I promised my readers a couple of weeks ago that soon I would reveal the secret to my amazing success with getting my kids' judo class to practice nagenokata without dying from boredom. My secret - I am a follower of the Midori Hanakuso Ho - an ancient practice of the greatest masters of judo.
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Midori Hanakuso Ho translates (somewhat loosely) to The Green Booger Methodology.
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Yes, you read that right. See, kids seem to love the idea of green boogers just as much as they hate the formality of kata. The clever coach can use that little piece of child psychology to a great advantage if he can just incorporate a green booger or two into his teachings.
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Take, for instance, the first technique of Nagenokata - ukiotoshi. Uke initiates the attack by stepping forward to take a right sided normal grip on tori's jacket and tori fades back, overextending uke and drawing him into a forward rolling breakfall.
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Getting kids to do the formal attack correctly is like... Well, let's just say it's excruciating! This is where the Green Booger Methodology comes into play.
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Tell the kids to imagine that uke has just sneezed up a huge, slimy, stretchy green booger into the palm of his right hand. And tell uke that his attack is to step forward with his right foot to step on tori's left foot so he can't escape as uke wipes the gross, viscid lump onto tori's jacket. They get the idea instantly! And not only that, tori knows just what he has to do to avoid getting slimed. Tori has to step back with his left foot to keep from getting pinned in place, and he has to get control of uke's arms so that no booger-wiping occurs.
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From there it is just a matter of a little coaching and adjustment to make ukiotoshi happen quite nicely.
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Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com
