cleaning. Trevor Leggett often gave the example of holding the pencil half way up, for more efficient writing. (I had the great fortune to study zen under Trevor Leggett in the 1980s.)

Principle of mutual benefit

jita kyōei 自他共栄, or mutual prosperity for self and others, often translated as mutual welfare and benefit.

At the opening of the Kodokan Bunkakai in 1922, Kano explained that seiryoku zen'yō  was required to provide the platform for jita kyōei.

For individuals, anger, worry and conflict, are not efficient uses of their power. In fact they are a waste of power. For a society, if many people are inefficient in their power, the society will fall into decline. The most efficient use of power for a group, relies on them supporting each other, providing mutual welfare, and then the whole society can benefit from that mutual application of maximum efficient use of power. In this way when seiryoku zen'yō is applied to society it becomes jita kyōei.

Examples of jita kyōei, include; respect for others, consideration to ukes, consideration to losers, helping people who need help, and helping the world to be peaceful. 

Often some of these ways to communicate jita kyōei in the dojo, is by encouraging young judoka to follow a version of the judo moral code.

I believe that a judo club can achieve great things, and make a significant contribution to their community, by the judo coaches and teacher taking efforts to apply the principles of judo into their daily classes.

If you would like to understand more about how to coach judo to build your club, improve your athletes, and improve society, then consider following the path of hundreds of successful coaches, by registering on the EJU Coach Awards.

Request our regular newsletter here.
Read our news stories at http://www.judospace.com/news
Follow us on facebook via https://www.facebook.com/Judospace

Follow us on twitter via https://twitter.com/Judospace

Trees on a judo mountain

“Looking at the poems of Basho (one of the most famous Japanese poets), one finds that the concepts of Immutability and Change are very much at the centre of his thought.

The immutable backbone of Judo is the aim of human perfection through judo training, the ideal being the peak of universal morality.

In judo this high ideal is accepted as the aim, but in the practice of the technique (jutsu) itself it is made clear that the ideal is always to be kept before the mind, and this I think is the immutable aspect of Kodokan Judo.”

Kano, R., 1953. Immutability and Change. Judo Quarterly Bulletin, July, IX(2), pp. 14-15.

These are some of the words of Resei Kano. The former President of the Kodokan and the International Judo Federation, written in April 1953, in the Kodokan magazine, Judo. (The reference is for the English Translation in the Budokwai Quarterly Bulletin).

That took me to research a little more about Basho. Born in 1644, near Ueno, now part of Tokyo, he is famous as a writer of haiku poetry. Then I came across this haiku by Shoji Kumano. It seemed rather topical at the moment;

Enjoying three bowls of zoni 
At the New Year's breakfast;
Millionaire as he is!

三椀の　雑煮かゆるや　長者ぶり  (Sanwan no　zoni　kayuru ya　chojya buri)

 (http://www.hokuoto77.com/buson00.html#new year's day)

Background: 'Zoni' is a soup containing mochi (rice cakes), vegetables and other ingredients. To cook zoni was very expensive for the common people in the Edo period(1603-1868). 

Earlier in my career, I was lucky enough to be employed as a manager by Syd Hoare. Syd is a legendary judoka, who competed in the Tokyo Olympic Games. His company was called Yamagi Ltd. Hi told me that the company name was drawn from a traditional poem about a secret principle of judo;

The trees on Mount Tsukuba are extremely thick but from time to time a moonbeam penetrates.

(Tsukubayama ha yamashige yamashige keredo
Konoma konoma ni tsukikage zo moru)

This is article 171 in Syd’s book “Judo Strategies”.

Earlier this month I had the privilege of giving a lecture at Tsukuba University. It was formerly known as Tokyo Higher Normal College, and the Principal for 25 years was Professor Jigoro Kano.

I was talking to around 200 undergraduates. Discussing matters related to violence and bullying in sport.  I reminded them that they are the generation to deliver the legacy of Tokyo 2020, and that one legacy could be the eradication of violence from the Japanese sporting society, far more lasting than any bricks and mortar.

Hopefully some of you reading this will have athletes with aspirations to compete with distinction at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Judo Competition. As they eat like millionaires to celebrate this new year, they will dedicate themselves to another year of hardship and hard work. They are trying to create a personal legacy.

I have chosen to dedicate the rest of my career to supporting the athletes, coaches and federations who choose that journey of hardship and hard work. I founded Judospace Ltd, so named as S.P.A.C.E. (supporting player and coach education). I work with a remarkable team of people, committed particularly to helping coaches transform their athletes into judoka.

As we step into another year, another step along the way, we would like to thank everyone that we have worked with in 2013, and re-commit ourselves to having even greater impact in the coming 12 months.

Happy New Year.

