Promotions - December 2012

Congratulations to everyone on your hard work for the year, and for those who graded, well-deserved promotions:

Combined Monash Caulfield and Clayton recipients at Presentation Day

Well done to everyone at both Monash clubs, and at the Honbu.

Personally, I plan to enjoy the Summer holidays (including some training at the Honbu), and really looking forward to training in 2013.

A jiu-jitsu demos from the 1980s

John Coles of the Kojutsukan blog has posted a set of 3 videos of his instructor -- the late Greg Palmer -- delivering his impressive second dan jujutsu grading (under the late Jan de Jong) in 1985*.  They feature lecture-style explanation and 'quick action' demonstration from Sensei Palmer and his students, including a young John.

Each part is just over 10 minutes.  The links are to John's blog, which give additional commentary and historical information:

1. Part I
2. Part II
3. Part III

*Technically, these are "take two", done for the camera.

Bartitsu: Sherlock Holmes's martial art

In Arthur Conan Doyle's story The Empty House, Sherlock Holmes -- previously missing, presumed dead in The Final Problem -- explains to Watson how he was able to evade his nemesis's clutches on the edge of Reichenbach Falls, before disappearing for a bit of a breather from detective work:

I had little doubt that I had come to the end of my career when I perceived the somewhat sinister figure of the late Professor Moriarty standing upon the narrow pathway which led to safety. I read an inexorable purpose in his grey eyes. I exchanged some remarks with him, therefore, and obtained his courteous permission to write the short note which you afterwards received. I left it with my cigarette-box and my stick and I walked along the pathway, Moriarty still at my heels. When I reached the end I stood at bay. He drew no weapon, but he rushed at me and threw his long arms around me. He knew that his own game was up, and was only anxious to revenge himself upon me. We tottered together upon the brink of the fall. I have some knowledge, however, of baritsu, or the Japanese system of wrestling, which has more than once been very useful to me. I slipped through his grip, and he with a horrible scream kicked madly for a few seconds and clawed the air with both his hands. But for all his efforts he could not get his balance, and over he went. With my face over the brink I saw him fall for a long way. Then he struck a rock, bounded off, and splashed into the water. [my emphasis]

Holmes and Moriarty grapple on the precipice

It turns out that the mysterious art of "baritsu", was a probable mis-remembering of an actual composite martial art of circa-1900: bartitsu, a mix of jiu-jitsu, judo, savate and boxing, popularized by Edward Barton-Wright.



Although there is (too the best of my knowledge) no surviving film footage from the era, here is a reconstruction from cinematograph images in a 1905 book:



Hmmm: looks familiar!

Ideas for theme classes

This year I plan to do a themed class roughly every four weeks.  That may be too frequent: we'll see how it goes.

Where a regular class follows a standard format, allowing for repetition and reinforcement of foundational skills, with a couple of blocks where the instructor goes into a bit more depth, a themed class goes more in depth more most of the class.

The approach I'm taking this year is a bit different from theme of the month, which I ran in 2009, in which the discretionary blocks for a whole month were on a unified theme, which also seeped into the rest of the class.

Here's a list off the top of my head:

Throws

1. Kuzushi
2. Leg throws
3. Hip throws
4. Hand throws
5. Hidari class (everything left-handed)
6. Throwing with movement
7. Combination throws
8. Counter throws

Restraint and Control

1. Come-alongs
2. Reflexive self-defence
3. R&C throws
4. Standard escapes

Groundwork

1. Immobilizations
2. Groundwork randori skills
3. Arm locks and leg locks
4. Strangles
5. Combination locks: such a good title!

Advanced

1. Sacrifice throws
2. Stick defences -- hmm: will need sticks
3. Nage no Kata (kata of throws)
4. Katame no Kata (groundwork)
5. Gonosen no Kata (counters)

Requests and reactions welcome.

Effortless jiu-jitsu and judo / first class back in 2011

On Wednesday we had our first class back for the year with eight regulars on the mat -- what passes for a small class nowadays -- plus one prospective student.

It was good to be back, even on a rainy night; never mind this Summer's floods and cyclones.

* * *

This year I'll be taking an over-arching theme of "minimal effort".  How can we become so efficient in our jiu-jitsu and judo that it becomes near-effortless?

Of course, the training for such masterly ease will entail a lot of hard work!

The secret of a great turn-out?

An anonymous poster asked "What's the secret of a great turn-out?" in response to a picture of a packed mat.

