De-escalation for maximum learning

The first nine minutes of this video is an excellent lecture by Sensei Bob Rea on what he calls zones - what I've called "edge."

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In a nutshell, Bob says that there are different states of being, or "zones" that uke and tori (and even attackers on the street, etc...) can be in.

• We can be in a SAFE ZONE, where we are comfortable and competent and not at any significant risk of stress or injury, and that is a good place to operate, but not much learning goes on within that SAFE ZONE.
• We can stretch ourselves and get into a LEARNING ZONE, where we are less comfortable and have greater risk, but we have maximum potential for learning.
• Beyond the LEARNING ZONE is a PANIC ZONE.  This is a self-defense type situation in which we react instinctualy to protect ourselves.  No learning goes on in the PANIC ZONE.
• And beyond the PANIC ZONE is what BOB calls the TWILIGHT ZONE - the place where dragons live.  Being in this place scares the hell out of everyone involved and nobody ever wants to go back there once they've peeked across the border.

This is similar in some ways to the classic color code system for self-defense, where you have GREEN, YELLOW, RED, and BLACK alert conditions depending on where you are and what is going on around you.  It is also similar to some stress theory that postulates an inverted-U shaped learning curve where low-stress is non-productive for learning and high-stress is dysfunctional so you want a moderate level of stress.

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What I think is interesting, is it is possible to expand and contract your boundaries (your EDGE).  If you lie on the couch in the dark all the time, the edges between SAFE and LEARNING and PANIC will contract, but if you regularly approach your edge and look around at what happens at the edge and maybe peek over the edge, then you will expand your boundaries.  Some of your LEARNING territory will become SAFE for you and some of your PANIC territory will become a LEARNING ZONE.  You don't have to leap past your edge to expand your boundaries - just approach them regularly and systematically.

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I also really, really like his brief discussion late in this lecture about how the instructor or leader or higher-ranked player in a pair needs to be able to read his own state and that of his partner, and he needs to be able to protect himself (stay out of TWILIGHT and PANIC ZONES) while working to move both partners closer to that edge between LEARNING and SAFE zones.

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I agree, that is an extremely valuable skill - perhaps one of the 2-3 most valuable skills to learn in judo and aikido - de-escalation.

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Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com

Uphill & downhill escapes from kesa

Coming up through the ranks, we always wondered why the uphill escape from kesagatame was called the "uphill" escape.  We joked that the Kodokan must have been built on a slope, so they must have had an escape for uphill and one for downhill - and probably a sideways escape.  Well, that question stuck with me for some years until a few years ago I came upon a satisfactory answer - I don't know if this is the right answer, but it is satisfactory to me.

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The uphill escape is the opposite motion in a lot of ways from the bridge&roll escape, so I got to wondering why the bridge&roll escape wasn't called the "downhill escape."  Well, it turns out that the bridge&roll is the downhill escape.

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When you are lying on your back, in a cross-sectional view from above your head, your chest looks like a hill, sloping downward from your sternum across your ribs to either side. If you plan to roll the guy down the far side of the hill (as in bridge&roll), the easiest way to do it is to start with him on the very top of the hill (resting on your sternum). The easiest way to get them onto your sternum is to turn to face them, loosen their grip on your shoulder a bit, place your sternum against their ribs, and use your free hand to hold them there. Then when they press your shoulders back to the ground, this places them resting on your sternum right on top of the hill, ready for you to start them rolling down the far side when you bridge.

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This explanation of bridge&roll as the "downhill escape" makes the naming of the uphill escape make sense. If the holder is not on the top of the hill, you can't roll them downhill without first picking them up onto the top of the hill (inefficient). So, if they are on the uphill side of you, you do the uphill escape instead of lifting them to the top of the hill.  But if they are already on the very top of the hill (or if you can get them there easily), then roll them down the far side of the hill (bridge&roll).

Photo courtesy of Simmr

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How okay is proficient?

We're supposed to be about self-improvement and mutual benefit and all that jazz in judo and aikido, right? Well, how much improvement counts as sufficiently proficient? How okay do you have to be at something to be satisfied that you are really okay at that?  

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Clarke's law states that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.  Well once you meet that threshold of sufficiently advanced, how do you get better? And if you do get better, are you just more indistinguishable from magic?  If you chase your art form to the point that your skill is magical, how much more magical can your magic get?

