22 July 2011

The Omoplata and the July Issue of "Growing Judo"

In the July issue of the USJA's "Growing Judo" e-magazine, I apparently made an error about the legality of the "omoplata" of Brazilian JiuJitsu and its legality in judo tournaments. The error was pointed out to me by "funjudo" of the JudoForum in the July Issue of USJA's Growing Judo now available.


Essentially the omoplata and sankaku garami are the same technique, but, like many other judo turned Brazilian JiuJitsu techniques, called something different. These techniques are much like a down-variation of ude garami (Kimura), however, instead of being applied with the arms, it is applied with the legs. If one peruses the internet in search of the joint to which the technique is applied, you'll find that if the exponent is a BJJ player, the joint is the shoulder. If you can find a judo exponent, the joint is the elbow. My personal experience was with BJJ players, so I believed it to be a shoulder lock. Turns out this is just how they roll...no pun intended.


None of the judo books I have discuss sankaku garami and the only BJJ book (Jiu-Jitsu University by Saulo Ribeiro) mentions the omoplata, but cautions "This move should be applied...to prevent damage to your opponent's shoulder." However, after watching several videos of both judo practitioners and BJJ players, I think the major difference between the two techniques is the ideology of application between the two activities.


And now for something I hope you'll really like:


The only judo sankaku garami I found on YouTube.


Georges St.Pierre teaching an Omoplata


Frank Mir demonstrating his application of the Omoplata
(You can hear him mention separating the shoulder after the first run-through)


Personally, I have no qualm with teaching any of the techniques in BJJ in a judo class, because, honestly, the biggest difference between the two are the rule and mind sets of the practitioners.


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Judo Tidbit for the Day:


If you are or want to teach judo, spend some time learning how to plan a class from beginning to end. That means lesson planning to start with, but if you're really serious about teaching judo as an education there's a lot more to it.


With my club what I like to do is take the promotional requirements, the date of the test, and the number of classes then figure out how much time I have to teach everything required for the test. Once I have all that figured out, I divvy up the material so that there's plenty of time to teach everything, plenty of time to drill everything, and, finally, plenty of time to review everything. This has worked well for me as an educator of judo, but if you or your club are extremely competitively focused, this may not work so well.


I would prefer to have an educational class and a competitive class. That way I can teach everything they need to give them a thorough understanding of the basics of the techniques, then, if the student wants, they can undertake the competitive class to become exceptional competitors.

10 July 2011

18th-19th June 2011 Clinic

It’s been a little bit since the clinic. It’s been busy around here. Here’s a little clip and the write-up submitted for the July issue of Growing Judo (http://www.usja-judo.org/GrowingJudo/GrowingJudo2011_07.pdf).
The 18th of June was blistering hot with temperatures reaching past the century mark, yet 19 judoka travelled to the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell, NM for a day long clinic on topics like warming up, kuzushi and body movement, the basic reaping techniques, and groundwork flow and submissions. Three clinicians covered the four topics in detail.
Warm-ups and conditioning for judo are very important to judo students as they help the student’s body prepare for the ensuing workout. Our clinic began with emphasis on proper warming in a group and as an individual. One aspect that hit me as interesting was a 10 minute warm-up routine designed to increase the strength and endurance of the student and consisted of four rounds of push-ups, sit-ups, burpees, and squats starting at 1 minute each and decreasing by fifteen seconds once each set was complete. After the warm-up portion, Oscar Tinajero, the clinician for this section, covered flexibility and movements common to a ground game including various rolls and positions frequently experienced on the ground.
Figure 1: Flexibility Drill
Kuzushi, tai sabaki, debana, and other critical topics typically find themselves discussed as afterthoughts. The second section of our clinic covered these topics as a primary concern. Loren Bentley, the clinician for this section, began with a brief discussion and demonstration of the happo no kuzushi and soon had the students applying it in linear and circular movement in both jigo and shizen hontai. Once the basics of kuzushi and tai sabaki saw glimmerings of understanding, the concept of debana came forth through a game based on pressure applied to a partner’s palms. This game helped students understand how to move for a technique when their partner applied pressure on their hands.

Figure 2: Palms Game in Action
Everyone is familiar with a number of variations of the four basic gari techniques. For our third section of the clinic, Loren Bentley, clinician for this section, covered one variation from Daigo’s Kodokan Judo Throwing Techniques for each gari. Several of the variations were sufficiently different from the students’ experience to require extended practice of which they received plenty. The final variation, a retreating variation of O soto gari, received the greatest understanding by the students.

Figure 3: Demonstration of O Soto Gari (Retreating)
The final clinic was on ground work and flow drills. Here the students learned about continuous motion on the ground from one submission to the next to the next from Tim Smith, our clinician for this section. Starting with the basic legs around in the bottom position (guard), the first element was juji gatame. Operating from the idea that uke foiled the attempt; the technique flowed into sankaku jime by repositioning the legs. Again assuming that uke foils the attempt, the technique flows into the Brazilian JiuJitsu technique known as an omoplata, which, while certainly not legal in judo, is perfectly applicable to MMA or submission grappling events.


Figure 4: Demonstration of Sankaku Jime
In all the event ran for about seven hours and a great time was had by all. We receive many compliments from students, clinicians, and family members about the quality of the instruction, the facility (although it was warmish), and the organization. All three clinicians taught well and thoroughly ensuring all students spent more time doing than hearing.
Roswell Judo Club would like to thank Ron Wade and the New Mexico Military Institute for the use of their martial arts room with the brand new mats; Oscar Tinajero and the Red Spyder Martial Arts club and Toby Rue and the New Mexico State University Judo Club for bringing so many students to the clinic. For more information about the clinic or the Roswell Judo Club visit our website (www.roswell-judo.org) or our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/pages/Roswell-Judo-Club/125588979566).

And here's a brief clip from the clinic video: