Recently, I saw one of those not so easy to watch videos where this guy got jumped in a subway or something by what appeared to be a gang of a dozen or so attackers, maybe less, I didn't count.  The guy got swarmed and pummeled, and kicked, and thrown down.  He had his girl with him, and she got it too, trying to step in and save him, but not like the guy who was the primary target.

There was no amount of judo, BJJ, Aikido, whatever, that would have helped the guy.  It was one of those wrong place, wrong time things.

It got me thinking about some old school stuff, about what if the guy had a sword?  A four foot razor blade strapped to his side.  A distance weapon with fries, and a coke.  The guy wouldn't have been jumped at all.

Then I started thinking about the modern martial arts.

I started taking a BJJ class, and the class is pretty much all mat time.  Rolling, they call it.  Randori.

I read up on whatever I'm studying, which means I read something over and over about a hundred times.  I read how Jigoro Kano, the Judo founder came up with randori methods or training.  How taking out the dangerous techniques, and setting up a system where techniques could be practiced against full resistance, the safer techniques, actually produced better fighters.  Folks that could handle them selves pretty darn good.

I think that BJJ, or just Jiu-Jitsu, takes that safe technique angle, and brings things right to the mat.  Not a whole lot of break falls, just submission wrestling from day one.   A lot of things that I have heard in Aikido, are also said in Jiu-jitsu.  So some  intangible things I can absorb, but fundamentally I dont know up from down.  I have learned to tap out a lot.

I got this book by a guy named Saulo Ribeiro.  And in it he talks about teaching beginners how to survive. How to close off holes where they can be attacked.  To prevent being taken out by submission.  The reason he does this is so that they can last longer against the upper belts, so that the upper belts get pushed a little harder to find a technique.

Kinda a reverse, backasswards way of teaching, but it works.  Here is what I'm trying to do to you, this is what you do to keep it from happening.

I got thinking about Tomiki Aikido.  Tanto randori.  I think that my disillusionment with the Karl Geis line is over the omission of tanto randori. I understand why folks can take it or leave it.  Not a whole lot goes on, and when it does it looks pretty sloppy.  My philosophy is that that is pretty much life in general.  You can be a perfection hound, and only do things that look sweet to impress the chicks, then you get over it. or not.  Slowing it down, thus slowing down who ever is getting grabby on you,  Doesnt do it for me any more.

I guess I'm okay with sloppy.

The thing that makes tanto randori such a slop fest, is that the beginner has a much easier time learning to survive.  Aikido is basically about jumping on over extension, Tomiki knew it, and that is where all that stiff arm uke stuff comes from.  To survive in Aikido, all you do is not over extend.  Don't attack all in, set your feet, put up your paws, and go into sparring mode.  Not a lot will happen.  Some body grabs your wrist, just tighten up, bring it to your body.

The thing about randori is that somebody will get tired, somebody will get something.  It may not look like a college girl running on the beach in a bikini, It may not be hakamatastic, it may not address kuzushi, or musubi, or whatever the japanese word of the week is.  But somebody is going to give it up.

Going back to that incident, the guy getting jumped, if pulled a sword what is the things the idiots could have done to survive?  How easy is it to teach someone how to survive against a swinging sword?   Not too damn easy.  Thats why spears and guns and arrows were invented.

A lot of randori, tanto randori that is, is about grabbing the extension, and preventing it from coming back at you.  It can go this way and that way, but there are really 4 or 5 techniques that keep popping up.  That tend to work within the framework of the match rules and space.

The Tanto player is a all in player, the rules only allow him to do a one thing, and a couple of others if an if and or but is answered first.  Then time runs out.  The fact that there is a timer, dictates how things go.  The fact that both guys take turns with the tanto, dictates things.  Going first, or second tend to dictate things.  A whole lot more goes on than just two guys trying to do 17 techniques on each other.  The conditions to get those techniques are restricted by mat space, time, rules, conditioning, and who does what first.  There are a lot of non-technical things that help someone survive, and prevent a technique.

The Okie-Do List of Principles

All these are subject to change

1.  The Principle of the Mat:

     The guy who has the best relationship with the mat is going to win.  If you aint afraid of falling down you have one up on the other guy.  If you know what to do when you get there then that is just a bowl of cherries for you.