A dream for judo

While the IJF 2013 World Senior Judo Championships were thrilling the audience in Rio de Janeiro, the free world celebrated the 50^th Anniversary of the civil rights march to Washington DC, and the famous “I have a dream” speech of the visionary Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

http://www.archives.gov/press/exhibits/dream-speech.pdf

Recently there was a discussion on social media about coaching and the development of a judo system. One post referred to the speech and said that his dream for judo is “'- that every town, borough or city will have a permanent dojo with quality facilities.”

The comment got me thinking, about what my dream is for judo.

I have a dream that those dojos in every town and city of the world will be based in a place of learning. That every school, college and university, will have a dojo, and that judo will be synonymous with education. That the values of judo will be taught in the classroom, and the values of the classroom will be taught in the dojo.

I have a dream that those dojos are led by great coaches. That those dojos are led by educated coaches. Are led by coaches who have devoted their own time to the study of how to make their dojo better, the pupils better, their athletes better. Coaches who have studied diligently about how to change lives through judo.

Without great coaches, dojos are empty, sometimes intimidating, sometimes scary, and sometimes dangerous. Without great coaches that embrace the values of judo, dojos can encourage arrogance, deceitfulness, even bullying.

Great coaches, educated coaches, encourage the development of the whole person. They encourage hard training, technical excellence, respect for others, seiryoku-zenyo and jita kyoei.

At Judospace we are committed to helping coaches become great. Recently we have teamed up with KokaKids to create more opportunities to link judo and education.

http://www.judospace.com/news/koka-kids-and-judospace-educatio/

http://www.kokakids.co.uk/benefits-of-judo-for-school-children-guest-blog

To find out more about our work visit www.judospace.com

or follow us on facebook https://www.facebook.com/Judospace

Judo: the art of communication

All teachers will understand pride in the accomplishments of their students. I have been fortunate to support the development of many judo coaches, a number of whom have gone on to significant positions in the sport. Increasingly, many of them share their thoughts online and communicate with the whole judo family.

I have chosen to highlight in this post the thoughts of some of these present and former students who took the decision to improve their coaching.

Firstly, Danny Williams, is a still an active player, an Olympian, who competed in the 2012 London Olympic Games, Danny is a player at Camberley Judo Club, and a student at Anglia Ruskin University, following the EJU Performance Coach Award. He is preparing already for his future coaching career, and works on a weekly basis with the England Regional Cadet players.

Read his blog here: http://dannywilliamsddjw.wordpress.com/

I have two favourite quotes from Danny’s blog;

“Sports coaching and training from a young players perspective cannot be a democracy, the coach must deliver precise technical fundamental practice and sparring training, and the athlete must follow precisely the given instructions.”

Then talking about his improved ability to combat frustration he says…

“I believe I owe this to things I’ve learned from my own experience and from my coach who has helped me to see training and competition as a process rather than the be all and end all.”

Danny’s coach, is another of my former students, Luke Preston. He graduated in 2008 from the EJU Performance Coach Award. Luke was a coach for Great Britain at the London Olympic Games, where his athlete Karina Bryant, won a bronze medal. Follow Luke on twitter;

https://twitter.com/LukePreston_CJC

Next blog is from Mike Newton, Head Coach at Vale Judo Club, graduate of the EJU Performance Coach Award in 2009. In 2010, Mike spent a placement at Sagami High School, near Tokyo. A feeder high school to Tokai University, former students include Yasuhiro Yamashita and Kosei Inoue.

Mike made a number of changes to his club environment after visiting Sagami High School, read about them at;

http://simplyjudo.wordpress.com/

On 12 February 2010, Mike presented a case study of High School student Naohisa Takato. Three years later, I watched Takato win the Paris Grand Slam. At the time of writing he is ranked 1st in the IJF World Ranking List. Discussing his training environment in Sagami, my favourite quote from Mike is…

“Every student knows what to do and when to do it – coaches simply provide technical input, set the training atmosphere and provide encouragement – most of the time things run like clockwork.”

Also working with the same age group is Dave Elmore. Dave graduated the EJU Performance Coach Award in 2011. He works with Wolverhampton University and Walsall College, delivering the Advanced Apprenticeship in Sporting Excellence. A structured judo curriculum for junior players.

Dave’s blog is; http://aasejudo.wordpress.com/

I like this quote…

“I feel that you should always be willing to try new ideas and look at other sports and activities to find a new edge.”

One very prolific blogger is Bob Challis. Having graduated from the EJU High Performance Coach Award in 2009, Bob is now the course leader, and a Senior Lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University. Bob is continuing to develop himself and is in the second year of his PhD.

You can find his blog at: http://judobob.wordpress.com/

My favourite line from his blog is;

“To be honest there is no real secret, for me it is about mat time and volume of randori.”

