Judo at New Mexico Military Institute

It has been a few years since the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell, NM has had a judo program. As of the 17th of September 2009, that is no longer the case! Brigadier General Richard Geraci made the decision to allow me to teach Judo as a club activity this year. I want to thank General Geraci for this great opportunity and look forward to his continued support!


On to the judo!*

The 17th of September was an overcast day, which makes no difference for judo since we practice inside! After the mat was unrolled, we started with falling. Falling is always a good way to start a class, especially with new students. Starting with back falls we rapidly progressed from squatting to standing and showed our mettle as we ranged through the side and front falls. Only one didn’t do the front falls, but that was due to a shoulder injury.

On we worked! Onto the fundamental hip throw, O Goshi. Old and new cadets alike worked hard to develop the skills necessary to successfully perform this throw. Our first drill was simply learning to turn inside the feet of our partner. Using our shoes to simulate the placement of uke’s feet, we practiced for a time just turning into uke. After a while, we finally were able to develop enough skill to start learning to use our arms, but now we needed a real-live person! Shoes would no longer do for us! So we matched up by size and proceeded to work on O goshi.

The pairing worked well, but for one pair. Of course, when one partner is over six feet tall and the other around five foot nine, it is a little difficult for the taller to work. But prevail they did and soon bodies were flying about! Ukemi, loud in the basketball court, was being done smoothly and with crisp slaps, ensuring the safety of all.

Shortly before we left, Sensei allowed questions to be asked. Today’s question was about the difference between Jujitsu and Judo. Though sensei rambles when he explains things, the explanation was thorough and touched on several key points. The first of these points was which “Jujitsu” were we asking about? Were we thinking of the “roll on the ground fighting for submission” jujitsu or the older samurai jujitsu? Both types of jujitsu were explained in some detail and compared and contrasted with judo as Dr. Kano developed and the current evolved sport version of judo that we see at tournaments.

The next class will be on Tuesday, the 22nd, and I expect that all six, perhaps more, of Thursday’s class will return.
*Readers take note: I will speak not as the instructor but from a fictional student point-of-view when I talk about classes, sometimes. I think it makes the reading more interesting. Let me know!

The School Year has Begun!

Summer is over and the kids are back at school! Now is the time for all students to start judo! At least that's what I think! We are growing at Roswell Judo Club. Recently we have had an old student return, several high school students join our Adults program, and several elementary students join our After-School Program.

This year I am going to concentrate on growing Roswell Judo Club to twenty students in every class. That's three classes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. We have an After-School class that starts at 3:30pm and runs for an hour; a Youth class that starts at 6:00pm, also running an hour; and an Adult class that starts at 7:00pm and runs for an hour and a half.

The After-School class is going to concentrate on developing the Pillars of Character, outlined by Character Counts! I plan to teach the basic fundamentals of judo in a fun, engaging, and encouraging atmosphere. We'll use games and play to make judo fun and exciting for students. The After-School class is designed for elementary school age children of both sexes. So, if you know any elementary kids who need something fun to do after school, bring them by the Yucca Center on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 3:30!

The Youth class will also concentrate on developing the Pillars of Character, but in a more age-appropriate fashion. In this class the fundamentals will be the foundation, but we will delve deeper into judo and how it can be applied outside the dojo. The atmosphere will be fun and engaging which helps to encourage these middle school students to their full potential. Bring them by at 6:00pm on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays!

The Adults class is for High School students and older who would like to develop self-defense, athletically, or just get some exercise in during the week. This class will be different from the Youth and After-School classes, but will still be fun and engaging. We will put a strong emphasis on developing technique, self-defense, and character in the Adult class. Come by and pick up some self-defense skills; learn how to throw, choke, or armbar like they do on the UFC; come to learn a traditional martial art; or just come to have fun! Whatever you do, make sure you're here at 7:00pm on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays!

We'll see you on the mats!

--Loren

Jason Morris Judo Center

So Job Corps sent me to Oneonta, NY for training. That is all good and well, but the highlight comes from the one session I had the privelege to attend at the Jason Morris Judo Center. This was great!

For a two hour class, it was neatly divided into three sections: warm-up, nage komi, and randori. The warm-up was Dodgeball and not bad. This lasted for 30 minutes and all appeared to have fun. A word to the wise, if you go and they're doing Dodgeball, aim low.

For the nage komi, the crash pads were pulled out and we took turns as uke for one as they did 10 throws then switched tori. It wasn't too bad. The throws were done lightly to ensure correctness and form and the falling was, well, on a crash pad.

The randori was the most interesting set-up for me. They pulled out the digital clock/timer/thing and set it for 4 minute round, 1 minute overtime, and 30 seconds break. It was quite fun, even though I had to sit out every other one. Looks like I have conditioning to work on.

