Once in every generation...

Stephen King wrote his greatest masterpiece, The Stand, after hearing a radio preacher ranting, "once in every generation the plague will fall among them!" This phrase struck him as so creepy that he typed it out and hung it above his typewriter as inspiration. In the novel he places those exact words in the mouth of his prophetess, Abagail Freemantle. Once in every generation...

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The other day, I posted a link and some quotes from Tom Peters' blog in which he discusses the new, foreboding World at Risk report of WMDs and bioterrorism. Today I saw the follow-up at the Anderson Cooper 360 blog, in which AC recommends the following book:

For a sense of what that would mean take a look at The Great Influenza, a powerful book about the epidemic of 1918 which killed 20 to 40 million people worldwide. In excruciating detail author John Barry writes about the disease and what it wrought. Then imagine something like that in our world.

Both the Stephen King quote and the AC360 blog post seem very prescient, particularly when I think of my particular family. see, my dad was born in 1919 during that pandemic that AC mentioned as killing 20-40 million people. For reference purposes, at that time there were just over 100 million people in the United States. Twenty some-odd years later, my oldest brother was born - during the 1951 flu pandemic, which some researchers figure was worse than the 1919 flu. I come from a large-ish family - five brothers, of which I am the youngest, having been born in 1969. Incidently, 1969 was during the third major flu pandemic of the century.

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Being Presbyterian, we are strong believers in providence. God takes care of his people. But being southern and American, we also have this deep appreciation for the old axiom that 'God takes care of those who take care of themselves.' (Not a Biblical quote, rather a quote from Ben Franklin's 1757 Poor Richard's Alminack.)

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Anyway, I'm interested in what can we do to help ourselves in the face of this impending health and infrastructure crisis, other than the tips I've posted on before. What do y'all think?

The thin red line

There is a thin line between pre-emptive attack and counterattack.  I'm not saying that pre-emptive attack is a bad strategy- sometimes it's a pretty good way of defending yourself.  I'm also not saying that counterattacking is morally superior to pre-empting aggression, but think about this...

• At what point do you cross the line and become the aggressor - the one responsible for precipitating greater violence and chaos?
• At what point have you waited too long and you are forced into a reactive role?

The thin line depends on prediction, which is shaky because chaotic violence is outside most folks field of experience – you have little or nothing upon which to base a prediction.

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So, does pre-emptive attack play a role in your martial art or your self defense strategy, and if so, how do you know when to pull the trigger?

Daigo quote on seoinage

Here's a quote from Daigo's Kodokan Throwing Techniques, in which he addresses our current discussion of seoinage as done with-crack or sans-crack.  He seems to be pro-crack from a competition practicality standpoint, but he seems to say that the pure-hand, no-crack version is essential for understanding the action of the thing.

Be prepared

This is a great post on homeland preparedness, and a sensible call for us - all of us - to get ready.

...publication yesterday of the report of the Commission on the Prevention of WMD Proliferation and Terrorism. In short, the report virtually promised a major WMD attack on the U.S. homeland within the next five years, by 2013—and said that deaths in the hundreds of thousands could well be the tally...

... I think that no-bullshit training and organizing of you and me and our neighbors in Civil Defense, not unlike World War II practices, should share top billing...

...you and I should be exceptionally well trained and exceptionally well organized to be part of the solution, a big part, rather than part of the problem...

...My entire "training" since 9/11 has amounted to half listening to airport announcements telling me to look out for suspicious things. That is a pathetic request for my involvement. And I'll bet things don't change much—or at all.

My bottom line, and others have said this, is that I, and I suspect you, stand ready for my country to ask much of me in defending our homeland...

DR posted a while back and I followed up with some suggestions to get ready. Might be the best self-defense training you ever got.

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Following are some good resources for disaster preparedness...

