Connections between Junokata, Koshiki, and Nanatsu!

You know what is really cool?  When you have both enough time in a body of work, and the opportunity to step back from it far enough that you can see the themes and motifs running through it.  Judo is like this.

Hirano sensei's interesting kaeshiwaza

At about 5:05 in this video of Hirano Sensei doing Nanatsu no Kata, he does a really interesting counter.  Uke is turning in for something like TKgoshi and Sensei just takes a knee.  Uke falls as if it were a taniotoshi, but tori's action looks like a backwards ukiotoshi.

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So... what name would you guys give that thing?

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____________________
Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com

Syllabus and drills are encoded in the kata

What does kata give to judo as an art?  A lot of things, but the one I'm thinking about today is - Kata gives your instructor a syllabus and a set of suggested drills - sort of like a set of bullet points on what to teach when.

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Take for instance, Nage no kata.  This kata can serve as a reminder to instructors of appropriate skills to work on...

• Nage shows some suggested possible defenses against three of the most common attacks experienced on the street - an overhand right to the head, a two-handed chest-level grab/push, and an encircling low grappling sort of hug.  Three things that can easily get overlooked if we concentrate too much on how to win tournaments.
• Nage shows a wide range of technical responses - hand throws, hip throws, foot throws, and two kinds of sacrifices.  This is a huge technical range that is easily enough to stretch any instructor into teaching beyond his tokuiwaza.
• Nage shows some lessons about how to vary throws based on uke's resistance - for instance, the ukigoshi-haraigoshi-tsurigoshi sequence.
• Nage shows some lessons about good ways to teach particular actions - for instance, the side-to-side okuriashi action is a good drill to get folks working on okuriashi, but it seems to never occur that way in randori.  In randori it happens stepping around the corner, but it seems to be harder to teach stepping around the corner into okuriashi to beginners whereas the side-to-side okuri is an easy introductory drill.
• Nage teaches uke how to handle a wide variety of falling actions.

The list could go on and on.  So, Nage no kata is like a set of bulleted reminders to the teacher about what to teach and how to try teaching it.

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Ju no kata is the same way.  It's hard to see specific ways that the techniques (as demonstrated) in Ju no kata can be used in randori (which Kano said was its purpose), But when you look at it like a set of reminders of topics and prescribed drills, it makes much more sense instantly.  Take the first technique, for instance.  To be able to do this movement, ...

• Uke and tori must develop a good perception of ma-ai, a smooth, graceful tsugiashi, and an understanding of how to deliver and receive a deceptive attack to the face -  so the 3-step approach works as a drill.
• Tori is learning to yield out of the way and disrupt uke's timing and balance.
• Uke and Tori are both learning a very common reversal for a rear attack and tori is learning how to diffuse that reversal.
• Uke is learning to know when he has been had - while still testing tori's control (by bridging back onto tori)

The fact that this technique is first, and is similar in structure to the rest of Junokata suggests that is a good way to teach any technique - that is,...

• Teach how the technique develops during the transition from hamare to kumi judo.
• Teach the technique from both points of view - uke and tori.
• Make sure that the technique fits the Ju ideal of judo.
• Teach how to reverse it or the weaknesses where the technique can be broken.
• Teach how to recover a broken technique.
• Teach uke how to safely submit when he is truly compromised.

Once you have taught one good (ju-ish) technique from both perspectives(uke and tori), and how to counter it and how to counter the counter and how to submit you now have all you need to start doing randori!

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____________________
Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com

Major throws on non-dominant side

Every so often someone asks me something about learning throws on their non-dominant side, or someone recommends to me or my students to learn to throw left seoi or left osoto or something. I have mostly resisted this because one of my teachers recommended some years back that we should learn a few small ashiwaza on both sides but probably not major throws like seoinage. He had a few reasons -

• You will always have a dominant and a non-dominant side and regardless of how many reps you put into it, your non-dominant throws will not be as good as your dominant-side throws. 
• It takes more than twice as long to learn a throw on both sides because you need some number of reps on your dominant side and maybe 2-3 times more reps on the non-dominant side just to feel competent. So, learning throws only on your dominant side lets the students progress mroe than twice as fast. 
• You will not miss throwing opportunities only throwing one-sided because any opportunity for left osotogari (for instance) can be thrown by some other throw (right kosotogari comes to mind). 