When you go, be prepared for high humidity. The temperature wasn't too bad at around 78 degrees Fahrenheit. But with 80% or better humidity it made for a wet workout.

All in all, I must send great thanks out to Jason, Terri, Nick, and all the others who were so gracious to this visitor from Roswell!

Yawara Judo Association Clinic/Promotional

Some of you may know that I am also a member of Yawara Judo Association. If you know that then you also know that my dad was responsible for this association. It's been a year since he left for his match with Kano and during that time, Yawara has been working on its direction. This last weekend (25-26 April 2009), they made it apparent what they've been up to.

There were three events that occured during the weekend: a clinic, a promotional, and the awarding of Kudan, Yawara (9th Degree Black Belt) to my father for what he gave us.

The clinic was fairly good, though there were many things that I would have prefered to have done and I have several ideas on how best to conduct future clinics. I will elaborate later.

The promotional was also fairly good, though it, too, lacked due to a paradigm shift in operations and standards. While holding to Yawara's traditional standards, the addition of USJA's standards into the mix added frequent confusion, though not inability. Terminology is a pain in the coccyx.

The presentation of the Kudan was...emotional.

P.S. This is old. I thought I had already posted it.

Roswell Judo Club Needs New Mats

Hey, if anybody reads this and you know anybody who has money to spare, ask them to donate to us! We need new mats!

Currently the mats we are on are about 15 or so years old and not really adequate for judo. We are looking at getting a set of ZebraMats 2" Tatami mats (8m x 8m; 32 mats). These would serve for practice, tournaments, promotionals, etc. for about 10-15 years or more.

So, again, if you or anybody you know has money to burn, just hop on over to the Roswell Judo Club page and donate some money to our Roswell Judo Club Needs New Mats fund.

Judo, Education, and Gracie JiuJitsu

I realize my ground game isn't anywhere near where it should be. But I live in Roswell, NM. The closest other judo club is an hour and a half away, roughly. The only class of theirs I can attend is on Saturday. Sometimes I like to have Saturdays.

So, I research. In that research we have the ever present JudoInfo.com, Judo.Forumotion.co.uk. Recently, however, I cruised the internet and found Gracie University. I perused and watched the samples. The samples are exquisitely done and neatly broken down. So I thought, why not? I ordered the complete "Gracie Combatives" DVD set ($120, which is about $24 less than buying the exact same things online as a collective and $164 cheaper than buying the videos online individually) as a curiousity. Curiousity Satisfied.

After reviewing just the first two DVD's (covering a mount escape, the "Americana," maintaining the mount, taking the back, rear naked choke, and the leg hook takedown), my evaluation is that these instructional videos are of exceptional quality. I personally believe that if the Gracie Academy/University produces the remainder of their "Master Cycle" in this same format, they will have revolutionized distance martial arts education with a great level of legitimacy.

Whenever I have looked for instructional videos for judo most of them are lacking. Usually these lack in detail, especially with subtleties, and frequently the demonstrator is lacking in understanding of the overall idea/philosophy of the technique. If, however, the demonstrator thoroughly understands all these aspects, like Mike Swain in his Complete Judo collection (which are really good in the broad scope!), they lack the ability to thoroughly elaborate the gross to fine intricacies of the techniques. This is not to say that they are poor videos, many, especially by the big names, are really good, once you've a good idea about what's going on. The Gracie Combatives DVD's, however, are designed for people with zero idea about grappling and take you from the level of complete incompetence to adequate comprehension of technique, philosophy, and application.

This sounds like I'm a Gracie fanboi, but, when you produce a product that is of such exceptional quality, its hard not to acknowledge those facts!

Now, what does all this have to do with my personal quest for judo? It'll help my ground game. It will possibly position me and Roswell Judo in a very unique niche where I may be able to bring in more money due to certification to teach this course, in a year or so. We shall see.

Are there negatives to the Gracie Combatives? Yes. If you do judo, their takedowns, from a judo perspective, suck. Personally I believe that the most important thing in a throw is high-quality technique leading to uke landing squarely on the back and not wanting to get up. The Gracie philosophy is different and they explain why. I agree that their explanation makes sense, even though I disagree with it.

Old Judo Players

Tonight we had a guest visit us from out of the past. Dave Derrick, I always called him Major Derrick as that was his rank at the military school where I went to school. He's a great guy and came in to observe, but, like all good judo players, got to the point where the watching was not enough, he had to get out and help!

It was really good for my two students to learn from someone other than myself and to hear many of the same things I already tell them from someone else. They worked solidly for the whole time and learned a lot of very little things. Unfortunately, it's the little things that are important and difficult to grasp in judo.