I'd say that there are several elements, primarily:

1. A great class
2. A core group of regulars
3. A good time slot
4. A convenient location
5. Patience

At least these are the factors that have conspired for my class.  It's always been a good class -- hands-on instruction in an excellent martial art -- but it's got better as I've developed as an instructor and a core group of regulars has coalesced.  This year I have been greatly aided by having Anthony assist with the large classes as well as all the colored belts.  Since Jiu-jitsu is predominantly a paired activity I can't teach a hall full of beginners single-handedly: students teach each other and I demonstrate and guide.  Learning this martial art teaches you how to teach one-on-one ... from day one.

The core group of regulars also means that a newcomer observing the class for the first time sees a group practicing with real skill, learning and having fun.  That's appealing.

One of the factors that seems to have contributed to the growth of the class was a switch from Monday to Wednesday nights: mid-week nights seem to draw a bigger group than Friday or Monday evenings in my experience.

We're situated across the road from a major railway station, making the class easy to get to and increasing the catchment area.

Also, it's taken quite a few years for the club to achieve "critical mass".  In the early days sometimes I'd get just one student (or even none), but I was encouraged to persist by my own instructors through leaner times.

* * *

The big classes are great because there's a buzz and energy that you get from a packed mat.

At the same time it's been nice to have some smaller classes from time-to-time, where we have room to do stand-up randori, practice sutemis, and in which I get to spend more one-on-one time with everyone.

Finally, I don't measure success purely in quantity, but in the quality of experience and the learning that takes place.  There's such a thing as too big as well as too small a class.

Results!

Congratulations to everyone who trained hard in the latter half of the year. Presentation day was on Sunday 19 December, and everyone who graded was successful.

Well done:

• Lejoe: Orange belt (1 bar) in both jiu-jitsu and judo
• Damian: Orange belt (1 bar) jiu-jitsu and yellow (2 bars) judo
• Ashley: Yellow belt (2 bars) judo
• Tegan: Purple belt (1 bar) jiu-jitsu
• Ed:  Purple belt (1 bar) jiu-jitsu

Congratulations also to everyone else who successfully graded from the Honbu, Monash Clayton, and Cockatoo.

Full mat!

The mat's looking pretty full nowadays. With a large class it's starting to get cramped during warm-ups:

Warming up with some breakfalls

And it's really full when everyone stretches out:

The class at rest

Throw or takedown?

John Coles is investigating the difference between throws and takedowns in the martial arts for his forthcoming book, and has written a couple of blog posts on the subject.  John points to some discussion of the various takes on the difference this thread from the Martial Arts Planet forum.

An empirical exploration that anyone (with a bit of experience) can do is go through their style's syllabus and pull out the techniques explicitly labelled as throws and those labelled as takedowns and look for any differences of principle.

That's what I intend to do!

Well done

Congratulations to everyone from Monash Caulfield who presented for the mid-2010 gradings (all successful!): Anthony, Lisa, Lejoe, Damian, Ash, John, Lizzie, and Soksan.

Almost everyone graded in both jiu-jitsu and judo, and several did multiple grades.  This was by far the biggest group who have graded from Caulfield, and all set a great example through their dedication and hard work.

Well done also to all the other students who graded across our Federation.

 I cannot stress enough how helpful it is to one's progress to be part of a group who are training together.  Cooperative learning and friendly competition are boons in this regard.

What I look for in gradings

Over the weekend our organization had its winter gradings.   I sat on two grading panels observing and assessing students testing for jiu-jitsu and judo student grades ranging from 12th kyu to 1st kyu.

Formal testing is only part of the assessment.  Other elements include: class hours, seminar attendance, points scored in judo competition, and their sensei's recommendation.

The formal testing itself includes a physical component (demonstration of techniques and self-defence) and an oral component (knowledge and terminology).  Attitude is also assessed.

Assessment is subjective -- which is one of the reasons we typically have three black belts per panel -- but here are some of the things that I look for in grading a physical technique (easily adapted to an oral explanation):

1. Identification: Was the requested technique demonstrated?
2. Completeness: Were all the technical elements present?
3. Correctness: Were there any technical defects?
4. Control: Was the technique executed safely, or was the partner hurt or at risk of being harmed?
5. Effectiveness: How well did it work?
6. Efficiency: Was excessive effort or superfluous movement used?
7. Improvisation: If the student encountered problems, how well was (s)he able to recover?
8. Depth: Was non-basic knowledge shown: e.g. variation(s), unusual detail?
9. Grace: Overall flow, fluidity and grace

* * *

One of the things that I have been able to do at my club has been to prepare students for their first grading with a mock grading.  This familiarises them with the format, and allows me to pick up on glaring defects just-in-time.  Also: When several students have the same issue it points to a common source: their teacher!