But regardless, you should be able to throw some portion of your throws on the non-dominant side. There are reasons on this side too -

• Kano intended judo to promote balanced physical development - to teach left and right actions both big and small. Learning to throw on your non-dominant side fits the spirit of judo (gentle, yielding flexibility) the same way that learning 40 ways to throw the guy down fits the spirit of judo better than only practicing 3 (dominant-sided) tokui fits that spirit of judo. 
• It's good for our ukemi skills to be able to take falls on both sides with more-nearly equal facility. 
• It's good for your brain to learn to work both sides of your body. 

Note I'm not saying necessarily that we need to learn to throw all 40 (or 67 or however many) throws on both sides. But for starters, Kano suggested 15 throws that should be learned on both sides (nagenokata)...

• ukiotoshi, ippon seoinage, kataguruma 
• ukigoshi, haraigoshi, TKgoshi 
• okuriashibarai, sasaeTKashi, uchimata 
• tomoenage, uranage, sumigaeshi 
• yokogake, yokoguruma, ukiwaza 

I might add to that some throws from what I consider the kihon of judo...

• deashibarai, kosotogari, hizaguruma, osotogari, ukigoshi 
• kouchigari, ouchigari, ogoshi, seoinage, koshiguruma 

This would suggest that we should work perhaps as much as half of our throws bilaterally. As it is, my pre-nagenokata students mostly only work on a handful of throws on both sides ....

• deashiabarai 
• okuriashibarai 
• hizaguruma 
• kosotogari 
• ukiotoshi 

I don't think I want to blow up my time-in-grade requirements right now by making my students practice half the gokyonowaza on their non-dominant sides, But I do think I want to expand our repertoire some this year. How about we start by devoting significant effort to learning/practicing the following on our non-dominant side this coming year...

• ippon seoinage 
• osotogari 
• ukigoshi 
• kouchigari 

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____________________
Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com

Junokata and the individual nature of kata

An interesting thing to note in Ju-no-kata - in the 6th technique - Kiri Oroshi (about 1:00 in the Miyake film, about 2:50 in the Abbe film)

Tori evades uke's initial chop and grabs the arm.  Then tori takes 2-3 steps forward to off-balance uke.  Notice the number of steps is not set in stone – Miyake does 2 steps and Abbe does 3 steps. 

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This is not just an interesting glitch – it speaks to the nature of kata – what is being programmed? 

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These kata are not intended to program details like, “make two steps of 22 inches each at 22.5 degrees...” but more of something like “Move forward until uke is off-balanced backward.” 

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The principles are programmed but not each exact motions. 

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The strategy is programmed but not necessarily all the tactics.

This sort of leeway occurs often in the more advanced Kodokan kata (Ju, Koshiki, Itsutsu).  Sure in the beginning the kata are programmed on the tactical level to a larger degree, with the kata specification indicating to grab just so, step just so, turn just so... But later on, the judoka seems to be assumed to know that tactical-level stuff pretty good, so the kata deal more with strategy and principle and aesthetics.

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You can see a similar organization in the Tomiki/Ohba kataset.  The beginning exercises/kata are more tactical, while the Koryu kata are more strategic.  There is (there has to be) some flex built into the more advanced kata for individual interpretation.

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____________________
Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com

Koshiki and Ju - brothers from another mother

I don't have the exact quote because I don't have the book in front of me, but last time I read Keiko Fukuda's Ju-no-Kata book, I was struck by her statement that she didn't ever understand Ju no kata until she had years of experience working on Koshiki no Kata.

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I've spent some time over the past year or two (admittedly it wasn't ever a priority in my practice) looking at Koshiki no kata and couldn't ever figure out what it was in that kata that clued her in to Ju no kata so much. It's hard to see past the window dressing in the Kodokan form of the thing - all the waddling about pretending to be Armored Robot Samurai Executioners (ARSEs).

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But then a couple of months ago we found this very Ju-ish variant of Koshiki, and I can't stop watching it.  I watch it several times every day.  We started a while back working on this kata as a falling exercise (instead of a set of Deadly Onerous Ninja Unpleasant Techniques (DONuTs for short) in all my classes - and guess what!?

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I think I'm beginning to see and feel some connections between Koshiki no kata and Ju no kata!  I might have to alternate watching Kano do junokata with watching these fellows doing koshiki.

