Fabulous clip of 7 stone (44.5 kg) Miss May Whitley giving a lightning introduction to the role of unbalancing in jiu-jitsu before throwing her good friend "the bandit" repeatedly onto a hard stage floor. Be sure to watch with the sound turned up to enjoy her wonderful accent and his howls of pain:
Today I attended the funeral of our Kancho, who died last week suddenly and unexpectedly at his home.
Barry William Bradshaw, 1939 - 2010
He will be sorely missed by his loving family, by his many friends and colleagues, and by the incredible number of students he taught, mentored and befriended in over 50 years as a martial arts instructor. He lives on in all of us, as does his legacy.
Kyuzo Mifune was possibly the greatest judo technician ever. Beginning Judo training at age 13 or 14, by 30 he was already a 6th dan under Kano, and nicknamed "The God of Judo". At 40, and all of 5'2" tall and 100 pounds, he defeated a 6' tall 240 pound challenger who was skilled in sumo.
Fortunately for us, there is reasonable footage of him as an old man throwing younger and larger opponents all over the place. In particular, at 2:30 Mifune demonstrates utsuri goshi (our 9th hip throw) as a counter to harai goshi (5th hip throw), which I have been working on with a couple of my students; followed by utsuri goshi as a counter to hane goshi (6th hip throw):
Isn't that wonderful? Observe how fluid and mobile Mifune is, generating enormous power (and lift!) from motion rather than brute strength.
Inspiring stuff. Watch it again and again: repeat viewing will reveal new insights.
The judo I practice is a descendant of the method of the approach to judo devised by Mikonosuke Kawaishi adapted for teaching Europeans and partially documented in his book My Method of Judo (out of print).
One of my old posts includes a summary of Kawaishi's syllabus:
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