Now that the class is growing, I think that next grading season I'll try something that helped me in my early years of learning jiu-jitsu and judo: an in-house mock grading session with the students getting a chance to sit on the panel and assess, as well as to be tested.  It should be good.

Self-defence technique meets 1920s chic

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:



Attacks and jiu-jitsu counters demonstrated:

1. Handbag snatch: Arm-lock plus projection throw
2. Rear choke: 1st shoulder throw (kata seoi)
3. Straight punch: Reverse arm-bar (waki-gatame)
4. Front kick: Inner-rear sweeping throw
5. Front choke: Circle throw (tomoe nage)

Thanks to Sue for highlighting this clip and more on her blog.

Simply spiffing: what, what!?

How do we defend against kick-boxers and armed attackers?

Our self-defence requirements include scenario training against differently trained attackers, and armed assailants.  That said, I think that intensive training in weapons and in a fist-and-foot style helps a lot in comfort and expertise in those kind of scenarios.  And that takes training time, whether in one art or many. 

I have trained in ken-jitsu a little bit, and I like it.  In people who have done a lot of sword-work you can see it reflected (positively!) in their jiu-jitsu.  Similarly, as I make progress in chinese boxing, I am finding all sorts of cross-connections with jiu-jitsu.

Real combat, especially when weapons are involved, is of course extremely dangerous.  Personally, I'd rather face a kick-boxer than an attacker with a sword.

Hooray for hip throws

Spot-on post from Jiu-jitsu Sensei: Everything I need to know I learned from doing hip throws.

The more years I do hip throws, the more I seem to get out of it. At first it was simply the joy of slamming someone down on the ground effortlessly... Who am I kidding? I still enjoy that. But now I look at the hip throw and see how it has many parallels to life in general. Read on...

The hip throws are the "core throws" of jiu-jitsu and judo, in more ways than one.

Complexity vs Simplicity

When I started learning jiu-jitsu and judo, I immediately appreciated the broad, intricate and varied syllabus.  If I was unable to make a particular technique work, be it a throw, groundwork technique, or restraint & control application I was nevertheless making progress in other areas, which was good for my morale.  I would struggle for a few minutes with the problematic technique, try some things, get some tips, and often get a bit frustrated, but then my sensei would move us onto something else.  Over time, the progress on other fronts would help me get unstuck on my problem technique (really techniques), since the underlying principles all intersect and what I learned elsewhere I would eventually be able to apply.  From time to time techniques would cease to work, or fail on a particular partner, even in cooperative practice, but nothing was permanently stuck.

By contrast, when I took some ken-jitsu (japanese sword class, performed initially with a wooden bokken) we started by doing an entire class of a single cut (maybe there were a couple of variations), with YELLING.  The next day I had a raspy voice, sore arms, and blistered hands.  But I was fascinated by the sustained demand for focus, the feeling of surging energy, and the occasional blasting through a pain barrier that such narrow training demanded.  Truly a complementary experience to what I was used to in jiu-jitsu.  And yet, "jiu-jitsu comes from the sword".

As I progress with my martial arts, I have begun to ask myself what hidden possibilities lie behind simple-seeming movements, while complex techniques reveal themselves to consist of common components and principles.

Is it better to start with the simple and build to the complex, or to start with the composite and discover simplicity?  For me, the latter approach proved a better starting point, but eventually the two perspectives must intertwine.

Mastery Learning or Spiral learning?

How do you prefer to learn?

1. Incrementally: a little bit at a time, able to show fairly complete proficiency at one ability or skill before proceeding to the next, slightly more challenging level; or
2. Iteratively: Cycling through a number of skills and challenges, periodically returning, and gradually ratcheting up the challenge level.

The first approach s sometimes referred to as mastery learning; the second as spiral learning.  As always the devil is in the detail.

Spiral learning approaches are great for those students whose pace matches that set for instruction.  On the other hand, if you're struggling with the pace it will feel too fast, and you may feel inadequate (or resentful); if it's too slow, you may well feel bored (but boredom can often be productively overcome).  Mastery learning, on the other hand is by necessity individually paced, but can be a bit procedural from an instructional perspective.