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____________________
Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com

Tokio Hirano - Nanatsu no kata

For the last couple of years, I've watched this bizarro thing so much (and gotten hints off of internet and Judo Forum) that I actually think it's starting to make sense!  Either that, or I've taken too many falls - but I'm starting to see meaning within the exercise!

It would be easy to write this crazy thing off as the flailings of a deranged mind, but bear in mind this was one of the most successful competition judoka in the history of history, and this was how he was trying to express his understanding of judo.

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He seems to be illustrating seven types of wave action (as in ocean waves crashing into a beach).  In each form he does one big motion that sort of looks like a kind of ocean wave riding into a beach or crashing into a rock or swirling in eddies or erupting in spray... Then he immediately demonstrates that sort of wave action in a judo context.

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Then he shows how to bust someone's technique when they try to put that type of wave on you - usually by standing against it and reflecting it, or by eroding completely out from under it and letting it pass.

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____________________
Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com

The fundamental kata of the Kodokan

If you were to take a guess as to which of the Kodokan Kata was the fundamental kata that Kano based the other katas off of - which would it be? Which kata did Kano have in mind when he developed the DNA of the Kodokan?
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Maybe Nagenokata?
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Maybe Koshikinokata? 

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Nope.

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In Kano's Memoirs...

... I finalized the eight seated and twelve standing techniques for Kime no Kata. This was, incidentally, the fundamental kata from which the other Kodokan katas were created. (Judo Memoirs of Jigoro Kano, Chapter 57)

What WHAT? Kime No Kata!?

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WHO would have thunk that?

photo courtesy of C. Gilmore

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____________________
Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com

12 ways junokata teaches randori

I have been blogging a good bit in the past year or so about Junokata - one of the oldest formal exercises in judo and one of the kata that is supposed to especially express the Ju spirit of judo.  One of the surprising things that I learned is that Kano designed Junokata as a tool to deliver practical randori knowledge to relative beginners in groups too large to handle in actual randori sessions. This is surprising because the modern competitive mind looking at junokata is hard pressed to find any practical randori lessons in all the dance and drama of the kata.

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Well, a few weeks ago I was blessed with the opportunity to teach junokata to a group of aikidoka familiar with both Kano's Kodokan judo and with Tomiki's aikido methodologies.  At the end of the 6-hour training I posed the question to the group, "What does all this have to do with practical randori lessons?"  The following are the students' responses...

1. Junokata is about controlling the slack in the connection between tori and uke.  If uke is able to control the slack then he can spoil or even counter tori's techniques.  If tori is able to control the slack, he wins the engagement. This is a good way to look at who "wins" and "loses" in randori too.
2. Junokata is about yielding intelligently instead of collapsing in front of uke's force - yielding but providing feedback to uke to maintain the connection and draw him into disbalance.  The ability to yield intelligently is also what makes randori into true judo instead of mere wrestling.
3. Junokata exhibits a wide technical range more typical of classical judo than that of modern technical judo, where 1-2 tokuiwaza rules the day.  In junokata we see hand and hip throws as well as chokes and armbars.  We see these skills applied at separated (haamrejudo) range as well as close grappling (kumijudo) ranges.  We also see, for instance, only left koshinage in junokata - countering the modern tendency to only practice large hipthrows right-sided.  We would like to use randori as a forum to experiment with and explore as large a technical range as possible instead of just doing 1-2 things over and over in randori.
4. In Junokata both uke and tori are learning judo at the same time in a mutually beneficial manner, unlike in uchikomi (for instance) where uke has to spend half his time being picked up and set down like a dummy while only tori is actually doing judo.  It is also obvious that in the randori mode of judo practice, both partners are learning simultaneously instead of sequentially.
5. Junokata is a fascinating study of kuzushi (offbalance) and irimi (entering) to occupy uke's space so that he is stuck in offbalance.  Kuzushi and irimi (usually called tsukuri in judo) are vital phases of all judo techniques.
6. Junokata is a rigorous and precise practice of modulating and controlling your own power.  You have to be able to use just the right amount of power to place uke right on the edge of the cliff without tipping him over the edge.  If tori's power is poorly controlled then he will be completely unable to do any of the Junokata techniques because his overflow of power will make uke's motions unpredictable.  In randori you don't want to add so much power that you make the chaos (the ran in randori) more un-manageable than it already is.
7. Junokata is a study of the synchronization and exploitation of rise and fall.
8. Junokata is a set of judo-related physics experiments that you run repeatedly and repeatably - just like in the scientific method.
9. Junokata is all about edge.  By repeatedly moving slowly right up to the very edge of the world (where all the Wild Things live) you gain much experiential knowledge of the phenomena that surround the edge.  This is why there is no falling in Junokata - that aspect of ukemi is simply not of interest in this practice because falling is what happens when you get beyond the edge.  We want to know how to move up to the edge.  Likewise, the falls are not the really interesting part of randori.
10. Junokata is about disrupting and controlling uke's balance by constantly changing grips and contact points.  This is a useful trick in randori too.
11. After the first contact, everything is tactile in Junokata.  It can all be done by feel without relying on sight.  Tactile sense and kinesthesia is important in randori too.
12. Junokata is a nice format for relaxing the body and mind enough to actually experiment with the physics of the edge.  By removing enough of the practical considerations of combat that make us anxious, we free our mind to explore.  This is also important in randori because when you completely overwhelm someone either physically or emotionally, they refuse to learn.

I was really, really impressed at these responses by this group of students - much of that I had been mentioning on each technique throughout the seminar, but I had not been able to put together an explicit list of ways that Junokata was teaching practical randori knowledge.

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I used to do Junokata with all of my students much more than I have been lately.  This seminar and this list have made me want to re-institute those kata as a regular part of my classes.

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____________________
Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com

We misunderstand randori AND ukemi!

So, I commented in a previous article that since...

1. Kano said/implied that Junokata was meant to transmit practical randori knowledge to relative beginners, and...
2. We can no longer see much relationship between randori and junokata...

Then something must be wrong with our idea of what we think randori is.

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I spent this past weekend emphasizing this idea at our wonderful Junokata get-together at Windsong in OKC, and our time together there pretty much confirmed/cemented this idea but there was something else that I saw - a different facet fo the same idea...

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We mis-understand ukemi as well as randori.

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Aikido and judo are give-and-take things.  These arts have been compared to playing catch - tossing a ball back and forth between two people, where the ball consists of energy and initiative and control and balance and space and slack...

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Without someone to receive (uke), then the best you can do is bounce a ball against a wall.  Without someone willing and able to receive the energy you are putting on them, then you are practicing kata or pulled-punches type randori.  And without an uke that is good enough to yield and flow out of the initial dis-balance condition, you can never get to the more interesting subsequent conditions (renzoku).

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Junokata is a practical randori thing in one sense, because it is about building smart ukes and building judoka that can switch freely between the tori and uke roles.  It is about teaching people to play catch.

 

 

 

 

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____________________

Patrick Parker

www.mokurendojo.com

 

Meta-knowledge in nagenokata

The purpose of kata isn't just to teach a few moves.  In fact, frequently by the time a student learns a kata they already know how to do all of the techniques in that kata.  It turns out that kata is a sneaky-efficient method of brainwashing a student so that they think about the subject the same way that the creator of the kata thought about the subject.

Take the Kodokan's Nagenokata for example.  By the time most students get around to playing with nagenokata (just before a shodan test usually :-)  they have either already learned the individual techniques or the techniques are trivial variants of something they already know.  So, what does learning nagenokata do for the student that already knows that set of techniques? 

It enforces/insures that the student thinks about those techniques in a certain way. 

For instance...

Nagenokata teaches the student to think in terms of the traditional Kodokan divisions of throws - i.e. tewaza, ashiwaza, koshiwaza.

Nagenokata suggests to students that some techniques (like sacrifices) are more 'advanced' than others

Nagenokata teaches students to value large-amplitude ippons to a larger extent than small takedowns.

I'm sure that given a 10 minute headstart, you could come up with at least a couple more examples of the meta-knowledge'that is encoded in kata and enforced by its practice.

But...