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With me, it seems to be a cycle.  Take gedanate for example.  When I started I (of course) had no clue, but after a couple of years I had a great gedanate!  Then I started teaching and my students didn't seem to be able to get the same effect with gedanate that I'd been getting.  Then I realized I couldn't get the thing to work for me anymore!  My students were so bad at gedanate that they made me forget how to do it! ;-)

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My students and I limped through several years of terrible gedanate and I consulted with various gurus and watched all the films, and put in the mat time, and all of a sudden, BAM!  For the past few months, gedanate is amazing again!  Now, though, I am taking that amazing magical gedanate skill with a grain of salt because I'm sure that another layer of suckage is on its way one day.

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I think that this cycle is caused by skill and sensitivity improving at different rates.  For a while, your sensitivity is so poor, it seems amazing when you can get any skill at all to work in a consistent way.  You coast along for a while thinking that you've finally got the skill down but in the meantime, your sensitivity is improving and all of a sudden your skill is no longer sufficient to meet your improved sensitivity.  Then you go for a while feeling like you can't do anything right until you can improve your skill.  Back and forth... There and back again...

This seems to happen at all levels of the art - from micro to macro - from the individual techniques (like gedanate), to large subsets of practice (like randori or kata or suwariwaza) to entire arts (my aikido as a whole waxes and wanes in how I feel about it).

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I suspect some folks are unprepared for the cyclic nature of the path and are unable to tolerate the cognitive dissonance brought on by constantly shifting levels of sensitivity and skill.  Those folks go so far then quit, while other folks are able to deal with periodic suckage - and those folks thrive in the arts.

Photo courtesy of Stefan Schmitz

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Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com

Koryu Dai Ni - introduction

I'm getting ready to go play with the Starkvillians here in a couple of weeks.  We're going to be playing with Koryu Dai Ni.  So, by way of introduction, what can be said about Nikata?

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I've heard it called (only half jokingly) the "sore-knee" kata, because it is has no suwariwaza so it lets crusty old guys with bad knees have a nice rest between Koryu Dai Ichi and Koryu Dai San - both of which have some of the dreaded knee-crawling.

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Nikata is the shortest of the Koryu-no-kata, at only 16 techniques - all tachiwaza (standing techniques) and all taijutsu (empty-handed - no weapons).  Short and sweet!

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It is traditionally divided into two sets - one set of 11 responses to grappling attacks and one set of five responses to yokomenuchi attacks.  I prefer to think about it in three sets  - 3 wrist grab techniques, 8 grappling attacks of increasing intensity, and 5 yokomen attacks.

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I also, in my backward way, like to think of Nikata as "the kata of twos" instead of "kata #2."  There are numerous paired techniques in this kata.  Sure, there are paired techniques throughout the Koryu-no-kata and the Randori-no-kata, but they seem to stand out more clearly here in Nikata.

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There is an emphasis on small footwork - as if tori is confined to a small space.  In most of these techniques, tori stays put, perhaps taking one half-step to adjust his position (sort of like basketball traveling rules).  I like to play Nikata with uke and tori both standing within a 2x6 taped-off section of the mat.  I also like to pretend that I am standing with uke on a pillar of stone and everything outside the taped-off box is molten lava flowing around razor-sharp poisonous stalagmites so I would much rather uke move out of the box than  step out myself (adds a bit of interest factor for my small mind ;-)

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To make up for the inability of tori to move around, there is an emphasis on powerful hip turning and shifting movements that induce offbalance in uke, forcing him to move.  Frequently, tori will force uke to move, clearing some space for tori to then move into - tori often moves into the space that uke had been standing in, or the space that uke needs to be standing in next.

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Another trend in Nikata is there is somewhat of an emphasis on control rather than projection.  Tori tends to drop uke right where he stands rather than throwing them away "over there."  I know, this interferes with tori's innate desire to pitch uke into the lava, but that's just the way it is.

Photo courtesy of SugurdR

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Personal practice between classes

So, what sort of personal solo practices do you folks do to keep occupied between class times and inform your martial arts practices?

Me, for instance, i carry a jo with me wherever i go around the house.  I use it as a walking stick, a pointer, a measuring stick.  I turn lights on and off with it, pick clothes up with it, use it to hang my gi up... I get hundreds of reps per week of the first three aikijo suburi and a good bit of practice with deploying the jo from whatever random positon it is in into honte, gyakute, or sakate.

For the past year I have been experimenting with Popkin's internal strength exercises - both in and out of class - but nowhere near regularly enough.

For the last few months, thanks to Rick Matz, I've gotten a good bit of regular stake standing practice - that i can do wherever i am at - whenever i am standing around i am usually in first position.  These practices feel to me a lot like Popkin's IS exercises.

Lately I have also started mining the Chinese traditions for solo exercises that i can find good instructional materials on, and that has added a bit of bagua circle walking and the beginning ideas in taiji.

Of course, I am also constantly working the Tomiki Judo Taiso ideas wherever I am.  My students like to tease me about my advice to them to do judo taiso whenever you're brushing your teeth.

So, what sort of solo practices do y'all get into?



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Learn to teach, teach to learn

There's this interesting thing in both aikido and judo - an uke-tori relationship in which uke and tori are both learning the art at all times. Each partner is actively feeding off of the other. Both partners learning, both partners teaching, each partner serving as training equipment for the other, each serving as the media through which the art is expressed.  This is part of that "mutual benefit" thing that Kano was always talking about.

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Without one partner or the other, without someone filling both roles, the amount of aikido or judo you can learn is pretty limited.

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The roles of teacher and student are similar to the roles of tori and uke. Both are active, both are giving something and both are receiving something.  Because the teaching of these arts is structured in this mutually-beneficial feedback loop between two partners,

you can't learn the thing without teaching it,

and you cannot teach it without remaining a student.

Photo courtesy of Angel Medinilla

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Where we've been, where we're headed

The beginning of January is, for most folks, a time for reflection and planning seeing where we've been over the past year and trying to figure out where we're going in the next year.  Sure, it's sort of arbitrary to do it at this time.  Sure, we should do it more often - perhaps even constantly.  But I think it is a pretty good custom so long as one does not go overboard and get compulsive about it.

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2012 has been a year of intense personal growth and dojo growth...

• I had the pleasure of seeing two of my long-time students successfully demonstrate for shodan and one for nidan! Congratulations again, Mario, Kel, and Andy!  Keep it up and there is no limit to our potential!
• Weapons emphasis - We instituted regular weapons classes and have improved greatly in jo, ken, and tactical knife.
• We had a lovely ABG here at Mokuren dojo - Jodori and Jonage
• I got to attend the Howard Popkin seminar at Windsong in OKC - Internal strength and Daitoryu
• I got to go teach at Windsong in OKC - Kodokan Junokata
• I got to attend a great get-together with Nick Lowry, Greg Ables, Kyle Sloan, and the gang at Union Judo in Jackson TN
• I got to teach at Full Circle Aikido club in Killeen TX - Owaza & etc.
• I got to teach jo at Wall-to-Wall in Denham Springs a couple of times.
• I got to go teach jo and sword at Akayama at Foley Alabama.
• I got to attend an SMR jo seminar at Dallas TX
• I got to go teach at Richmond VA - Ashiwaza and Junokata
• I got to host the incomparable JW Bode here at Mokuren Dojo for a couple of days.

In 2013...

• This year we will be having an emphasis on Koryu-dai-ni, Koryu-dai-go kata, and Kodokan Goshin Jutsu.
• I fully expect to see two more of my students demonstrate for shodan this spring - It's coming down to the finish, Jason and Todd! At least the finish of the first step!
• I would like to schedule one seminar or teaching trip per month with the exception of October (ABG in Magnolia) and April (rank testing in Magnolia)
• Two weekends each month will be spent shooting, hunting, or camping with the family.
• I'm looking forward to seeing the growth and flourishing of my students' clubs - Union Judo, Konwakai Dojo, and Kazoku Dojo

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Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com

Joining the conversation

Aikido and Judo etc... are self-defense and physical exercise - sure - but if you do them solely for those purposes, I think they are kinda limited.  They are more.  They are fine arts and they are self-development disciplines.

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Back in ye olde time days, there were several of these disciplines that people used besides martial arts.  People prayed, meditated, and journaled.  Frequently nobody ever read their journals, but journaling was considered invaluable for the discipline.