In my jiu-jitsu and classical judo classes I have learned (and follow) a hybrid approach:

• The teaching method is spiral, but we are always reinforcing the basics, and pair practice with a variety of partners gives students access to individual instruction (and learning through teaching)
• Assessment is mastery oriented: you do not get put up for grading until you are ready to demonstrate a section of the curriculum at a high level of proficiency: so individuals tend to progress at difference rates, but there should not be a sense of being an "A, B, C, ... student" with its attendant problems (e.g. encouragement to adopt a fixed mindset).

This may be reasonably be regarded as a best of both worlds approach: we get the interest, variety and reinforcement of the spiral together with the steady progress of incremental mastery.

Big class / hard mats

We had 18 people on the mat the other night, up from 15 the week before.  With 15 on the mat, it was already crowded, so this week we borrowed some jigsaw mats and put together a two-layer annex to the side of the main mat.

Throwing practice on the main mat

I sent the most senior students (plus Tyrone the tyro) to the annex during break-falling warmup.  It reminded me of when we started the main Monash University club at the Clayton campus under Sensei Tony in the mid 1990s.  We borrowed some hard mats from I think the resident judo and aikido clubs and got stuck in.  The problem was that although the experienced students quickly acclimatized, and soon relished the harder conditioning, we couldn't keep new students: you need to ease into that sort of thing.  [In time, we got some softer mats, and the membership grew accordingly.]

Students gather around Anthony for R&C instruction on the annex 

On Wednesday I had my assistant Anthony (a brown-belt) on hand, and he took charge of the annex and taught a smaller group restraint and control techniques, while I led throwing practice on the main mat.  We rotated most of the students between the two stations, and then joined together for groundwork and rolls at the end.

* * *

Given the spurt in numbers, the Caulfield club is not only faced with a space shortage, but a changing dynamic.  That newcomers are signing up and staying is welcome after some lean years at the start, and I take it as validation of the current student body, my own efforts, and the appeal of our system of jiu-jitsu, but we face new challenges with the dynamic that the larger class size entails.

The growth itself will be self-limiting, because the quality of the experience for newcomers will start to decline if we grow much bigger at this stage: Once beginners constitute the majority I will need to pair newbies with each other more often, and that's not conducive to learning jiu-jitsu in a large class.

However, I have a plan in mind.  Thanks to a solid core of students with 1 or 2 years experience (plus a few more senior), I think that is feasible to now pick up the pace (a bit).  This will encourage and challenge the core group, and hopefully motivate the newcomers to rise to the occasion.

The increased numbers also gives me the opportunity to grow as a teacher.  With the increase in numbers I am doing more demonstration and supervision, and less one-on-one than in the past.  As a result I will need to do a bit more lecture-style talk to the group as part of my demonstrations, while keeping it brief and practical.  Thankfully I have several good models to base my approach on.

I anticipate a great year of learning.  When we come through it, we'll be in a position to grow again, and if the current numbers prove solid, I'll also look into expanding the main mat area.

P.S. Thanks to Brenton for taking the photos on his phone.

Where does jiu-jitsu come from?

"Jiu-jitsu is originally from Brazil, right?"

I've been asked this a couple of times lately.  With the rise of mixed martial arts, kicked off by the UFC in the early 1990s, and before that the "Gracie challenge", Brazilian Jiu-jitsu (which we used to call Gracie Jiu-jitsu) is now better known than Japanese jiu-jitsu.

Jiu-jitsu was the unarmed martial art of the Japanese Samurai class, so it's definitely Japanese.  Right?  There were many schools of jiu-jitsu, and some of them had a heavy Chinese influence.  But legendarily,  the martial arts were brought to China from India, by Bodhidarma.  These things go back ...

A similar story pertains to Karate.  Many people think of Karate as Japanese, but it was introduced to Japan from Okinawa in the early 20th century, and before that was adapted from southern Chinese martial arts, and even known as "Chinese hand" in parts of Okinawa.

You have to draw the line somewhere.  So I say:

1. Kung fu (Chinese boxing) is from China
2. Jiu-jitsu is Japanese
3. Karate is Okinawan

Japanese Karate is an offshoot of (Okinawan) Karate.  Brazilian Jiu-jitsu is an offshoot of (Japanese) Judo.  Judo is a daughter art (along with aikido) of Jiu-jitsu, and they are all Japanese.

Both Jiu-jitsu and Karate, although influenced (and maybe derived in large part) from Chinese kung fu styles, have had enough time to become more than offshoots.  Plus: the names were changed.