What if there was a teacher that didn't especially care if his students thought about nagewaza in those three groups?  What if an instructor wanted a student to value small, energy-efficient techniques over the big ippons?  What would stop some free-minded instructor from saying that their club-version of Nagenokata would consist of (for instance)
3 footsweeps
3 two-legged hipthrows
3 techniques named 'guruma'
3 techniques named 'otoshi'
And 3 sacrifices
Such a fluctuation of the technique selection for nagenokata would change the meta-message conveyed by the kata.  This club kata would (among other things) place more emphasis on easier hipthrows, enforce the guruma-otoshi concept especially among the hand throws and leg throws. And reduce the feeling that the sacrifices are more important than the other sorts of throws.

OKC Junokata clinic!

In or around 1887, Kano designed Ju-no-kata to illustrate the principles at the heart of Judo. Some years later, Kano saw an Aikido demo by Ueshiba and exclaimed, "This Aikido is my ideal Judo!" So, since Ju-no-kata and aikido are both Kano's ideal of Judo, one would expect Ju-no-kata to have something to do with Aikido - particularly Tomiki's aikido (also known as "separated judo").

Ju-no-kata expresses the same principles as seen in Tomiki Aikido, but instead of the ideas and motions being separated out of their context like in the Walking, or focusing on a particular type of connection like in the Releases, Ju-no-kata keeps everything in a rich, complex context. Kano could have separated all of these ideas out and illustrated them in a much more straightforward way, but instead, he chose to trust the students with the complexity involved in the context.

Ju-no-kata is fundamental, but not basic. Ju-no-kata is sort of like a Rorschach blot or perhaps a Mandelbrot set - different folks can see a lot of different things within these 15 exercises. Despite this, Junokata was not designed to be abstract performance art for aging masters or retired competitors. It is well-documented that Kano intended Ju-no-kata to convey practical randori knowledge to relative beginners.

For two days in September, Patrick Parker (6th dan aikido, 5th dan judo, instructor at Mokuren Dojo) will be teaching the 15 exercises of the Ju-no-kata at the beautiful Windsong Dojo in Oklahoma City. Parker sensei will be discussing and exploring the connections between Kano's Ju-no-kata and Tomiki's "separated Judo" (Aikido). This should be a fun and intriguing exploration for beginners and black belts alike, and you should leave with some great hints and ideas to improve both your Aikido and your Judo.

First Session Friday Sept 21, 7:00PM -9:00 PM / Second Session Saturday Sept 22, 10:00 AM to Noon/ Third Session Saturday Sept 22, 3:00 PM to 5:00PM

Cost - $60 full Clinic/ $40 for one day Limited Registration of 35 -- First come, first serve -Reserve your spot today! http://www.eventsbot.com/events/eb784095958

Something special about ukiotoshi

There is something sneaky about ukiotoshi that makes it special...

                           

A while back I was discussing  with some folks about what small group of techniques formed the core of kihon in judo.  For a while I have felt like it is a pretty small set but I havent been able to really pin down whether I think its 9-10 techniques or something like 5-6 techniques.  Well, one of them said that in his opinion and understanding it was more like 1-2 techniques - and the first one was ukiotoshi!

                    

I thought, "Wow! That's probably the one technique I would have picked last for inclusion in a small set of kihon."  I mean, really that's just a curiosity that crops up in the beginning of nagenokata, right?  Just a semi-interesting high-amplitude kata demonstration throw, right?
                           

Well, the more I look at that thing, the more I see there.  For instance...

                    

• Ukiotoshi is a prime, fundamental demonstration of the otoshi concept - one of only about two distinct throwing mechanics in judo.  There is not all that much that we actually do in judo tachiwaza other than try to otoshi the opponent and if that doesnt work, try to guruma them.
• Ukiotoshi is the first technique in nagenokata - one of the "randori-no-kata" intended to teach/demonstrate something about randori.  How many of us ever try to throw ukiotoshi in randori?
• Ukiotoshi is implied within the first technique of goshinjutsu - the modern judo self-defense exercises.  Ever thought about using ukiotoshi in "real self-defense?"
• In both nagenokata and goshinjutsu, it is the first technique, suggesting it sort of sets the tone or states the theme of the whole kata.
• Ukiotoshi (by other names) occurs in the koshikinokata and the itsutsunokata - two of the kata that are really supposed to epitomize the ancient roots and foundations of judo.

So, if you think that maybe you ought to give ukiotoshi and the other impossible hand throws another thought or two, here are a couple of excellent resources to begin your research...