• http://www.ready.gov/are-you-ready-guide
• http://www.prepare.org/
• http://www.72hours.org/
• http://www.fema.gov/areyouready/

Seoinage is not a crack-of-the-butt throw

If you look at the old texts on judo, like the Kodokan book or the Canon or Daigo's book, seoinage is considered a hand throw, not a hip throw, meaning that the hand action is of primary interest in the the technique. Most folks though, teach seoinage as a large hip throw (what I call a 'crack of the butt throw' because you put the crack of your butt on their thigh as a fulcrum). Check out this video of Mike Swain's seoinage. I certainly can't gripe about his form, it is a beautiful, powerful, flowing hip throw, but it is pretty obviously a crack of the butt throw. Notice he specifically mentions overturning the feet to get more power - that positioning of the feet makes his buttcrack line up better with uke's thigh. Thus a crack of the butt throw.

...and here is the Nagenokata form - pure hand throw. Not only is there no buttcrack on the front thigh, there is almost no hip at all. The very side or corner of tori's hip might brush uke's front thigh on the way by but it's pretty obvious that there's no fulcrum at the hip - thus a hand throw instead of a hip throw.

The question - can we get the hand throw version of this thing to work in randori against a resistive opponent or do we just give up the ideal and allow seoinage to become a crack of the butt hip throw because this form is faster and easier to teach beginners?

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UPDATE:

• Check out Colin's post, about a hip throw in the Dosan kata, for a TKD perspective on this throw.

Shodan or Ichidan

In the Japanese martial arts, the black belt ranks are known as dan ranks.  There are several dan ranks, often ten.  Have you ever noticed that the prefixes on the dan titles are numbers - except for first dan:

shodan

nidan - 2nd dan

sandan - 3rd dan

yondan - 4th dan

godan - 5th dan

rokudan - 6th dan

shichidan - 7th dan

hachidan - 8th dan

kudan - 9th dan

judan - 10th dan

Since they are all numbers, you'd expect the first black belt level to be titled, ichidan (literally 1st dan) but the title for the first level is shodan.  The prefix sho means face or front or superficial.  Why did they do this?  There is a cool story about that.

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Apparently, because the Japanese character for ichi is one horizontal mark, ni is two horizontal marks stacked, and san is three horizontal marks stacked, if the instructor were to write the certificate using the character ichi, then an unscrupulous student could go around the corner, take his own brush, and instantly promote himself to sandan by drawing two more strokes.  I don't know if this ever happened or if this story is apocryphal (why would you teach someone who would do that anyway?), but it's a cool and interesting story.

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I think that shodan (meaning beginning rank) conveys the sense of the true meaning of the rank better than does ichidan (first grade).  Shodan is a beginning.  You have just gotten to the point that you understand the superficial foundations of the art.  You have come to a point that you can see the face of the art.  You are competent to practice the basics of the art.  You have only just begun.

Lesson plans, week of 12/1/2008

Here's what I plan to work on this week...
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Kid's Judo

• Ukemi - forward roll, oozing, and flipping a turtle
• osotogari - "any time he steps forward, sidestep and throw."
• deashibarai - "any time he steps back, slip the front foot."
• randori - continuing getting the rules of the game ingrained and preparing for club shiai 2nd weekend of December.

Adult Judo

• We've had abbreviated weeks for the past 2 weeks and I haven't stuck to the previous lesson plan very well, so we'll re-run last time's lesson plan:
• Yellow belt technical review - particularly for Jesse & Justin and particularly working on how to do a good technical demo.
• talk about the ippon ideal vs. sufficient proficiency - how to self-check for ippon each time during nagekomi
• taking the fight to the ground in a dominant position
• starting defending on the way down if you are going to be the bottom man

Aikido

• techniques from release#2
• White belts will be doing hanasu 1-4, two motion templates, shomenate and aigamaeate, with some emphasis on how to do a good demo
• Brown & black belts will be doing junanahon kata floating - kotetaoshi, maeotoshi, sumiotoshi, hikiotoshi. Kotegaeshi is also such a floaty thing that we'll play with it even though it is not officially in the floating throw set.
• Everyone will be playing with techniques from #2, release #6, release#8, shihonage, and tenkai kotegaeshi throwing into the lock on the ground.
• We'll probably all play with kataotoshi and kubiguruma into a crashpad as the cool technique of the night

Pay attention - aikido is not circular.

Some folks like to characterize aikido as a circular martial art. Some folks like to talk about various styles that may be more (Aikikai, Ki society) circular or less (Tomiki) circular. Some of these folks have even characterized Tomiki aikido as being linear instead of circular (and thus, not really aikido). At first glance, it may appear that our aikido is a more flowing, circular form of the Tomiki aikido from which it evolved.

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I hate to break it to y'all, but there is no such thing as circular motion in the context of human movement. People can't move in a circle. People can't even move in straight lines either, so you can't characterize aikido as linear vs. circular. People move in a series of short line segments and short arcs, zig-zagging left and right across a central tendency of direction. The closest to circular motion that we can make is standing on one foot and turning around the hip joint, which is an arc, but cannot be continued into a circle without stepping a line between arcs.

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Following is a pretty good video of Bruce Frantzis 'walking a circle' in Bagua practice. I think this provides a pretty good example of what I'm talking about - movement that looks circular but if you look closer, is actually complex linear motion. Incidently, if I remember rightly, Bruce Frantzis is one of the proponents of the idea that Aikido evolved from Chinese martial arts like Bagua, or that Aikido and Bagua had common ancestors... Interesting... For more on that tangent, check out Dojo Rat's posts on Bruce Frantzis' Bagua and Aikido and Bagua.

Here's another CMA guy who is talking about 'walking in circles' and I think it is perhaps more obvious in this vid that the circles are actually lines...

Sometimes it can be a useful mental construct to imagine that your motion is circular, and not to put too fine a  point on it, but if you want to be careful and precise, pay attention and you will see the same motions as lines and arcs. I find it more useful (most of the time) to work in reality (lines and arcs) than in idealized mental constructs (circles).

Chi-tards

Boy, I thought that Dave had found nearly the ultimate example a few months ago of a bunch of chi-tards and their hippie shenanigans, but thanks to Todd for turning me onto this... spectacle...

What is the objective of the judo game?

 

In football we win by moving the ball across the goal line or between the goal posts. In baseball we win by hitting the ball and running safely around the bases. In judo we are wrestling - sorta - but what is the goal?

• The overall goal of the judo game is to throw your opponent to the ground and hold him on his back for several seconds.
• Sometimes a throw is so spectacular, so technically perfect, that the referree ends the match and awards the victory to the thrower. This is called 'ippon.' This is done to award spectacular proficiency in the throwing part of the game.
• Sometimes while grappling on the ground you may bend the opponent's elbow or apply a choking technique sufficient to make the opponent submit.  For this you win instantly.  This is done to award spectacular proficiency at the ground grappling part of the game.

There...That's all there is to it. Sounds pretty simple, huh? Well, there turns out to be a lot to it and it can provide a lifetime of exercise and diversion. If this sounds fun to you, send me an email at mokurendojo@gmail.com and I'll get you set up for classes or try to help you however I can.

How to teach aikido to older adults

A while back I wrote a short article about why aikido is a great martial art for older adults. As short as the article was, it elicited some controversy when I suggested that striking arts or grappling arts might (IMO) be of limited use for older adults. One commentator asked if I thought 80 year olds would be able to sustain the falling frequently associated with aikido. My response was,

No, most everyone with any sense slows way down on the ukemi [falling practice]after about 40 or 45 and stops almost entirely sometime soon after that. This is simple self-protection. Fortunately, you don't have to fall down to do aikido...

I have run a decent-sized cohort of beginners [in their 80's] and they did great...
These octogenerians did aikido just like everyone else and worked on the same stuff.

The only other training tool common in aikido that I'd dispense with for 80 year olds is suwari [practicing techniques while kneeling] - but that is an after-black-belt thing anyway. sort of a neat little bit of historical preservation, and not really a core training method of aikido. I have seen people with bad knees perform suwari seated in chairs. Works great. So, in summary, yes, 80 year olds can do all the same aikido that the youngsters do - except ukemi and kneeling suwariwaza.

