I have been teaching judo for about three years. During this time I’ve learned quite a number of things. Some of what I learned is about judo, some about running a judo club, and some about me. Now I sit at my club wondering about this wonderful thing called judo that I try to spread to others.
The most important lessons I believe I have learned is that patience and a solid basis of basic understanding is essential to teaching judo to others. However, I believe that the Japanese and other cultures have it right with a prohibition on those below yodan or sandan teaching.
How can I, a mere USJA shodan and Yawara nidan, say such a thing as this? Shodan through sandan are just ready to really undertake learning. Concentrating on learning the foundational elements of judo is paramount at this stage, not teaching! Yet teaching is what these brave young dan grades do!
In some, exceptional, cases those below sandan may be head instructors. This is a sorry situation and does no great service to the students or the instructor. These instructors are barely versed in the essence of judo much less how to convey that essence to others.
What solution have I to this sorry state of affairs that U.S. Judo has found itself? I’m not sure that I truly have a sufficient solution, but I have some ideas.
1. Teaching is teaching. Students who desire to be instructors must undergo training in how to teach others. They need to understand things like lesson planning, transference, research, activity- and knowledge-based learning.
2. Coaching is not teaching. Coaching and teaching seem similar to the uninitiated. These are very different points of view in the educational process. Students who desire to be teachers should learn how to coach those that are junior to them effectively. They must understand shaping processes (both forward and backward), conditioning, tactics, strategy, and nutrition. Beginning coaches should specialize in small step coaching like coaching a specific group of waza to a small group of students.
3. Increase professionalism in our coaches and teachers. I don’t mean that coaches or teachers should exclusively do judo for their living, but the mindset of volunteerism because “I love judo” has to go. Love for the endeavor gets one in the door; it does not keep you working. A professional, whether or not currency changes hands, does the job because it is the job to do. They will do that job to the best of their ability every single time not because they “love it” but because it is the right thing to do. A volunteer can leave any time. A volunteer doesn’t have to do the job to the best of their ability because they are a volunteer.
4. National organizations need a program, even if it is just an online coursework program, to develop teaching and coaching. These need to be separate programs.
5. National organizations, within their structures, need to have a cohesive developmental approach to teaching judo students judo. Worrying about student waza selection is a lot like asking your five year old what he or she wants for supper, a bad idea. Students need to learn a progression of techniques and applications because they build upon and transfer to each other. Understanding Uki goshi and O goshi will help your student learn 90% or more of the other koshi waza!
I’m just a shodan/nidan, depending on who you ask, but these seem an important necessity for judo in the U.S.
24 March 2010
10 March 2010
Shaping - Forward and Backward
WHAT IS SHAPING?
According to Rushall and Siedentop, shaping is a strategy for teaching new behaviors and modifying old behaviors (Rushall, 1972). They further discuss what is involved in developing a shaping strategy:
1. the definition of a terminal topography,
2. the sequencing of steps of closer approximation to the terminal behavior,
3. the use of primes and prompts to produce performance variations, and
4. the use of reinforcement.
WHY DO JUDO COACHES NEED TO KNOW THIS?
If you don’t have a strategy for where your players are going, are you actually coaching? I don’t think so. Some coaches have a curriculum map, I certainly do. But that map doesn’t do much for actually teaching the skills, and developing a repeatable methodology is my greatest concern. After all, my goal is to create better judo players and teachers.
FORWARD SHAPING AND BACKWARD SHAPING
Have you ever gone to a class, a clinic, or tried to learn how to do something and the person or group teaching started at the beginning and worked their way to end? If you have, and I’d say everyone has, then you’ve experienced forward shaping. It’s the normal way most people learn to teach something, start at the beginning and work all the way to the end. It’s simple, but it does have a few problems.
First of all, in judo we aren’t concerned so much with how to start, but getting the end, the Ippon, hold-down, strangle, or Kansetsu, right. In forward shaping, however, we concentrate extensively on how to start not how to end. We also introduce opportunities for students to get confused between the beginning and the terminal component. A confused student will make mistakes when it comes time to use the training they received whether it’s in a tournament, randori, or self-defense.
Backward shaping takes the whole process and reverses the teaching stages. Let’s use falling as our teaching subject. In order to make sure students start falling correctly and safely, we should start teaching students, using the backward shaping model, on the ground with their body properly positioned. Once they have the proper position have them relax then, on command, have them get right back to proper position. After they have completed a number of successful evolutions of proper placement the instructor could move to the next step and continue this pattern until the student is doing standing or leaping falls with no hesitation or incorrectness.