Bob also quotes from a well-known former judo player, and US President, Theodore Roosevelt;

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. “

One could argue that the “king” of the judo blog is Lance Wicks. Lance also graduated from the EJU High Performance Coach Award in 2009. He is now a member of the IJF computer team, providing the live streaming from IJF and EJU events across the world. Lance developed the site http://www.planetjudo.com/ which aggregates all the judo blogs into one feed. He has English, Spanish and French versions.

On his blog at http://www.judocoach.com/ Lance reflected on each lecture during his time studying as a coach. To quote a couple of reflections;

“One of the great things about this course is that most all of the work we do has real world application and this development plan I have to write could be really good if executed.”

“One of the most important skills any Judoka and in particular any Judo coach can have is the ability to look at things critically and assess the value of what they read, see or hear.”

Finally, I end this post with some light relief. If Lance is the king, then officially the “Queen of Blog” is Aki Inoue. She is a friend of Judospace, wife of All-Japan Judo Federation Head Coach, Kosei Inoue, and a celebrity in her own right. Aki’s blog has a huge following amongst her fans in Japan.

http://ameblo.jp/higashihara-aki/

I hope you enjoy.

To find out more about the experience of these coaches, visit our website at www.judospace.com

 

Judo Coaching: great coaches make great players

If you are a judo coach you have a very important role. If you are paid as a judo coach, then you have a very important job.

Why is it an important job?

You have a responsibility to your judoka, the athletes that trust you. The trust is often built on respect. Your judoka respect you, your behaviours and your opinions. They value your knowledge, they learn through the way that you communicate that knowledge.

When you share knowledge effectively, it can be utilised by the judoka to win a match. The judoka understands that the win is because of the knowledge that you shared with them. This reinforces their belief in you, and the knowledge that you have, and your ability to communicate it effectively.

Sometimes your knowledge is found wanting. You are not really sure how to deal with a certain opponent, or a certain kumi-kata situation. You are embarrassed at your limited knowledge in a certain area. You try to hide it. Maybe you convince yourself that you think you know the answer. Your judoka trusts you. They try their best, but they don’t succeed. Your limited knowledge let them down. There is a small chink in their respect for you. They are not sure to fully believe you the next time. Gradually the relationship breaks down. The trust and communication that you had together starts to fall apart. Each thinks the other is to blame.

How can we avoid this? Certainly you cannot hope to win all the matches, your relationship cannot be built on only winning.

If we think about a judo competition, in each round, half the players win their matches, and half the players lose their matches. That’s the sobering thing about judo. You either win or lose. If you keep a record of the matches of all your judoka, if the win record is better than 50% you are doing better than average.

If your judoka can see that you are constantly trying to improve your knowledge, they will see that you are investing your time to help them. They will see that you are studying for mutual welfare and benefit. They will have greater confidence that the suggestions that you make are based on reflection, on evidence, on research.

Research, evidence and reflection can help the judo coach to make better decisions, to offer better advice, to have access to a wider range of ideas. Study into communication methods and techniques can help the decisions, advice and ideas be understood and applied more effectively and more efficiently. Maximum efficiency with minimum effort.

Study hard, don’t expect it to be easy, and your players will benefit. They may even win more matches. The harder you work, the luckier they get.

Good luck to all your judoka.

 

Judo Practice

When I am going to judo, I say I am going to practice. When I return, my wife asks me “how was the practice?” I started to reflect on what do we mean by practice.

Some say practice makes perfect, other say, no, practice just makes permanent.

So what does the thesaurus tell us about practice?; habit, process, exercise, application, discipline, preparation, rehearsal, repetition, study, training, work-out, drill, hone, polish, sharpen, pursue, apply, accomplish, create, develop, persevere, persist, form.

One definition of the verb to practice is: To do something repeatedly in order to acquire or polish a skill.

So the concept of repetition is important. I would suggest that guided practice is important. Imagine your player has a taiotoshi which is technically poor, biomechanically incorrect, then when they practice it, repeatedly polish it, they will get very good at doing taiotoshi badly. If they practice hard enough, they could indeed become expert at doing a bad taiotoshi.

So as a coach you need to be sure that your technical correction is accurate, then encourage repetition. Repetition in uchikomi, in nage komi, in tandoku renshu, in kakari geiko, in shiai. Give your players every opportunity to practice. Every opportunity to study and create their judo. Every opportunity to persevere, to develop and polish their judo.

Can you meet them before work, before school? Can you get in the dojo at 6 am? Can you remove excuses? Give them technically correct instruction, and help motivate them to practice. If they normally practice for an hour, for 60 minutes, could you extend it by 6 minutes? You would be increasing their opportunity to practice by 10%.

As a coach, can you improve yourself so you can give the players the very best guidance, the best instruction? Imagine the total possible knowledge in judo can be put in a cup, then ask how full is your cup? Now you can follow judo coach education online, at times that suit you, and interact with other coaches and coach educators. All accredited by the European Judo Union. Find out how at http://www.judospace.com/.

