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Jitsuka

Dear Saso,

There are a lot of points in your letter and I will try to talk about all of them.

Jujitsu is a relatively old martial art with no single origin or fixed syllabus. This is a great strength in that it allows great flexibility and adaption. The disadvantage, is a bewildering variety of schools, teachers, standards and techniques.

Choosing a club

It is very important that a club makes you feel safe and welcome. Distractions interfere with learning and endanger you.

On the subject of danger, you should find out about insurance. Organisations with good insurance are more likely to be stable and insist on good standards for its teachers. Never train without insurance, or pay for membership that does not provide it.

Choosing a teacher

The Japanese believe that if you spend a year in search of a teacher, you time will not have been wasted. Most Westerners would not go that far, but it is always a good idea to shop around.

Your teacher should be somebody you can learn from. At the end of the lesson, you should feel that you have learned or progressed.

Be prepared to put time and energy into your lessons so that your teacher can spend time and energy on you.

Different techniques

This is not a problem. The most important thing is to not be hit by the attacker! What you do next depends on the situation. Must you fight for your life? Must you hold your attacker down? Which direction must you move in to escape?

Tatami

You can train on a wooded floor if you can breakfall properly and if the throws are light. In fact, if the floor is too soft your breakfalling could get worse because you are not punished for your mistakes.

But, I have never heard of a club that does regular throwing on to a wooden floor. Again, you to find out what the insurance situation is.

My advice would be to ask for as much breakfalling practice as possible. The more you practice, the less frightening it will be.

Being 34

It is actually possible to be 34 and quite fit. It is also possible to be 34 and be attacked in the street and wish you had had fighting experience. It is also possible to be 34 and paying just as much money as the people who are in the fighting group.

Perhaps you could tell you teacher that you feel you could handle the fighting group. You could say that you will be quite happy to stop as soon as you get a bloody nose.

Being in a bad mood.

I can not imagine this at all. What would you teacher say if you announced in one of his lessons that you were in a bad mood and walked out?

Training in both clubs

Training is always good. So if you feel comfortable with 4 sessions why not do it? If it becomes too much, you can just reduce it. You are lucky to have so much opportunity.

So, what does everybody else think? Send Feedback your thoughts and comments.

Jitsuka

What letters page would be complete without effusive praise?

We like you L. Please write again.

Jitsuka

Many teachers are wary of recording kata. This is because the whole point of kata is that you do them. They are a living record in themselves.

This is not to say that they there is anything wrong with notes as a memory aid while you are learning.

Most of the throwing kata and simple weapon defences are very old and can be found in any comprehensive judo book. If I had to recomend a book, it would of course have to be Kodokan Judo by Jigoro Kano ISBN 4-770-177799-5. This is a book that everybody should have.

As for the internet, there is a very good peice on nage-no-kata in the Swansea University site.

Jitsuka

Thank you for another interesting letter. I have shown your letter to different people to get advice.

As you know, judo was developed as a way of safely practising throws. It has become a separate sport but it is a great mistake to think that jujitsu is judo with punching. But practising throws is not the same as using them.

Try watching some aikido people using wrist locks. They do not stop their attackers and then grab the wrist. Instead, the block becomes the wrist lock.

It is the same with throwing. I will describe an exercise from my club.

The attack is a downwards swing to the head with a club. Now, you could step aside, block, punch and then throw. But that is katate/judo.

Instead, we step in and bring our arms around together. The left hand comes to the attackers forearm to control it and the right punches hard into the attackers ribs. The point I am making is that that both hands and the feet all move at the same time.

Now, the left hand is keeping the club away from you face and you can pull it in the direction it is already going. Your right hand moves past the ribs and up under the armpit.

Allow this movement to continue and it becomes seo-nage. By the time the attacker realises your head is not there he is in the air with cracked ribs.

You evade, block, strike and throw. But there are no separate movements and nothing stops. That is jujitsu!

Another exercise my teacher likes is to blindfold people and make them stand in one place. They are then grabbed randomly and have to escape as quickly as possible.

If there is a particular situation you are worried about, then to can train to to deal with it. The fact however is that you can never train for every possibility because there are just too many. You must become confident by using exercises that have lots of surprises and unfairness!

I am sure that everybody who is reading has thoughts on this subject. Please send them to Feedback.

In answer to The question about the unexpected by Saso

I am a Karate and Jujutsu instructor in the United States. After living in Japan for three years, I returned to the US, and took a job as a bouncer because I wanted to see if all my years of training would work in the real world.

What I learned was that everything I had learned worked, but usually had to be modified for the situation. You cannot possibly train for every situation, so the key word here is train. The more you train with what your teacher is teaching you the more possibilities you will see to handle various situations.

I would highly suggest that you discuss your feelings about this with your instructor. Also your instructors should be informed if you are going to train in both schools at the same time.

Personally, I wouldn`t waste my time at a school where the instructor feels that going to the pub is more important than teaching class. I will sometimes miss a class because of illness, or work, but I have an obligation to be there to instruct my students. I feel that the technique they would miss just because I didn`t feel like teaching might be the one that could save their life. Good Luck.

Sincerely,

Hogosha 17 November 2001

Comments on Saso

I thought I'd make some comments on Saso's last letter.

Firstly, I believe that any martial arts training does not prepare you for all eventualities. The thing that I would say is that ju-jitsu does not turn you into some kind of invincible killing machine - rather, it leaves you better able to handle an attack than if you hadn't undergone the training.

That said, one problem with martial arts is that many disciplines try, either consciously or otherwise, to be exclusive - but in reality a holistic approach is by far the best way, and Ju-jitsu is the best single art to provide this.

Nevertheless, Ju-jitsu in it's many forms is still not truly all-encompassing - we can all learn from other disciplines. Karate, Aikido, Judo and others all have something to offer. Our club currently has a Police self-defence instructor, some of whose techniques are nothing like Ju-jitsu - but Christ they are effective!

In a nutshell, Saso, go and "cross-train" if you get the opportunity!

All the best

Brian W. 22 November 2001,

And Another Thing

And another thing, Saso - Train to block a double punch! - "Joe Thug" is not going to land a lovely right hook for you to block and move into an o-goshi/ippon seo nage etc. Nine times out of ten, he will come in with everything flying. Be prepared to block both fists, his head with your hand/elbow - even his feet/knees!

The standard training will help you master the basics - but you have to train your techniques so that you can control the attack in whatever shape it comes. Try asking your "Uki" to throw a double punch to start off with & take it from there. Don't forget that most of your martial arts training teaches you the basics only - you have to sort out what works for you and develop it into something that works for your potential situations.

Happy New Year!

Brian W.

Jitsuka

Unfortunatly, Jitsuka only has a staff of one: a poor minion in a draughty garret who has a full time job and I part time study course.

Now that Schools Out for Summer things should improve. There is already a link to the very excellent Jitsu Grapevine Site for those of you who like discussion. New projects in the pipeline include a set of video clips and a book site.

As always, the bst way of seeing new stuff on the Worlds Best Ju Jitsu Site is to contribute some!

Jitsuka June 2002

Let it never be said that Jitsuka shys away from its duty of printing fulsome praise.

Jitsuka June 2002