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____________________
Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com

Tomiki on initiative in Junokata

Today my martial studies are focussed on exchanges of initiative in Junokata.  Although I know of no existing teachings by Tomiki Sensei on Junokata, you can bet he was thoroughly versed in it because Kano seemed to esteem the exercise highly.  Tomiki does discuss initiative in this excellent essay...

Sen

In all athletic sports one must, in order to gain the victory, surpass the opponent in mental power, technical skill, and physical strength. These three factors must be united in gaining the mastery over an opponent. The mastery is brought into play in the form of various techniques, and although there are a large number of them, they may be summed up and resolved into one word sen (initiative or lead).

In the old densho (books of secret principles) the way of taking the initiative is explained in three stages.

• Sen-sen-no-sen (superior initiative). Superior initiative is given play in a delicate situation where one confronts an opponent who intends to attack, and gains mastery over him by subtly guessing his mentality and forestalling his actions. This is the highest reach of the mental cultivation in any military art and is regarded as not easily attainable. But if you consider it more deeply, you will find it too late to try to gain command over anything when it has taken a concrete form, and you must have the mental preparedness to hold it down beforehand. For this purpose it is necessary to learn to maintain the openness and serenity of mind as signified by the old expression, "Clear as a stainless mirror and calm as still water." Lao-tse teaches this almost divine state of mind in the following words: "It is the way of heaven to prevail without contention."
• Sen (initiative). This is to forestall your opponent by starting an action before he begins attack on you.
• Ato-no-sen (initiative in defense). This is not to guess the mentality of your opponent and check his action before it is done, but to start action in defense the moment you have an inkling of the offensive of your opponent. It is to avoid the opponent's attack the instant it is about to be launched upon you, and to make a counter-attack taking advantage of a pause in your opponent's movement and a disturbance in his posture. A man who takes the initiative in defense rises in opposition to his opponent's attack, and parries or averts it. Seemingly it is a defensive move. In order to stave off the opponent's attack at the last moment and restore one's position one must keep the moral attitude of initiative so as not to get worsted by the adversary.

With regard to Tomiki's schema of initiative, one may make some statements about the techniques in Junokata...

• All the techniques of junokata are Ato-no-sen (A.K.A. gonosen) - that is, uke acts and tori reacts.  In fact, it seems from some of the Kano excerpts that I posted in the last couple of days, that Kano thought that the true principle of Ju could only be applied in gonosen - that direct action or pre-emption by tori was not Ju.
• Many of the techniques of Junokata involve more than one exchange of initiative in renzoku (continuous or combination)fashion - that is, uke acts, tori reacts, uke reacts, tori reacts...
• The kata seems to mostly be organized in order of increasing complexity - that is, the techniques of the later sets in the kata tend to involve more interchange of initiative than those of the earlier sets. 

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____________________

Patrick Parker

www.mokurendojo.com

Can't see the randori in junokata?

In my last post I asserted that junokata is not an abstract, aesthetic, demonstration thing intended for aging judo masters.  Rather, it was deliberately designed by Kano as practical randori education for relative beginners.  At least, that's what Kano says/implies in his memoirs.

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Of course, your next question to me should be, "Well, what are all those amazing randori lessons hidden in Junokata?" Short answer -  I don't know for sure.  I can't lie to you and claim to have gleaned all the cool ninja secrets from this exercise.  Shoot, even Keiko Fukuda says in her book that the essence of this kata eluded her for most of her life, and she been practicing judo for about 55 years longer than me!

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This brings to my mind the question... If Junokata was designed as a practical randori education, why is it so darn hard to glean any practical randori lessons from it?  Seems to me it could be any (or several) of the following...

• Junokata was not really designed as a practical randori thing - Parker is smoking the hoohoo weed again.  I mean, two or three generations of Olympic judoka can't be wrong, can they?
• Junokata has not been passed down to successive generations of judoka faithfully and intact, as Kano intended.  The lessons have been obscured and the kata has become just an aesthetic demonstration thing that is only remotely and abstractly related to real judo.
• Our understanding of the nature of randori has become so fundamentally skewed that we cannot see any relationship between Junokata and what we think randori is about. (AHA!)

I think the latter to be the most likely explanation.  If Kano intended Junokata to really be a practical randori education (which he says he did), and if we cannot see any randori relevance in the kata, then it seems that we are having a crisis of misunderstanding related to our idea of what randori is about.