So, what aspects of aikido do I emphasize and de-emphasize for elders?

• No suwariwaza (kneeling techniques), or perhaps suwari from chair
• Minimal, easy ukemi (falling), maybe only w/ crashpad
• Emphasis on lower extremity strength/flexibility and balance. Footwork exercises can be done very slowly, leading to great increases in balance and mobility. Basically this is aikido done in a slow, deliberate way in order to get some of the proven benefits of taichi. Note that I'm not saying that slow aiki=taichi. It is not, but slow aiki does have some of the same physical health benefits as slow taichi practice.
• Wrist releases and chains of techniques based on wrist releases
• Evasion and brush-off
• Toshu randori (slow sparring) again, I am hesitant to draw connections between aikido and taichi, but this slow-motion partner exercise has many similarities to some of the push-hands practice I've seen tai chi guys doing.

Working in this way on this large subset of aikido is easily within many elders' ability and it produces great martial artists, in many ways equal or superior to their younger counterparts.

How to teach children aikido

So, how do you go about teaching kids aikido? The common view, at least in the judo world, is that you shouldn't teach young kids chokes or joint locking techniques because of the potential risk to growth plates in their long bones. Some jiujitsu teachers are able to work these techniques in relative safety with kids but I think if I were to teach a class of kids aikido, here's some of what I'd do to avoid chokes, joint locks, and etc...

• Mobility games
• Ukemi - lots and lots of ukemi
• Walking kata
• Evasion drills with partners
• Brush-off and escape
• Wrist releases
• Aikido atemiwaza (shomenate, aigamaeate, etc...)
• Suwariwaza and kokyudosa (kneeling knock-down games)
• Positional newaza basics
• Cool ki tricks (mind games, concentration, etc…)
• Talk about how to deal with interpersonal conflict
• Situational self defense
• Competition of some sort - not sure how I'd do this because all the competitive aikido randori systems I've seen are awful.

So, there's still a lot of aikido and pre-aikido that we could do. Much of the pre-aikido stuff is identical to the pre-judo stuff we do in kiddie judo. You know, the more I think about kiddie aiki the more fun it sounds...

Interview: Daniel Camarillo

Today I am pleased to present an interview that I recently did with Dan Camarillo, awesome Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competitor and and 20+ year judo veteran. Dan has a lot to say in this interview about teaching kids judo, the roles of parent vs. coach vs. referee, and avoiding injury in martial arts. Enjoy...

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PATRICK PARKER: I interviewed your brother, Dave Camarillo, a few months ago and learned a LOT about the relationship between judo and jiu-jitsu. I wouldn't want to pit brother against brother, but honestly, brothers hardly ever agree 100% on anything, so was there anything Dave said in that interview that surprised you or that you think about differently?.

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DANIEL CAMARILLO: My brother and I have the same views when it comes to Judo, JiuJitsu, MMA or any other Martial Arts. I read David’s interview and did not read anything I would disagree on. We both had our problems from our last instructor, but that alone is not what made us believe in free training.

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Our father always brought in new instructors or even entire teams from Japan to help us out. We even traveled to Fresno and sometimes as far as San Jose to get the best training. I spent a couple of my summers in Japan instead of goofing off between school breaks. When we did start JiuJitsu all that changed and we never left our academy until certain events opened our eyes again. Now I tell all my students that, “I don’t know everything and the best way to become a top competitor is to visit other schools and learn what you can.”

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PATRICK: How did your dad manage to send you to Japan or to bring in teams of players to give you new training partners and greater experience? Sounds expensive!

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DANIEL: It is very expensive. My brother and I have traveled just about our whole lives. When someone talks about a place in the US, I can usually say I have been there. Although, most of the time it was not for site seeing, it was to compete, and when the competition was over, it was time to go back home. My father owns his own insurance company and does very well. My mother works for Gallo right now, but has always had a good job. Together they have always had enough to send us where ever we needed to be for training and competition experience.