2.  Ukemi principle

    Receiving end education, or the school of hopefully not so hard knocks.   Every technique needs to be be felt in from begininng to end.  So a guy has to ask how much training up does it actually take to actually learn something.  BJJ has a little ukemi and a whole lot of rolling around.  Thats why those guys get very good very soon if they show up to class, because its all mat time.  And most techniques can be felt on the first day in the door.  Judo has a lot of learning how to fall, and I cant actually say how long it takes before you can be tossed all over to be educated, but I would assume its a little while.  Aikido has the longest train up to it, the longest ukemi maturation process because you are getting thrown by the joints.  Thats why I have been really hard on Aikido on this blog, especially geriatric aikido, that should have gone Tai Chi 20 years ago.

3.  The Anti-fragile principle;
          Little knocks and bumps and bruises make you stronger.  The human immune system is made to absorb small problems and become better.   A joint lock here, a shomenate 17 style there.  A misfit on gyukugamate that bumps your snout and makes you tear up just a little.  Everything done in a controlled way with a mat, under the agreement of everybody gets a turn.  So if you do it to me, then I do it to you.


4.  Slowing Down is seeing, but not living principle
           You slow down so your hands and body can feel what is going on, so your Intuition can "see."  But speed and variation in timing is what  has always killed the cat, not so much curiosity. At least on the Interstate.  Slowing down is not a permanent state, and expecting everyone to slow down so things work is  cloud kookooland thinking.


5.  Bullshizznit detection principle

    Beware of hero worshiping, and name dropping to justify things.   And avoid the I'm awesome because I learned it in Japan or from an actual Japanese guy.  Going to the horses mouth is usually the best policy, but going to any horses mouth and trying to pass them off as Secretariat, or Seabiscuit  is the same as being a fudging liar.  Also, beware of the folks who dont want to post videos because its way too secret.  Nobody cares.  And odds are some teenage MMA fan will troll it anyway.  Thats a fact of life.  ( I would really like to see all of Karl Geis videos put out there on the Youtube.  The world deserves it, its a unique take on things.  And if 15 people dig it then its worth it, but it will be more than 15.  Otherwise, nobody is going to know, and nobody is going to care.)

6.   Anti-certification principle/Anti-obi wan kenobi principle

      Think of years on the mat instead of Dan rank.    And also pay attention to how fat they are. If they can't muster up the spiritual power to say no to a second helping, then evaulate authenticity  from there. Their wife may be an amazing cook, so give them a pass. If they are fat and still believe in punching the guy then listen, they are a realist.  But they are fat and like to talk about ki, and connection, and internal power, effortless power, or other nonsense then ask them how effortless was their last trip to the bathroom?  If they can still pee over a tall fence, and take a dump two or three times a day, then they may have truly found some sort of internal power secret.  Give them ten percent of your paycheck and move into their garage and become their man servant.

7.  Technical History principle

  If you are teaching Tomiki Aikido then there are no mysteries.  This guy named his techniques push down, pull down, and arm turn, not dragon breathing fire, or horse whips tail.  Know how one things relates to another because your student can look up it up on Youtube. New sacred scrolls dating way back to 1962 get unearthed all the time.

8.  Ignore the Third Rate principle

     Never put up with a guy who is trying to be a third rate Morty Youshiba, Karl Geis, or Tomiki.  Don't hang around someone trying to cook mexican food who has never ate mexican food.  A guy who gets pissed when you call his burrito an enchilada, and you know darn good an well its a enchilada.

9.  Kata aint practice principle
 
 Kata is a method to preserve historic techniques from another country.  If you practice kata then you can call your self a martial artist, but dont try to sell me on anything..  You do things for the look and the feel, and the presentation. You may like dressing up in a dress and this is the only socially acceptable way to get away with it. I can't speak for you.   But at the end of a the day you might as well be ballet dancing.  Longterm kata training helps you improvise when the shizznit hits the fan, but most folks that swear by kata like improvising as much as Rainman liked  missing the  "Peoples Court".    And any white mans kata is automatically bullshizznit in my book.  And doing kata over and over and over is like preparing for a day that never comes if you think they have some sort of combative, self defense benefit.   Best just do em cause you like em and leave it at that.

10.  If you keep making that face it will freeze that way principle

   Just because you teach something and people actually repeat the movement doesnt make it real, or effective.  The more you say things out loud over and over and over the more they become real.  Remember it all works if people are trained to make it work.  This why randori must have rules, and a way to "win".  A Tomiki Tanto Randori player may be as much of a badass as a badmitton player, but the guy is going to know when he gets better, and what works over time.  Same or Judo, or BJJ.   A structured randori system is the best thing you can have, and the worst thing thing you can have.  But it has to be allowed to go that way person by person.

principle

There was a lot of talk about Principle when I first started my Aikido study.  Same hand, same foot.  Unbendable arm.  Keep your hand in the center, blah, de boring blah.    The principle based argument is that you can go into a pool cue and broken bottle problem and solve it like a nerd with a calculator.  Just because you are aware of "principle",  and can apply it.  On this I will have to pull the Bullshizznit card.