Enjoy your practice.

10,000 hours of judo

I have spent many years studying how you go about creating an environment which will allow a judo player to develop who is capable of medalling at Senior World Championships and Olympic Games.

One of the most compelling theories for me is the work by Ericsson et al (1993) which suggests the 10,000 hour rule. Ie, that it takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to become expert at something. This concept is popularised in Gladwell’s excellent book, Outliers (Gladwell, 2008).

So let’s think about training volumes achievable for a judo player. And let’s also think about ‘deliberate practice’. Training at club level in the UK, in a mixed ability group of average motivation, one might have a 90 minute session, of which 15 -30 minutes, is the time spent by the player intently focussed on technical improvement, or hard randori where they are technically challenged. The rest is warming up, resting, talking, acting as uke, helping lower grades or younger players, and playing games. Of course it is possible with the right attitude to get some benefits from these activities, but often I see that is not the case. Let’s be generous and say that there is 30 minutes of deliberate practice achieved. At a rate of 2 sessions per week, that gives you one of the required 10,000 hours.

Assume the player has good attendance and manages to attend the club for 50 weeks per year. Then they will achieve 50 hours towards their goal that year. It will only take them 200 years to become expert.

Most players are past their best by then!

So they clearly need to do more volume of deliberate practice. What if they could be in a well motivated training group, with a more experienced expert coach, who can keep them on task. And what if the sessions were lengthened to 150 minutes, of which, 2 hrs was deliberate practice. Could they do more than 2 sessions per week? How about 5 sessions per week? How about also doing a morning session with them? Could the coach keep them on task for 2hrs each weekday morning? They would probably have smaller numbers, so the coach would have to work harder to keep the sessions fresh.

But then they would have 4 hrs deliberate practice per day. Five days per week, That’s 20 hrs a week. In the earlier regime it would take our player 20 weeks, or 5 months to cover the same ground. Imagine our second player does this for 50 weeks per year. Then they can fit in 1000 hours per year. So they can feasibly become expert in 10 years.

So if we create a training environment where they can do 20 hrs per week deliberate practice, and we start when they are 16 years old, then by the time they are 26 perhaps they will be capable of winning at World level.

Could we start earlier? Gymnasts and swimmers start their deliberate practice much earlier. But in judo the best players are usually a bit older. Exceptionally they are 20 or 21 years old. Usually 23 – 28.

Do you have a talented payer you are working with as a coach? Are they doing deliberate practice? If so, work out for how many hours per week, and by what age they will have completed 10,000 hours.

For further reading on this topic try the references below.

To become that experienced, expert coach that can keep them on task, enrol on the Advanced Coach Award with the European Judo Union. Visit http://www.judospace.com/ to find out more.

Ericsson, K. A., (2000). Expert Performance and Deliberate Practice - An updated excerpt from Ericsson (2000). Accessed on 2nd May 2010 at: http://www.psy.fsu.edu/faculty/ericsson/ericsson.exp.perf.html

Ericsson, K. A., Krampe, R., and Tesch-Romer, C., (1993). The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance. Psychological Review, Vol. 100. No. 3, 363-406. Accessed on 2nd May 2010 at: http://projects.ict.usc.edu/itw/gel/EricssonDeliberatePracticePR93.pdf

Gladwell, M., (2008). Outliers – The story of success. Allen Lane. London.

Research Clouds

Hopefully heading off tommorrow to sunny Vienna, to judge the Second European Science of Judo Symposium Poster Competition. The Symposium will be held in the Ferry Dusika Stadium, the venue for the European Senior Championships. If you are in Vienna on Wednesday 21 April
2010, come along to have a look at some of Europes latest research into judo.

The EJU will use the occasion of the Championships to launch the Level 3 Award delivered in partnership with the Judospace Educational Institute, the Level 4 and Level 5 Awards in partnership with Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, and the Level 6 Award in partnership with the University of Tor Vergata in Rome.

The poster marketing the Level 3 Award is seen here. Fantastic image is courtesy of Dr Bob Willingham.

Of course I am concerned that my journey will be halted by the icelandic ash cloud, but I am remaining optimistic that those in charge of the cloud will understand the importance of my trip.
Whether I make it or not, my very good wishes to all the players and their coaches attending the championships.

Congratulations to all those club coaches where the players started their judo careers. How many of you have future international competitors in your dojos right now, but don't yet know it. Coach Education is the key to helping you make the right decisions for those players. Decisions about what you teach when. Which drills to do that session. How much randori, how much technique. Which events should they enter, what advice should you give?

The EJU are taking great strides in coach education in working with their three partners to create these awards. Take great strides in your own coaching and enrol today.

www.judospace.com