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Blogging is the modern form of journaling.  I recommend all my students consider starting a blog because it can enhance your martial arts experience greatly.

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Down south we call antennae "feelers"

Our muscles and tendons surrounding our joints contain position sensors - proprioceptors - that are constantly feeding our brain information.  These sensors are the reason that you can touch the tip of your nose or clap your hands or scratch just the right spot on the back of your head without looking.  As your joints move through space, they keep your brain apprised of where they are and what they are doing.

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Except when they don't.  Y'all have seen in movies the field sobriety test in which a police officer asks someone to stretch their arms out, tilt their head back, close their eyes, and touch the tips of their fingers to their nose.  Well, there is another thing besides alcohol that can inhibit your proprioceptive sense of where your joints are and what they are doing - isometric muscular contraction.

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When you contract the muscles on both sides of a joint to lock it into place, you essentially turn off the position sensors in that joint. Essentially you can think of it like this - if you will not allow your joints to move, then you will not allow the motion sensors in them to work.

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One instructor told it like this - your muscles have two mutually exclusive modes - feeling or doing.  When you are doing something with your muscles then you cannot use them to feel.  When you are feeling things with your muscles, you cannot do (much) with them.

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In judo and aikido we are forever preaching "relax,"and, "don't stiff-arm," and, "not so much upper body." etc....  This is because in our normal practice mode we don't want to brick our brain up in an impregnable fortress of muscle - you would rather be able to use your mind to tilt the odds in your favor and to do so, you have to give it a constant stream of input.  If you turn off your inputs (by strengthing up) then you are being counter-productive.

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You can also think of it as easier to learn how our bodies are interacting if you have light, pliable feelers on the other guy's body constantly feeding you information like a bug's antennae. 

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It's not (too) difficult to figure out how this works with your hands.  What is really interesting is when your feet start acting like feelers or antennae during ashiwaza!  When you start reaching out and checking what uke's doing with a foot instead of trying to kick uke out of the ground. Four antennae are better than two ;-)

Photo courtesy of aussiegall

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Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com

Uke determines the flavor of the aiki

There are a lot of different flavors of aikido out there.  If you search a little bit, you can find an instructor and a class where you can be as light and airy or as powerful and grounded as you want.  You can find more linear approaches or more circular.  You can even find different feels under different names ranging from hapkido to aikijujutsu to shintaido.

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To a large extent, the feel and flavor of the aikido that you get is determined by how you train uke (the receiver) to do his thing.

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Above is the first in a series of several videos where Nick discusses how we prefer to train our ukes to behave.  One thing that I find interesting about this approach is he talks about dialing uke's intensity level in so as to maximize the amount of communication going on between the partners and maximize the learning occurring in both partners.

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You don't want an uke that is programmed to jump on his head when you wave at him, and you don't want someone that is going to go full-blast 100% pedal-to-the-metal the whole time.  The optimal uke, it turns out, is somewhere in the middle of that spectrum.

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You have to have your uke attuned to that Mutual Benefit thing.

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Hikiotoshi-uchi shibboleth

(Geseundheit)

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Of all the kihon and drills and practices in SMR jo curriculum, it seems to me that the paired form of kihon #3 - hikiotoshi-uchi  - is the shibboleth.  I bet that by watching a handful of repetitions of hikiotoshiuchi, an instructor could pretty closely diagnose where the student stands in their overall understanding and skill.

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Hikiotoshi seems to be the shibboleth that separates super from sucky.  The sucky hikiotoshi says something like "CLACK" or "tap-SMACK," while the super hikiotoshi uchi whispers something like, "ka-shwhoooooooshhh."

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A few times last night I heard the ka-shwoooosh on my right sided hikiotoshiuchi but the more I tried it, the more CLACK I heard.  My left side consistently said tap-SMACK.

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Hikiotoshiuchi is the bane of my existence.

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____________________
Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com

Shooting for a double (morotegari)

One of the mainstays of some forms of jujutsu and amateur wrestling, which was fairly recently removed from judo tournament play by an inane governing body is shooting-in for a double leg pick (morotegari in judo).  I personally think that morotegari is a very important thing to leave in play because judoka will encounter this thing if they want to play with jujutsu guys AND because it is one of the most-commonly seen attacks in American streets.

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I can sort of see why this technique was de-emphasized (but not removed completely) in classical judo - it is so intuitive that it can easily become the only takedown anyone tries.  Judo can devolve into players taking turns attempting a tackle.  It is also incredibly easy to mis-apply or to execute poorly.

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Following are a handful of helpful hints for making the most of morotegari

• Drop before you shoot-in.  In an upright natural posture, your legs are positioned to hold you off the ground but not to make fast, powerful horizontal motions.  Take a hint from the best in the world at making sudden horizontal displacements (sprinters) - and drop into a crouch similar to a sprinter's start before you shoot-in.
• Morotegari is not properly done as a pick-up.  You use your hands/arms to hold uke's legs in place, while you push uke over backward with your shoulder or chest.  Alternately, if you can hit them while they are floating then you can pull both legs out from under them and rotate them around your shoulder, but this is a much harder feat to pull off (HA! get it? Pullling Feat... Pulling feet! I'm funny! ;-)
• Spearing is stupid and rightly-illegal in competition.  You do not hit/push their body with your head because this endangers your own neck.  Turn your head aside, as if listening to their hip or belly, and push with your upper chest or your shoulder.
• Landing on your belly or your knees at uke's feet is not a good finish.  As uke begins to fall, tori needs to either disengage and run away, or scramble/roll upward into a controlling position.
• Watch out for the side-step, the sprawl, the guillotine, and the bale throw.  These are the most common defenses, and you pretty much have to experience both sides of morotegari in randori a bunch to figure out how these defenses work and how to bypass them.
  

Photo courtesy of Mike Oliveri

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____________________
Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com

Ego and power in judo

There is something about judo that is at the same time, both un-intuitive and exquisitely sensible (once it is explained) - the concept of ju - The idea that by yielding before force you can overwhelm it - SAY WHAT?!

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You might think about it this way...

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It doesn't make too much sense to practice dealing with people that you already have the power to easily throw down, control, and submit.  If you can throw someone whenever you want to, why bother practicing throwing them?  You've already got it.

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That is why, when we are practicing hold-downs and uke starts bridging and pushing out of the hold, instead of holding tighter and trying harder to maintain control, we yield and go wherever uke is trying to make us go - even if it places us at a disadvantage.  Because we assume that there will come a day that we may grab someone that has sufficient power to force us out of that position - and when faced with overwhelming force, we'd better have some experience being a pliant receiver. 

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That is why, when we are practicing throws and tori makes a pretty good approximation of the throw (as we understand it), uke yields and falls.  Because we assume that one day someone will surprise us and whip us into the ground totally against our will, and when that happens, we would like to have a few thousand repetitions of skillfully receiving and dissipating that type of force.

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That is why, when we are trying a submission and the opponent (naturally) opposes it, we don't lean in and pile on more weight and effort to force it to work - we move to something else - somewhere that we can have an effect AND be unopposed. 

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There is something about our ego that makes us delight in being tori and doing, and steering, and forcing the future into the shape of our own imagining.  But it turns out that the more valuable skill is being able to bend the self and the ego to conform to the real shape of the future.

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When you possess the power to make the world work like you like, you have the power - we are practicing to learn how to deal with the times when we don't have the power.

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The real hard part is how to trick or beat or otherwise coerce the ego into submission.

Photo courtesy of Simmr

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Patrick Parker

www.mokurendojo.com

Victorian era judo carol

I saw my sensei turning-in On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day; I saw my sensei turning-in On Christmas Day in the morning.

And what throw was he setting up, On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day? And what throw was he setting up, On Christmas Day in the morning?

Deashibarai into Osoto, On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day; Deashibarai into Osoto, On Christmas Day in the morning.

So how was that combo working out, On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day; So how was that combo working out, On Christmas Day in the morning?

I think I hit the stratosphere, On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day; I think I hit the stratosphere, On Christmas Day in the morning.

And sensei really rang my bell, On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day; And sensei really rang my bell, On Christmas Day in the morning.

And all my students were watching me, On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day; And all my students were watching me, On Christmas Day in the morning.

And they all saw him knock me out, Upon the mat, upon the mat; And they all saw him knock me out, Upon the mat in the morning

I don't think that I'll live it down, Till next Christmas, Till next Christmas; I'm sure I will not live it down, Till next Christmas or the next one!