Principle only enters into the picture when you cast aside all the ifs, ands, or buts.  Take Judo for instance.  I have been thrown around by Judo folks, and a good judo player can make you pay for every step you take.  My only solution to a judo player is to hit the guy first, probably in the nuts, or knees, or some other dirty play that you wouldnt do on a dojo mat.

Because the Judo guy trained in an environment where he didnt have to worry about getting his nuts caved in, he is free to get sensitive in a way that he can feel a weight transfer going on. He was given the luxury of not getting slapped in the face or across the ear hole every time he came to grips.  Because he didnt have to deal with that sort of thing he became good at that sensitive thing that judo guys are good at.  He started identifying triggers, and bad situations, and potentials.

I suppose, if the judo guy was facing Cleetus in the trailer park who isnt a trained puncher, yet wants to punch, and chooses punch poorly, the judo guy could probably have an easy go at it.  But line the 2 day a week for six years judo player against Mike Tyson in some sort of road rage fender bender event, then the Judo guy would probably take whatever lady luck would throw at him.

The principles would fail him once he recieved a blow that felt like the impact of a white rhino.  

So when the principles fail, you look for another principle.  And you cast aside all the ifs, ands, or buts that go along with it.  Because principles can get contaminated pretty easy.  Clear water muddies up the best.

What if a guy swings at you, what if a guy pulls a knife, you cant do that against a judo player( as if everyone you ever will meet will be a judo player), that would never work in an MMA match,  what if he uses his elbow,  but if you do this then the guy might do that.  

Recently,  I have started doing some BJJ.  It got me thinking about where is the best place to start learning all this martial arts crap.   I asked a guy who has been doing it for a couple of years what he would do here, and here, and here, what if I did this, or this, or this.  And on the ground he had a lot of immediately provable, understandable answers.  Offbalance is an immediate effect on the ground, putting too much pressure on a guy has an immediate effect, getting handsy has an immediate effect.

It got me thinking about BJJ, about how it was a pretty complex interaction yet pretty darn simple.  I started thinking that all the things that happen on the ground, principle wise, would probably transfer to the stand up game, and if they didnt, then you needed to think along another principle line.  Because on the ground it is pretty clear cut who knows what to do, and who doesn't.   And that BJJ is pretty much all mat time, from day one, everyone can get after it and start looking at things and proving whether something will work or not.

Judo is probably the next best, but there is a lot of time taken to learn how to fall safely in order to absorb a technique and understand the function and effect of a technique.  It becomes uke driven.  I cant honestly say whether BJJ is an Uke driven art.  Anyone can lay on the ground and rassle around.  I can say that it is dumbass driven, because once you commit an error in judgement and another guy knows it and knows what to do about it, then you are toast.

So I think I have identified probably a overreaching principle in the martial arts.  That is the Recognition of Error Principle, and the, What to do about it Principle.

Like I said, I'm working off of the idea that BJJ is probably the best martial art to access these two principles. Judo functions off of a guy trying to keep his balance, keep standing, so its probably the second best.  A guy will have to learn how to fall down safely to explore the neighborhood.  I assume it takes a good while maybe a couple of years to get the feel for standing ukemi.

Aikido is probably about the worst to route to explore principle.  How long does it take to get comfortable being stiff armed in the face, or fall over a twisted wrist.  And from two guys squaring off, separated, how much can you recognize an error, and what in the helll can you do about it.

Tomiki put the atemi waza in as the underpinning of his Aikido.  Because they function much like karate.  A guy drops his guard and you hit him.  Only to score a competive point you have make the guy fall down.  I have always had a problem with my Karl Geis Ryu brethren on this point.  If you are practicing a non-competitive form of aikido then why arent the atemi waza percussive?

 I dont know how many times I have been at a clinic, or get together and some one wants to show yet another take on Gedan Ate and I get paired up with a guy that is way to fat to put a gedan ate on.  He is never going to generate the energy to throw a gedan ate.  The obvious solution is elbow the guy in his obvious bread basket and work from there.  And really I think, that the Atemi waza suck in the KG-ryu because no one wants to take the ukemi for them.  The 23 kata lets a guy circle out of them.  It kind of takes the teeth out of the entire system.

So the first error recognition is when a guy drops his guard.  Just like karate, you hit him.  You dont stick your arms out and feel for it like you can in Judo, or feel for it holistically on the ground in BJJ.   Otherwise you have to be in reactive mode, dodge at the very barest margin, hoping for a catastrophic miss.