We are all a product of our training

Some of the people I trained with in LA in the early 90s.

Have you noticed how different judo instructors have their own little quirks and philosophies about how judo should be trained?

Some believe strongly in the use of crash pads (me) and some think crash pads are only for wimps. Some believe in training to music (me) and some think that's heresy. Some emphasize randori (me) while others limit randori to just a few minutes or none at all.

Have you ever wondered how these instructors came to adopt the approach that they have for judo training? Much of it comes from the way they learned their judo. We are all a product of our experiences.

A recent Facebook share by a friend confirms to me how much that is true.

I have a judo friend named William Schrimsher who is a player and a coach in the USA. He recently shared a post of some judo players from Southern California from the early 90s. It so happened that some of the people in those pics were people I had trained with when I was out there in the early 90s.

When I chatted with him about that, he said his sensei had also trained at the same dojo (LA Judo Training Centre, now defunct) although our times there probably didn't overlap. I think his sensei might have trained there in 1990 while I was there in 1991.

I recall in past conversations William telling me, "My sensei's approach to judo is quite similar to yours." Back then I didn't think much of it and thought maybe it was just a coincidence. Now, I realize it's not a coincidence at all. We were both the product of the same dojo and it's reflected in the way we teach judo today.

William, who has spent some time at Jason Morris's (American Olympic silver medalist) dojo remarked: "You're also very similar to Jason Morris, as a coach, in the way that you run your classes. Lots of randori, lots of nagekomi and very little classical Japanese practice, only competition-style usable techniques."

I don't know how influenced Jason was by LA Judo but I do recall him dropping by and training there a few times when I was there.

The head coach at LA Judo was the late John Ross, who was a former national-level coach. Although he had trained in Japan he was far from traditional. Much of what I know about competition judo came from him. 

It was John who taught me that everything starts from grip. He taught me a very systematic approach to gripping, which was mind-blowing to me then.

It was John who told me to focus on newaza because it was easier to make progress in newaza than in tachi-waza. "It will take you a long time to catch up with experienced players in tachi-waza," he said. "But you can very easily catch up or surpass them in newaza."

It was also John who suggested my tokui-waza be ippon-seoi-nage and yoko-tomoe-nage. I trusted John so I did what he told me to do and worked on those techniques. The ippon-seoi came quite quickly (almost immediately). The yoko-tomoe took a lot longer (literally years but I eventually mastered it).

In later years, I would go on to do more advanced training in the UK and Germany where I would learn very European-style techniques like the Khabarelli and side-takedown. But my foundation in competition judo training can be traced directly to LA Judo. What I learned there still influences much of how I teach judo today.

Today, I teach many players at my club. Perhaps some of them will go on to establish their own judo club in the future. I can't help but to think their teaching system will lean heavily on what they learned at KL Judo during their formative years.