Throw

"...the way we think about what we are trying to do affects our performance. When we try to create performance goals for ourselves so that we can try to learn a new technique, the name that the instructor gives it influences our thinking process."   -- Pat Parker, Hamare Judo(aikido if that makes you feel better) instructor and Koryu Kata translator, First class.  



It's comforting to know that I'm not just a stubborn dumbass, at least some of the time.   I think your level of stubborn dumbassitude correlates to your ability to appreciate things in the long term.  "Boy, I used to be a gen-u-wine dumbass about this, but now I shore do get it."   It comforting to know that folks who know a whole hell of a lot more than I do ask the same questions, and go through the same stages of doubt/frustration that I do 

I started to entertain quitting because of the word "throw."   We have 17 "throws" that we learn.  That's what we call them.  At our dojo, which is in a large college town, we go through a lot of beginners and dabblers.  Everybody comes in with the common sense notion that nobody wants to get thrown or fall down.  It's instinctive.  Well, if you cant "make" people fall, (because they havent gone through the trust/confidence relationship that may take a couple of years or more, depending on how forgiving your mat is) then you begin questioning the whole system.  Couple that with the fact that your primary source of  learning is a kata called Randori no kata, which for all intents and purposes should be called,"this will never happen in randori no kata."   Then you get the Pyscho-chemical frustration mixture on which this blog is founded and flavored. 

I think my hate/love relationship with judo came from the fact that judo guys seem to have more recipes to "throw" a guy who doesnt want to fall.   I started to try to find ways to "make" people fall, but that wasnt going anywhere.  I got to watch Eric Pearson some, and had him give me a mini-lesson on his four release forms.  And he he gave me a new principle to base my learning off of.  "put yourself in a position that the other guy is totally dependent on you for his balance"  I also kind of extrapolated this into, " put yourself in a position to where the other guy is dependent on you "not cranking his joint."   Use a guys motion/intent, to stop his motion.   So making a guy fall, with a "throw" may not be what we are learning.

I went down and did about 12 or so Akikai classes and an Akikai seminar.  And almost joined up based on the word "throw."   They throw and fall a lot, and seemingly better.  But after a while I figured out, that the Akikai system of throwing and falling is based on a system of spoon fed safety.  Big good looking falls that don't hurt take a lot of work and a good mat.  It takes six years to shodan for a reason.   A hakama dan is an expert at getting "thrown"

So what a person does is he reworks what things are.   The kata are large motions.  They make learning easier, but eventually to start to represent things that aren't there in concrete form but are implied.  heres a list of 17, that represents what I get out of the 17 as it applies to randori. you'll see that I dont use the word throw. A lot of this sounds like modern Musashi cliffnotes and the reason why anyone who thinks they know what Musashi was saying is full of shit.  You may know the 17 better than anyone, and you may not know what I'm talking about. 

1.   inside options working out
2. stepping through
3.  locking the spine/ mopping the feet.  ( a foot mop is an improvised foot sweep done by an aikido guy.) 
4.  uprooting
5.  turning
6.  weight on the back leg. following in
7  weight on the front foot. stringing out
8 hand change stringing out
9  handchange following back
10.  controlling the mirror
11.   hand spiral to the back leg
12. hand exchange stringing out
13. hand exchange hand spiral
14.  shopping cart on a roller coaster
15. shopping cart dump
16. invisible clothesline
17. backfoot/front foot, down the toes.  (Or Iwo Jima/flag plant nage if done in kata form with the knee drop.)