In the end, the history doesn't necessarily matter as much as the content.  There are only so many ways to move the human body, and most (all?) ancient cultures featured some form of wrestling, boxing, and weapon-use, and must be the forebears of all martial arts.  Today martial arts have significant areas of overlap.

Getting back to the original question, it doesn't bother me.  Such a question is usually evidence of innocent ignorance on the part of the questioner, and nothing malicious.  Most (all?) martial arts practitioners tire of being asked how their "karate" or "taekwondo" (or whatever the flavor-of-the-month style is) is going, by well-meaning but martial arts illiterate family members or friends, who are merely trying to "show an interest" or make small-talk.

Interestingly, now that there are so many schools teaching Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, Japanese Jiu-jitsu may be gaining in cachet because of its relative scarcity.  I do get enquiries from people specifically seeking it out, and that's often a good sign.  On the other hand, some people assume that all Jiu-jitsu is Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, but these are quite quickly dispelled.

I wonder how many people think that soccer is originally from Brazil, too.

Astonishing tiger footage

The club where I started my training in jiu-jitsu is called Tora-do ryu; translation: "Way of the tiger school".  Here's a clip that shows a bit of what a real tigress can do:




Stealth, speed, huge leap, balance, intent: wow!

Snippets from the back-story:

The 25-year-old mahout, Satya Pegu, who was badly lacerated, lost three fingers on his left hand, is in a hospital in Dibrugarh. Doctors are worried about the onset of gangrene and may have to amputate his left palm.

Reconstruction of events and a video taken by the divisional forest officer, R.K.Das, graphically show how Joymala pinned down the tigress with her foot as it was trying to get up and attack the officers who had fallen on the ground.

The team cautiously moved towards it and could get to almost 20 feet where she was growling away. Bodo could see her clearly and took a shot at it with the dart gun. The dart missed her and this enraged her so much that she charged and took a “flying” leap on to the elephant’s head. “I have not seen something as dramatic as this,” Vivek Menon, executive director WTI, who recently saw the footage, said. “I could never imagine that a tiger could so effortlessly leap from the ground on to an adult elephant’s head, which is at least 12 feet above the ground,” he said.

more details...

Notice how the tigress grabs the ground and pulls herself forward with her front legs.  Even though humans have only one pair of feet, we can do a bit of that too.  It's a good exercise (and good exercise) to play with that grabbing and pulling action while walking around.

How mixed level practice can work in judo

Last Wednesday I had three white belts (new this year), four purple belts (our lowest tested grade), one yellow, and two orange belts.  Having a mixed-level class is great, in that many students get a chance to be junior, senior and peer, often all in the one class, but it's quite complicated.  Here's how I rotated the pairings on the night ...

In the cooperative throwing section of the class:

Demonstrated: leg throws 1 to 3 (see this Kawaishi method index of throws)

• 2 x  pairs of purple belt (peer learning)
• 3 x white belt - higher belt (most experienced / beginner pairing)

Demonstrated: leg throws 4 to 6

• 3 x white belt - purple pairs continued working on throws 1 to 3 (reinforcement)
• orange - yellow pair, and orange - purple pair worked on 4 to 6 (rotating through the purple belts)

Demonstrated: leg throws 7 and 8

• same as 4 to 6

Demonstrated: leg throws 9 and 10

• same as 4 to 6

With this system of rotations:

• the white-belts spent most of their time on the most fundamental throws
• the purple belts engaged in peer learning, helped the white belts, and got a taste of the higher throws as they rotated into the senior group
• the senior group worked with the beginners initially, but also had time to work on the higher throws, mainly among themselves, but also with the purple belts
• everyone got a taste of at least a couple of more advanced throws (variety and exposure)

Besides rotating among the grades, students got to work with people of different shapes and sizes.  Although I started with roughly similar heights and builds that soon changed.  The best mis-match of shapes was 6'5" beginner Tyrone (in his second class) with purple belt Lizzie (not much over 5').  They did well!

The rest of the class was a selection of restraint & control, and then immobilizations, followed by groundwork randori.  Not much rotation in these sections, although I jumped in and did some light randori with about half the class (one at a time, not all at once) at the end.

This kind of rotation scheme depends on who turns up on a particular night, and setting it up is a challenge for any teacher.  Concerns include: safety; getting the newbies off to a good start; blending the need for consolidation with variety; giving the more advanced students adequate time to practice the more advanced techniques that they will need for their gradings.