Formal manners for rough players

Some players are naturally rough.

(Adapted from a story by Trevor Leggett)

Among the judo fraternity in Japan, the roughest are the medical school students. I once practiced with such a man who was visiting our dojo.

Normally in Japanese dojos, people just come up to you and ask “O-negai?” (“Will you?”). But this chap came up to me and made a deep formal bow. Then he uttered, “O-negai-itashimasu” (“May I have the honour of practicing with you?”).

I was perplexed and just replied, “Oh, all right.”

When we started our randori he came at me like a typhoon. His style of play was very rough. After a while, he managed to throw me. As I was getting up, he came up to me and said, “Please excuse me.”

I thought to myself, “Why is he apologizing?”

Then when I managed to throw him, he picked himself off the floor and said, “Thank you very much.”

I thought, “Whoa, what is this?”

It was only later that I realized the sensei in the medical school dojo knew that such formal manners was just what his rough players needed. He insisted on very strict politeness so that it would restrain them a little bit, just for a moment, in the middle of all the excitement of randori. By holding them to something formal it would remind them to always respect their opponent. He knew how easily they could lose their temper, so this restraint allowed them to practice in other dojos without things getting out of hand.