Wise words

The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget. -- Thomas Szasz

The Kata of Possibility (December 2008)

Last night my class worked on our (somewhat) original self-defence kata. Members of the class present it later this month as part of a kata competition. Amongst other things, it shows how a particular initial response to an attack can lead into more than one possible continuation. Hence the name: The Kata of Possibility.

Please don't try this at home; self-defence should only be practiced under the supervision of a qualified instructor. I am posting the summary as an aid to help my students memorize the sequence, and for my own future reference.

	Attack	Response	Control	Finish
1a	One-hand outside wrist grab	Grab with other hand	Spin to inside / wristlock comealong	Corkscrew
1b	"	"	Spin to outside / shoulder-lock takedown variation	Strike + kiai
2a	Aggressive handshake	Middle knuckle strike to the back of the hand	Forward finger throw	Finger-lock
2b	"	"	Lever and arm-brace	Overhead wrist lever
3a	Right palm push to chest	Attack arm at elbow (right hand) and wrist (left hand)	Comealong forearm hammer-lock	Submission
3b	"	" (but hands reversed)	Armlock comealong	Submission
4a	Front choke (arms straight)	Raise shoulders / drop chin / strike down with left forearm / up with right forearm	Comealong forearm hammerlock	Submission
4b	"	"	3rd hip throw	Strike + kiai
5a	Arm around shoulders	Near hand grabs hand / elbow to ribs	Wristlock comealong	Corkscrew
5b	"	"	Lever and arm-brace	Projection throw

Here are some images to help make sense of the chart (thanks to Prateek and Sempai Owen):

Attack 1: One-hand outside wrist grab

Response 1: Grab with other hand

Control 1a & 5a: Wristlock comealong

Attack 2: Aggressive handshake

Response 2: Strike the back of the hand

Control 2a: Forward finger throw

Control 2b & 5b: Lever and arm-brace

Finish 2c: Overhead wrist-lever

Attack 3: Right palm push to chest

Response 3a: Hands to elbow and wrist

Control 3a & 4a: Comealong forearm hammer-lock

Response 3b: Hands to elbow and wrist (reversed)

Control 3c: Armlock comealong

Attack 4: Front choke (arms straight)

Attack 5: Arm around shoulder

Mastery and Practice

When Pablo Casals, the cellist, was ninety-one years old, he was approached by a student who asked, "Master, why do you continue to practice?" Casals replied, "Because I am making progress." [1]

As we learn it is natural to hit plateaus from time to time. Through mindful practice we can progress through the plateaus, and onwards up the mountain.

The Master brings patience, consistency and perceptiveness to the journey.


[1] Norman Doidge, The Brain that Changes Itself, page 258, my favorite non-fiction book for 2008.

What appeals to you about Jiu-Jitsu?

Here is a blurb that I have submitted for the Monash University Club Handbook. Let me know which bits appeal to you, what you think is missing, and whatanything jars:

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About the Monash University Jiu-jitsu Club

The Jiu-Jitsu club offers weekly classes at both Caulfield and Clayton emphasizing:

• Acquisition and perfection of martial art technique
• Realistic self-defence skills
• Development of all-round fitness
• Personal and social development

in a safe and supportive environment. It is open to the Monash and local communities and is suitable for both women and men, small and large.

About Jiu-Jitsu
Jiu-jitsu was the unarmed fighting art of the Japanese Samurai – the warriors of medieval Japan. If a Samurai lost or broke his sword in battle, he resorted to the striking and grappling techniques of Jiu-jitsu to defeat his enemy.

The term Jiu-jitsu literally means 'gentle art'. Jiu-jitsu emphasizes the efficient use of one's body. Good technique rather than brute strength is used to deliver effective self-defence.

The core elements of our style of Jiu-Jitsu are:

• Throwing techniques
• Restraint and control: Joint-locking and other arresting techniques
• Ground-fighting
• Pressure point striking
• Practice against realistic common attacks

Club web-site

http://monash.jiujitsu.org.au

Contacts

Clayton

• Sensei Tony Papenfuss, 4^th dan black belt, and head instructor
• papenfuss@gmail.com
• 0419 894 449
  

Caulfield

• Sensei Dan Prager, 2^nd dan, Caulfield class instructor
• tenchi.ryu.jiujitsu@gmail.com
• 0410 577 990
• blog: http://maaml.blogspot.com

Evening up

In sports a constant problem is the mismatch. One competitor is stronger, bigger, faster, or more skillful than the other. To make things interesting sex, weight, and/or age and experience categories are often used, and sometimes a handicapping system is introduced.

In competitive training in the martial arts the mismatch is also a problem, for identical reasons, but it can also be an asset. In competitive practice -- such as judo's groundwork randori -- you can gain much more if your main objective is to learn rather than to win at all costs.

Let's say that you are big and strong, and your opponent is not. You have the option of using all your strength and weight to literally crush your opponent. That is the short road to victory, but a very long road to learning. So don't do it! Put away that advantage; wind it back to the same level (or just above) that of your partner and work on other aspects: Movement, technique, sensitivity.

In this way, when you go up against someone bigger and stronger than you (for example), you will have developed other sides to your game. The size and strength will still be there, but overall you will be more even.

The same advice applies to mis-matches in knowledge. If your arsenal of techniques is vastly greater than your opponent's, you should limit your repertoire of techniques. Concentrate on delivering a few techniques with finesse (for example), rather than relying heavily on the surprise factor of a technique that your opponent has never seen.

* * *

Even when I have the opportunity to evenly match students I still like to mix things up, creating mis-matches as well as even matches between partners. Why? Because having experienced people work with beginners is safer than beginner v. beginner, provides better learning for the beginner, and gives the more experienced partner freedom to experiment; smaller people should be exposed to larger partners as preparation for self-defence; brutes need to learn to be gentler, etc. And we all should practice with lots of different people.

In actual self-defence don't hold anything back, but in training learn today so that you can win (or survive) tomorrow.

To summarize: In competitive practice we need to even things up, and by doing so in a creative we can create opportunities for significant learning and development.