A sample backwards shaping list for a back could be as follows:
1. Student laying on their back in the proper position
2. Student raises their hands to an appropriate position then slaps
3. Student rises to a sitting position with their hands in the appropriate position then rolls back and slaps
4. Student rises to a squatting position with their hands in the appropriate position then rolls back and slaps
5. Student rises to a standing position with their hands in the appropriate position then squats and rolls back and slaps
6. Student stands with their hands in the appropriate position then performs a back fall skipping the squatting stage and slaps
7. Student stands with their hands in the appropriate position the jumps into the air performing a back fall and slaps
This may seem like an obvious progression for most instructors and I think it is. This step-by-step process is quite obviously backward shaping. But how can we use backward shaping for the various waza or kata? That’s where the coach or instructor’s creativity comes into play. For example, I teach Nage no Kata starting with the falls and work backwards to the full waza. This gets really interesting in the case of big throws like Kata guruma (I haven’t figured out a backward progression on that). But my list of how to teach Uki otoshi for Nage no Kata follows (Uke’s part):
1. Uke steps in the kata fashion then, on the third step Uke performs a shoulder roll fall
2. Uke and Tori face each other, without gripping or placing hands on each other, Uke and Tori begin the kata’s stepping motion, on the third step Uke does the shoulder roll fall while Tori plants his or her knee on the mat adjusting his or her body appropriately.
3. This step is similar to Step 2, however, Uke and Tori both place their hands appropriately without gripping each other.
4. Again, this step is similar to Step 2, this time Uke and Tori grip each other.
That is a quick example of how to teach Uki otoshi using a backward progression model. If we teach it from the beginning with Uke and Tori gripping the final result will include errors because they don’t understand all their parts well enough to compile them into one continuous and harmonious flow.
Try changing some of the ways you teach various waza to a backward progression and see if you get better results. I know that I did.
Many thanks for introducing me to the concepts of forward and backward shaping go out to Gerald Lafon.
According to Rushall and Siedentop, shaping is a strategy for teaching new behaviors and modifying old behaviors (Rushall, 1972). They further discuss what is involved in developing a shaping strategy:
1. the definition of a terminal topography,
2. the sequencing of steps of closer approximation to the terminal behavior,
3. the use of primes and prompts to produce performance variations, and
4. the use of reinforcement.
WHY DO JUDO COACHES NEED TO KNOW THIS?
If you don’t have a strategy for where your players are going, are you actually coaching? I don’t think so. Some coaches have a curriculum map, I certainly do. But that map doesn’t do much for actually teaching the skills, and developing a repeatable methodology is my greatest concern. After all, my goal is to create better judo players and teachers.
FORWARD SHAPING AND BACKWARD SHAPING
Have you ever gone to a class, a clinic, or tried to learn how to do something and the person or group teaching started at the beginning and worked their way to end? If you have, and I’d say everyone has, then you’ve experienced forward shaping. It’s the normal way most people learn to teach something, start at the beginning and work all the way to the end. It’s simple, but it does have a few problems.
First of all, in judo we aren’t concerned so much with how to start, but getting the end, the Ippon, hold-down, strangle, or Kansetsu, right. In forward shaping, however, we concentrate extensively on how to start not how to end. We also introduce opportunities for students to get confused between the beginning and the terminal component. A confused student will make mistakes when it comes time to use the training they received whether it’s in a tournament, randori, or self-defense.
Backward shaping takes the whole process and reverses the teaching stages. Let’s use falling as our teaching subject. In order to make sure students start falling correctly and safely, we should start teaching students, using the backward shaping model, on the ground with their body properly positioned. Once they have the proper position have them relax then, on command, have them get right back to proper position. After they have completed a number of successful evolutions of proper placement the instructor could move to the next step and continue this pattern until the student is doing standing or leaping falls with no hesitation or incorrectness.
A sample backwards shaping list for a back could be as follows:
1. Student laying on their back in the proper position
2. Student raises their hands to an appropriate position then slaps
3. Student rises to a sitting position with their hands in the appropriate position then rolls back and slaps
4. Student rises to a squatting position with their hands in the appropriate position then rolls back and slaps
5. Student rises to a standing position with their hands in the appropriate position then squats and rolls back and slaps
6. Student stands with their hands in the appropriate position then performs a back fall skipping the squatting stage and slaps
7. Student stands with their hands in the appropriate position the jumps into the air performing a back fall and slaps
This may seem like an obvious progression for most instructors and I think it is. This step-by-step process is quite obviously backward shaping. But how can we use backward shaping for the various waza or kata? That’s where the coach or instructor’s creativity comes into play. For example, I teach Nage no Kata starting with the falls and work backwards to the full waza. This gets really interesting in the case of big throws like Kata guruma (I haven’t figured out a backward progression on that). But my list of how to teach Uki otoshi for Nage no Kata follows (Uke’s part):
1. Uke steps in the kata fashion then, on the third step Uke performs a shoulder roll fall
2. Uke and Tori face each other, without gripping or placing hands on each other, Uke and Tori begin the kata’s stepping motion, on the third step Uke does the shoulder roll fall while Tori plants his or her knee on the mat adjusting his or her body appropriately.