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I always say we have been very fortunate to be able to do so. There are athletes out there that do not have that luxury to travel and compete like we did. Judo has always been at the bottom in the US for funding competitors. If it was football or baseball, they would get the funding they need. They get scholarships for college, and the Judo athletes are just as good of an athlete as any of the sports out there.

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PATRICK: You guys got started early in life doing judo with your dad. I'm in a similar situation, teaching my sons (currently ages 7, 5, and 4) kiddie judo. The 7- and 5-year olds are really starting to take off in their practice after about a year of training and they are a joy to watch. Do you have any advice on teaching kids from your own experiences? What would you do the same or different from how your dad taught you guys?

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DANIEL: When I was younger, I did not understand why my father pushed me so much. I did quit several times. Now that I am older, I am very thankful for what my father pushed me through. I look back and wish I would have realized this sooner, because I would have trained even harder. Teaching a young child the importance to train is the hardest part. But if you can figure that one out, please let me know. :-)

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I am actually expecting a child and I will encourage them to learn. If they become good at it, I will most likely push them, but as long as they have the knowledge I am ok with that.

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As for teaching kids. I think the most important is to make sure they are enjoying it. Once they hit a little more of a mature age, then you can start to push them and see how they take it. It also depends on how far they want to go in that sport, if they don’t have some drive, it will never work.

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I want to add this. There is a huge difference in being pushed by your coach than your father. Most people will rebel if its from their father than their coach. I would advise to only push so much and let the coach do most of it. If the parents encourage more than push, I think you will get a better result. My father was both, so I think that also had to do with me always wanting to quit. My father had a very hard task, because David and I would try to get out of practice a lot. But like I said, in the end I am very thankful for everything my parents did.

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PATRICK: There is a perpetual debate in judo circles as to whether competition is good or bad for kids? What have you seen as the plusses and minusses of coming up from an early age with your dad explicitly wanting y'all to be champion competitors.

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DANIEL: I think this question could be for any sport. Not everyone is able to pick up on a sport and if that kid is not able to, then don’t push them to become a champion. It does not mean they cant train or compete. But when you expect too much from someone and they can not deliver, it can drive them away, from not only the sport, but who ever is pushing them. A fellow training partner a long while ago was pushed. When he left the house to compete, his father would tell him not to call if he did not win. I think that is a terrible way to treat your kid. That person quit Judo a long time before I ever did, even though he was good. You should always encourage them.

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I have always thought the best time to start someone is at a young age. The more time you spend in a sport, the more you will learn. Competition is another word for experience, the more you compete, the more experience you will have. Starting a kid to compete at a young age is not bad.

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PATRICK: How do you see the martial arts – especially judo and juijitsu – growing and changing?

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DANIEL: Judo has fallen. There was a point in time for 10 years straight, when my brother and I would compete almost every single Sunday in Judo. We lived in Bakersfield at the time and would travel all over California. But if you look for Judo tournaments now, you will be lucky to find one competition every other month. I have also noticed the level of the competition in the US has dropped, and all this started when the UFC started.

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UFC blew up JiuJitsu, and now there is a JiuJitsu competition just about every weekend in California. It would be nice if Judo would pick back up. JiuJitsu is not complete without Judo, those sports need each other. Combining Judo and Jiujitsu is what made my brother and I successful in competition.

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PATRICK: Most everybody who expresses an opinion on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and judo says that judo guys should learn some groundwork from the BJJ guys and the BJJ guys should learn some throws from the judo guys. What specific skills or techniques in particular do you think each art can offer the other?

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DANIEL: This is a very good question. Both sports have something to offer, at the same time they have moves that won’t work in the other sport. For instance: In Judo, you can end a match in seconds by throwing your opponent on his back with a perfect throw. But in JiuJitsu, you can jump to guard. You can not do that in Judo or the match will be over when you hit the ground. As for JiuJitsu, If you don’t execute a throw like seoinage correctly, you can get choked out.