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We might benefit from taking a good, thorough look at junokata and trying to figure out how it might possibly be the same thing as randori.

• There is no falling in junokata, (interestingly, there is no falling in gonokata either) so perhaps randori is not really about forcing the other guy to fall down.
• Randori is good, vigorous exercise, so perhaps Junokata is not about some flacid, insipid misunderstanding of "ju."
• Junokata is done precisely and slowly, so perhaps randori should not be about applying explosive strength or moving faster than the other guy.
• The only way to effectively "win" at randori without explosive strength and speed advantage is to apply effective kuzushi with proper timing, so perhaps we should be especially looking for the kuzushi and timing lessons in JNK.

 What other parallels do you see between JNK and what randori should really be?

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Patrick Parker

www.mokurendojo.com

Junokata and randori

When judo was young, back in the 1880's, the randori practice and concept was what made it unique and special.  The ancient jujitsu schools from which judo was derived were predominantly kata arts.  They had limited or no concept of randori.  Because of Kano implementing this randori idea in judo, judoka were able to gain a ton of practical experience and dominate the competitions between Kodokan and the older traditional kata-based jujitsu schools.

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As the Kodokan grew, there came a point where there were so many students that it was difficult for all the students to get direct hands-on randori time with any of the great teachers.  So, Kano came up with a method for making sure that the students were getting a core of that randori knowledge transferred to them consistently.

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Guess what this new randori training method was called...

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Ju-no-kata

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What? You don't see the connection between JNK and randori?  Doubt my description of the history? Go check in Judo Memoirs of Jigoro Kano Chapter 58 and in the Introduction to Keiko Fukuda's Ju-No-Kata book.
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Simply put, Junokata was not designed as an aesthetic performance thing.  It was designed as a practical tool for transmitting randori knowledge and skills in a consistent manner.

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Junokata was created by perhaps the most gifted educator of his time to be a practical, pragmatic, educational thing for beginners - not as an aesthetic thing for aging experts.

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Go back and check out some video of JNK with that in mind and see if you can see some of the randori in the kata.

• Kano & Yamashita
• Yamashita
• Kenshiro Abbe
• Tsunako Miyake

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Patrick Parker
www.mokurendojo.com

Uke-centric kataguruma

I've been doing a series on teaching judo's nagenokata from an uke-centric perspective - that is, with greater attention to uke's motion and role instead of looking at it as, "tori grabs uke thusly and smashes him like so."

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Raise your hand if you've gotten into nagenokata, gotten the first couple working nicely, then been frustrated by the third technique, kataguruma.  Sensei tries to tell you, "more pull," and "catch him when he's up," but you still wish your uke would go on a severe diet. 

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The kata version of nagenokata - at least as it is commonly taught - the one that we affectionately call "The Iron Cross," - is extremely hard to do to someone approaching your own size or bigger.  Usually our response to this fact is to gripe that "I'm just no good at this thing," or to strive to get stronger so you can lift heaver people in the air - when we should take this as a clue to stop trying to lift squirming, person-sized things!

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Here's another hint... In aikido, when we first approach hand throws (you did know kataguruma was a hand throw, didn't you?) we call them "floating throws," but they are also called "otoshi" throws, which means "dropping".  Hmm... floating and dropping sound like opposites... almost like one might lead to the other.

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Well, it does.  It turns out that whenever the body rises, it has to drop in order to get back to a normal state, and when it drops, it has to rise again.  It is that pesky physics thing, "What goes up must come down," and its converse. So, in aikido, when we want to get an otoshi/drop, we start it out by accentuating uke's rise (or float).  The rise makes the timing window for the subsequent otoshi wider and easier to hit.

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Same thing happens in reverse in kataguruma.  "Guruma" is a turning motion, but it happens on a body rise.  So, if we want to make guruma/rise easier... (that's right) preceed it with an otoshi/drop!

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In the kata technique you take normal sleeve, lapel grips and fade back 3 times, changing your left hand grip on step 2 and "lifting" on step 3 - right? Almost.  Try it this way instead...

• take normal sleeve-lapel grips and fade back.
• switch your left hand grip as per the book on step #2
• on the footfall of step 3, turn 90 degrees toward uke's front arm and push your left arm straight.  This stretches uke out on the line he's standing on and threatens him with a sumiotoshi-like motion.
• here's the uke-centric part.  Uke has to refuse to roll out of the otoshi.  In doing so, he tends to take a step forward with his back leg, rising and almost having to climb on top of you.  This is when you fit in and stand up.  There is very little lift involved, because uke is vigorously stopping the otoshi/drop by rising into a guruma motion!

So, instead of the typical 1(fade back), 2(switch grips), 3 (fit and lift) timing, try a timing more like 1 (fade), 2 (grip), 3 (otoshi), and 4 (fit and stand).

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I think you'll find that preceeding kataguruma with a credible threat of sumiotoshi makes the kataguruma much easier and fits within the form of the standard kata.

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Patrick Parker

www.mokurendojo.com

Midori Hanakuso Ho

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

Uke-centric ukiotoshi

So, a while back I started introducing my kids (the oldest age 10) to nagenokata with a distinct emphasis on  the role of uke.

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The first technique of nagenokata is ukiotoshi, the floating drop.  I told them that we were going to call this one, "The Drinking Bird," because that links this move to our nickname for this forward rolling motion (Remember those drinking bird toys that sit on the edge of your glass?)

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Uke and tori start slightly outside arm's reach, facing each other and looking at each other.  Uke initiates the motion by reaching in for a lapel grip with his right hand.  Since he is out of reach, he has to step in with his right foot.  Tori takes his grips and fades back with his left leg

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Uke and tori take 2 more sliding footsteps (3 steps in all) with uke pushing tori and tori fading back.  On uke's 3rd front footfall, tori kneels slightly to the right with his left retreating knee.

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Up to this point this is all pretty standard.  You can get more extensive and better descriptions in books like Otaki & Draeger.  But this is where my uke-centric ukiotoshi diverges.  See, in the Standard Kodokan nagenokata, tori snaps both hands to his left hip as he kneels, pulling uke into a front airfall.  But in this kid's version, tori kneels, and shapes uke properly for a right-sided forward roll.  This basically means placing uke's right hand near the ground and letting uke maintain his lapel grip with his left hand for balance.

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From this position, uke is able to easily demonstrate his forward rolling skill, using tori as a spotter for balance.

Works great, and it's a blast to see 8- and 10-year olds doing nagenokata.

[photo courtesy of Seven Morris]

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Patrick Parker

www.mokurendojo.com

Uke-centric nagenokata

A couple of weeks ago I started introducing nagenokata to my 10-yo, 8-yo, and 6-yo sons.  We did the first technique - ukiotoshi - and they were really catching on well, so I thought I'd write down how I presented it to them because I think it's sort of unique.

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I started out by telling them that a kata is a special way of demonstrating your skills in front of people - like when parents watch a rank demo.  Parents really like it when their kids look like they know what they are doing.  On the other hand, it makes for a really sorry demo when the coach has to constantly tell them what to do and correct and goad and coax them to get them to demonstrate their skills.  The time for coaching and correction is during practice - not during a demo.  So, a kata is just a demonstration of skills that had been rehearsed a certain way so that you look like you know what you're doing - like a dance recital.

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I also emphasized that this is a demonstration of the uke's falling skills.  We often get hung up on tori's role of throwing uke down, and the uke (if they are any good) just fades into the background.  But I wanted them to think about their roles a little differently.

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See, tori is the spotter - not the thrower.  His job is not to throw, but to place uke into a position from which it is easy to demonstrate the proper fall.  Tori sets up the position, uke demonstrates the falling skill, and tori helps him to land correctly.

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Incidently, this mode of kata demonstration is an excellent demo of tori's skills too.  If tori is able to position uke into a correct falling position and support him into the right landing position, then he is showing good skill at the kuzushi and tsukuri and zanshin phases of the throw.  Also, if tori is able to position uke into the easy-fall position, then tori is also able to position uke into the easy-to-smash place - because they are the same place.
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Check out the photos above of Mifune.  Typically we would read these sequences from tori's POV - tori catches uke overcommitted forward, tori kneels down, and tori pulls uke into a forward fall.  But couldn't you just as easily read those photos as tori sets uke up into a favorable position to demonstrate a fall, tori gets out of uke's way, uke demonstrates his fall with tori helping him to land right.

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Patrick Parker

www.mokurendojo.com