3. This step is similar to Step 2, however, Uke and Tori both place their hands appropriately without gripping each other.
4. Again, this step is similar to Step 2, this time Uke and Tori grip each other.
That is a quick example of how to teach Uki otoshi using a backward progression model. If we teach it from the beginning with Uke and Tori gripping the final result will include errors because they don’t understand all their parts well enough to compile them into one continuous and harmonious flow.
Try changing some of the ways you teach various waza to a backward progression and see if you get better results. I know that I did.
Many thanks for introducing me to the concepts of forward and backward shaping go out to Gerald Lafon.
02 March 2010
Teaching Nage no Kata
I was thinking of writing a blog about forward shaping and backward shaping because they are very important to teaching. However, to paraphrase one of the items on Skippy’s List, I just recently had an experience I just have to write you about (#83)…
I require the first three sets of the Nage no Kata for all of my students that want to be sankyu. Unfortunately, I don’t have too many people nearing that fateful milestone so the opportunities for those few (2) to have an opportunity to really get my full attention towards kata are limited. Tonight was different, but only one of the two was there.
Tonight my student who will be looking at sankyu (R.) in April or May and my MMA competitor (E.) were the only students I had. So I decided that they both needed certain specific work. As it turns out the yonkyu got the most time, and that on Nage no Kata. His partner for this is a “beginner” who is looking at a skip promotion to, what I class, as shichikyu (orange belt for us).
Obviously, a beginner should probably not be doing kata at speed. So we started by breaking down the kata into its component elements. The first thing, actually the last (so this qualifies as backward shaping) is the ukemi for Uki otoshi, a basic shoulder roll. E. got comfortable doing these shoulder rolls from a three step movement, just like the kata requires. Eventually we progressed to face to face moving through Uki otoshi without grips to make sure R. and E. could move in concert and perform the action without hurting each other.
The second to last step was the laying on of hands. I had them both set their hands in the appropriate positions to get their hands working accordingly. Several run-throughs of this and they were ready to actually grip. This worked beautifully! E. had never done this throw before. While he certainly will win no awards at a kata competition any time soon, for a first time it was excellent. R. who had done this many times before but very poorly actually began to understand the basic physics of the waza!
On to Seoi nage and much the same process occurred. You have no idea how interesting it is to watch someone do a leaping shoulder roll fall over a stationary partner to get the action of the fall correct! And it worked well. Well, except for the left side; this was just awful. But they worked solidly on it. With only one blemish to the exceptional record for the night, we just moved on.
Kata guruma, the bane of my kata existence, seemed to be working for me, but not R. It finally dawned on me why he was in the wrong position and a solution! It saddens me to say that I have to use Duck Tape to keep my mats together, however, that dull silver tape helped R. align his feet correctly! After only a few tries he finally lifted E. pretty correctly!
Things came together tonight and I’m fairly happy with the work these two are putting in at the club.
I require the first three sets of the Nage no Kata for all of my students that want to be sankyu. Unfortunately, I don’t have too many people nearing that fateful milestone so the opportunities for those few (2) to have an opportunity to really get my full attention towards kata are limited. Tonight was different, but only one of the two was there.
Tonight my student who will be looking at sankyu (R.) in April or May and my MMA competitor (E.) were the only students I had. So I decided that they both needed certain specific work. As it turns out the yonkyu got the most time, and that on Nage no Kata. His partner for this is a “beginner” who is looking at a skip promotion to, what I class, as shichikyu (orange belt for us).
Obviously, a beginner should probably not be doing kata at speed. So we started by breaking down the kata into its component elements. The first thing, actually the last (so this qualifies as backward shaping) is the ukemi for Uki otoshi, a basic shoulder roll. E. got comfortable doing these shoulder rolls from a three step movement, just like the kata requires. Eventually we progressed to face to face moving through Uki otoshi without grips to make sure R. and E. could move in concert and perform the action without hurting each other.
The second to last step was the laying on of hands. I had them both set their hands in the appropriate positions to get their hands working accordingly. Several run-throughs of this and they were ready to actually grip. This worked beautifully! E. had never done this throw before. While he certainly will win no awards at a kata competition any time soon, for a first time it was excellent. R. who had done this many times before but very poorly actually began to understand the basic physics of the waza!
On to Seoi nage and much the same process occurred. You have no idea how interesting it is to watch someone do a leaping shoulder roll fall over a stationary partner to get the action of the fall correct! And it worked well. Well, except for the left side; this was just awful. But they worked solidly on it. With only one blemish to the exceptional record for the night, we just moved on.
Kata guruma, the bane of my kata existence, seemed to be working for me, but not R. It finally dawned on me why he was in the wrong position and a solution! It saddens me to say that I have to use Duck Tape to keep my mats together, however, that dull silver tape helped R. align his feet correctly! After only a few tries he finally lifted E. pretty correctly!
Things came together tonight and I’m fairly happy with the work these two are putting in at the club.
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