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So I don’t use all my Judo throws in JiuJitsu. Although I do use seoinage, I just make sure its fast and accurate. I try to stick with a lot of leg techniques like foot sweeps. I love uchimata and my uchimata switch. Uchimata is probably one of the best you can use because of the way your opponents land can open an opportunity for an armlock, or even taking their back.

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Jiujitsu has really fine tuned my submissions. I have always been good at armlocks, but now I completely understand the details of them and have even created different ways of executing them. My chokes have always been week, but it still has helped out by doing double attacks for an armlock. As for the sweeps and reversals, I have gotten a lot better since I started JiuJitsu.

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So both sports helps out each other and I believe is a must.

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PATRICK: Both judo and juijitsu are rough sports. Which do you think is more likely to injure the participants? What kinds of injuries have you seen in your career?

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DANIEL: Like my brother said in his interview. There is nothing harder than Judo. There was a thread on a JiuJitsu forum that talked about this exact question. I responded by saying Judo is the roughest Martial Arts there is due to how hard the training is and how explosive the throws are. Not only that, the twisting your body takes. Some of the people who responded did not agree. Well, I have trained at some of the hardest Judo and JiuJitsu schools, and still say Judo is the roughest! Let me put it this way, try getting thrown about 40 times a night for a week by top Judo Competitors while training like a top wrestling school. JiuJitsu has very few throws and most school do not even focus on those throws properly. Yes, the JiuJitsu training can be rough and you can get your arm popped a few times, but its still not close to Judo.

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In Judo I have had my shoulder just about dislocated. I have had my knee pop three times, and all those times I could not walk for about a month. I have been arm locked from a standing position where my opponent landed on my arm extended with his full weight. I was out for two months without even being able to move it. A lot of the top players have had either Shoulder Surgery or Knee Surgery from Judo. I have had Shoulder surgery and its all because of one throw, seoinage.

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In JiuJitsu, I have had my arm popped and my knee. Most of my jiujitsu injuries are from submissions, ankle knee and arm. Nothing near as bad as landing on my shoulder with someone on your back.

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I have broken toes and finger in both sports.

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PATRICK: Talking about injury in these sports, the judo guys outlawed chokes and armbars below about teenage but the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu guys seem to be able to have pre-teens compete safely with these elements allowed. What's going on here? Are chokes and joint manipulations safe for kids or not?

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DANIEL: Now we are getting into reffing. In Judo a ref does not touch the players at all. They wear suits and are very organized. When someone is tapping, they yell “Ippon” and the match is over. They expect the players to stop and go back to their places and they award the win. You can not do this with kids. Assuming a kid knows when to tap is not being safe. You have no idea what that kid is being taught as far as attitude and knowing when to give up. Will they change their way? Probably not, its been this way for a long time and its been safe.

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In JiuJitsu, the refs interact. They get on top of the action, when they are not on their cell phones, and if they see a submission they grab you to let you know the match is over. So when it comes to pre-teens, they even stop the match without a tap. If the kid is already in a full armlock, most of the time they stop that match right away and award the other kid the win. To me, this is saying two things. One, the ref is being very safe and protecting the kid. Two, its also saying that maybe the kid does not know when to tap and might hurt himself. Meaning it is unsafe.

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I will teach my kids armlocks and chokes right away. I will even allow them to compete with submissions. But I will be a parent and teach them to give up when they know they are finished. I can understand being in the Nationals or World Championships and not wanting to tap. But any normal tournament and not tapping is taking away your training days.

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PATRICK: Thank you so much for your time and for agreeing to do this interview with me. I've really enjoyed it and learned a lot from it, and I know my readers will too.

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DANIEL: Thank you very much for wanting to interview me. I wish the best for your kids, keep them training and hopefully they will understand the how fortunate they are to be learning Judo and JiuJitsu.

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We're back from camping...

We're back, and everyone survived.  Want to see some film footage of our adventures?  Check out the following movie in which I am played by John Candy and Elise is played by Annette Benning: