The Importance of Training Partners

When two players are roughly the same size and have roughly the same level of skills, it is very natural for them to gravitate towards each other. If everyone else is way bigger, stronger, more experienced or skilled, it can be demoralizing. On the other hand, if everyone else is smaller, weaker, less experience or less skilled, training can be become boring. That's why it's important to have someone who is more or less the same level as you during training.

This is a luxury. Judo is not a popular sport and in many judo clubs, you will see a mismatch where very big players have to train with very small players or a solitary black belt has only beginners to train with and so on. If you happen to be in a club where you can find a suitable training partner (or better still, partners), then you can count yourself to be very lucky.

At our club, we have two players -- beginners -- who started around the same time. One is a bit heavier than the other and the lighter one is a bit taller, so they aren't perfectly suited for each other, but in terms of experience and skills level, they are about the same. Strength level too.

They are good for training with each other, sparring (in randori) with each other and competing against each other (in shiai). And they enjoy it too. Both tell me they really like fighting each other.

The fact that they have each other is a positive thing in two very important respects. Firstly, when you have a regular training partner, you will show up for training more often because you don't want to let them down.

There may be days when you are too tired or when your body is aching or when you simply feel too lazy to train. If you don't have a training partner expecting you to come for training, you might just skip training for that day. But if you know your buddy will be left with no one suitable to train with, you will get off your ass and head over to the dojo. You don't want to let them down because you know when you need them, they will be there for you.

Secondly, when you have a training partner who is roughly on the same level as you, it spurs you on to train harder and to progress faster in your judo. Why? Because you don't want to be left behind by your partner. If the person you are training with all the time is improving you will naturally feel the need to keep up or better still, surpass them. And they will feel the same way. Each will spur the other on.

This is why it's important to have a regular training partner (or partners). If you have one, or two or three, better treasure them. They are a rarity and you should never take them for granted. They are the ones who will make your training enjoyable and your progress in judo will be so much faster and smoother when you have them around.

Randori & Shiai

At our club, we don't just have randori at every session. On most days, we cap off the training with shiai.

This is not a common practice in judo clubs. Randori, yes, but shiai, no. But we do it for two very practical reasons.

Firstly, there are not a lot of competitions in this part of the world. We want to give our players more exposure to competitions. Since external competitions are rare, we decided to create our own competition-like segments of the training so they can get that experience.

Secondly, in the past when all we had were only randoris, we noticed that our players tended to treat the randoris as shiai. In other words, instead of sparring and trying out techniques and new moves, they were fighting. In some cases treating the randori as if it were "the final of the World Championships" (to quote one of our instructors commenting about one of our players who was incredibly competitive during randori).

Actually, I myself had been guilty of treating randori as shiai. I recall one particular occasion, many years ago, where that attitude reached ridiculous levels. I used to have a regular training partner (also a former national champion) whom I would randori with all the time. The club that I used to train at used to do randori "motodachi" style where a player would stay out for three rounds of randori before taking a break. During those three rounds he would have different randori partners. On one particular evening, when I was the motodachi, my training partner came up and sparred with me for the first round. Neither one of us managed to get a throw on the other.

Instead of letting another player come in for the second round, my training partner decided to have another randori with me. Great, I thought. I'll get him this time. I'm sure he thought the exact same thing. But both of us were treating it like a shiai and were fighting too conservatively, not giving an inch to the other. No throws for either one.

Third round, he decided to take me on again. Same thing. No throws either side. After the third round, I was supposed to step down as motodachi and let someone else come in to become motodachi. But being that I had no chance to spar with anyone else that session, I decided to stay on for another three rounds (I was quite fit back then).

My training partner came up to me and we had our fourth round. Then fifth. Then sixth. After that the randori was over. For six rounds of randori, we treated each one like it was the final of the World Championships. And neither one of us got in a single throw.

What that episode taught me was that players want to fight. They don't just want to spar, they want to fight. And if you don't give them that opportunity, they will use the sparring session for fighting.

For a long time, I tried to encourage my players to treat randori as an opportunity to try new techniques and to not be so competitive and defensive when doing randori. But to no avail. Everyone kept treating randori as a shiai.

Once we started introducing shiai as part of our training session, all of that changed. Overnight. Suddenly, people were treating randori as randori. They weren't so aggressive anymore and they were actually trying things and getting countered. Why? Because they knew they had shiai to look forward to afterwards. So they used the randori segment for what it is meant to be: a time for experimentation.

At the end of the day, people want to play the sport they signed up for. If you join a badminton club, you want to play badminton. Yes, you can do drills, and you can play hitting the shuttlecock back and forth but ultimately, you want to challenge your partner and play a game of badminton.

And so it is with judo. Judokas want to fight. If you don't give them that outlet through shiai, they will use randori as shiai. So, while it is rather unusual to have shiai with every session, we have found that it works well for our club.

Why? Why? Why?

From time to time, it's good to do a little Q&A on FAQ (frequently asked questions) so that people understand why we do and don't do certain things at our judo club.

Why do we charge for trial sessions?
There are two key reasons for this. Firstly, we want only serious prospective members to come for our trials. One way to weed out the serious from the non-serious is to charge a nominal fee. We believe RM20 is very fair for a two-hour session (our normal walk-in rate is RM50 per session). If someone is not willing to pay RM20 for a trial, they are not serious about wanting to join. Besides, if they are simply too cheap to pay for a trial, we don't want such people in our club. Secondly, contrary to what some people might think, there are costs to the club when a newbie comes for a trial. True, our rent stays the same but there are opportunity costs in terms of the time, attention and effort our instructors and senior players have to spend on teaching the newbie the ropes. This is time that could have been spent on existing members. So, we need to impose a nominal fee to discourage the frivolous from coming for a "free trial".

Why do we insist on proper judogis being worn during practice?
There is a very practical reason. Karate and taekwondo gis are not designed for gripping and certainly not heavy gripping. Most karate and taewondo gis are perhaps 150 gsm (grams per square meter). In contrast, a competition judogi is 750 gsm. In other words, five times as thick. Even a beginner's training gi for judo is at a minimum 350 gsm, which is already double the thickness of a karate or taekwondo gi. Mind you, a beginner's training gi is the absolute thinnest gi for judo.

Why don't we allow BJJ gis, which are easily as thick as judogis?
BJJ gis may pass the thickness test but they are usually too tight and the sleeves and pants are usually too short to be considered legal for judo. BJJ is very much a groundwork game so having the suit loose enough and the sleeves long enough is not much of a concern. It is a concern when you are dealing with judo, which has a strong throwing component to the sport. But even if a BJJ gi had the necessary thickness, looseness and sleeve length, we also don't permit gis that are of any colour other than white or blue. Nor are the gis allowed to have patches and embroidery all over the place. Judogis are allowed to have some patches and embroidery but in a very limited way. These are restricted to certain parts of the judogi only. Otherwise, it would be considered an illegal gi. This is what gives judo a uniform look. You might disagree with the ethos or even the aesthetics of having such uniformity that but those are the rules set by the International Judo Federation. We are a judo club so we follow judo rules.

Why don't you also teach some BJJ or MMA stuff like other martial arts clubs?
Because we are not a martial arts club. We are a sports club specializing in judo.

Why don't you teach "old-school" judo techniques that allows leg grabs?
For the simple reason that IJF rules don't permit leg grabs. In anticipation of the follow-up question: "But aren't leg grabs useful in a self-defense situation?," for sure they are but we are not a martial arts club focused on self-defense. We are a sports club focused on the Olympic sport of judo, so we follow IJF rules.

Why don't you do no-gi judo during training?
While BJJ has a no-gi version, there is no such thing as no-gi judo under IJF rules. Judo must be done with a judogi. However, we occasionally do no-gi drills and randori for the purpose of teaching our players to be comfortable with close-contacting fighting, which is popular among some European and even some central Asian countries (e.g. Kazakhstan, Mongolia, etc). Traditional judo typically teaches you to keep uke away from you until it is time to attack but the close-contact fighters like to draw you in and literally hug you tightly in order to do their techniques. This is something most players are not used to. So, no-gi training, which requires close contact as there is no jacket to grip, helps players overcome their unease with close-contact fighting. We don't do no-gi newaza however as there is no benefit in doing so. Newaza is by definition a close-contact activity already, so our players do not have to acclimatize themselves to it. They are already used to it. It's close-contact stand-up fighting that most players are not used to.

Why don't you do a lot of fitness exercises during your sessions?
We only have a limited amount of time for training and our members, who are mainly working adults, can come only so many times a week. Whatever little time we have together, we want to use it for doing judo. Strength, fitness and conditioning work can be done alone or with other friends outside judo training sessions. But judo can only be done at the club and only with training partners (you can't do judo alone). The time we have together is limited and therefore scarce. It should be used for judo.

Why don't you do stretching before the judo sessions begin?
(From the New York Times)
Researchers now believe that some of the more entrenched elements of many athletes’ warm-up regimens are not only a waste of time but actually bad for you. The old presumption that holding a stretch for 20 to 30 seconds — known as static stretching — primes muscles for a workout is dead wrong. It actually weakens them. In a recent study conducted at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, athletes generated less force from their leg muscles after static stretching than they did after not stretching at all. Other studies have found that this stretching decreases muscle strength by as much as 30 percent. Also, stretching one leg’s muscles can reduce strength in the other leg as well, probably because the central nervous system rebels against the movements.

(From WebMD)
Should you stretch before exercise? Not necessarily. It's not proven to help prevent injury, curb muscle soreness after exercise, or improve your performance. Static stretching before exercise can weaken performance, such as sprint speed, in studies. The most likely reason is that holding the stretch tires out your muscles.

Why don't you do cool down exercises after the judo sessions are over?
(From the New York Times)

Most of us were taught in elementary school gym classes that the body requires a formal period of cooling down after a workout or competition. Instructors told us that by slowing to a jog or otherwise lessening the intensity of the workout, followed by stretching or otherwise transitioning out of physical activity, we would prevent muscle soreness, improve limberness and speed physiological recovery. All of this would allow us to perform better physically the next day than if we hadn’t cooled down. But under scientific scrutiny, none of those beliefs stand up well.

(From Sports Medicine)
Most evidence indicates that active cool-downs do not significantly reduce muscle soreness, or improve the recovery of indirect markers of muscle damage, neuromuscular contractile properties, musculotendinous stiffness, range of motion, systemic hormonal concentrations, or measures of psychological recovery. It can also interfere with muscle glycogen resynthesis. In summary, based on the empirical evidence currently available, active cool-downs are largely ineffective for improving most psychophysiological markers of post-exercise recovery.

Why don't you do much uchikomi?
We believe uchikomi is useful when an athlete is learning a new technique and therefore has to learn how to enter into the throw. However, once the athlete has learned the mechanics of the throw, the focus should be on nagekomi. It is important to do the full motion of the throw rather than just "fit-ins". So, yes we do have our players do some uchikomi when they are learning something new but we quickly have them move onto nagekomi, which is a more effective way to learn how to do a throw.

Why do you have so many crash pads?
Because we believe in nagekomi! If we are to have our players do multiple throws at full speed and with full impact, it would be very hard on the uke if the throws were done on tatami. And certain throws are more impactful than others. Doing soto-makikomi or ura-nage repeatedly on tatami is nothing short of abuse of the uke. We want our players to be safe. Crash pads ensure they can take the hard throws without injuring themselves.

Why do you have a TV screen in the dojo?
We believe in teaching practical, real-world, contest techniques. It is important we show our players clips from the IJF World Tour so they can see how judo is done at the highest levels. We need to let them know that what they are learning can actually work and is not something theoretical that only looks good or is only doable when you have a cooperative partner.

Why do you play music during randori?
Because judo involves rhythm and music involves rhythm, so they go together well. But that's just a clever answer by half. The truth is music makes the session more fun and interesting. Music is also an easy way for us to keep time. Most songs are about four minutes long, which is about the length of each round of randori.

Why do you allow beginners to do randori?
Why not? We believe randori is safe, especially when beginners are paired with experienced players who can take care of them. Many aspects of judo training can be boring. Breakfalls are boring, uchikomi is boring, even nagekomi can be boring after a while. What's fun is randori and we want our members to enjoy their judo.

Why do you livestream your sessions?We offer a very unique and interesting judo program and we want to share it with anyone who may be interested. By offering livestreams and highlight clips of our sessions, we allow people to know what they can expect if they were to join our club.

Why aren't you concerned that other people can see what you guys are working on?
A famous basketball coach once said something along the lines of: "We're not afraid of other players knowing what we can do as long as they can't stop us from doing it." We don't believe the element of surprise is a sustainable way to win competitions. Being damn good at what you do is. Good players should be able to pull of their favorite techniques even when their opponents know exactly what they are going to do. If you face Shohei Ono, is there any question he is going to do uchimata or osoto-gari? The only question is whether you can stop him from doing it to you (the answer is often no!). The same it true of every top player. And that must be the aim of every up-and-coming player. That is, become so good at something that they can't stop you from doing it.

Is it ever too soon for randori?

Is it every too soon to let a player do randori? The answer, as far as I (and the club) is concerned is no. We get our players to do randori from their very first day.

Of course we pair them with experienced players who can take care of them but we want our players to experience judo, and nothing exemplifies judo more than randori.

Imagine joining a rugby club and all you do during training are drills, drills and more drills. No rugby game played at all. Wouldn't you be disappointed? This applies to every sport. Of course drills are important but you have to have a chance to play the game itself. Otherwise you'll find it boring and quit. That happens to a lot of people. We want our members to have a better experience of judo, which is why we encourage randori.

One school of thought is that players need to learn some proper techniques before they do randori, otherwise they are just grapping blindly, without any technique, and that is a waste of time.

Actually it isn't. As new players grapple each other, ever without technique, they will start to understand their bodies better and what the body is and isn't capable of.

Over time, as they learn more and more techniques, the quality of their judo (and their randori) will naturally increase. But to get them to that point, you first have to let them enjoy their judo. Only then can you retain their interest in judo.

Randori. Get you players to try it as soon as possible.

It's fascinating watching keen beginners

I have a great appreciation for beginners, in particular the ones who are very keen to learn. Beginners who are not serious about learning, I'm not interested in. But those who really want to learn, not only do I want to teach them, I find it fascinating watching them as they learn their techniques and when they do randori and shiai.

When you watch a keen beginner practicing their techniques, you can see intriguing mistakes they make and in correcting them, you learn more about the principles involved. The mistakes the make teaches you about what could go wrong for that throw. That forces you to think of solutions to remedy that situation.

When keen beginners spar, you can really see the determination in their faces. This is sometimes missing for experienced players who perhaps are not as excited about sparring anymore. But for keen beginners, every sparring session is an opportunity to improve. Of course that is true of experienced players too but they sometimes take this for granted. Keen beginners don't.

Highly qualified yellow belts

We've had a spate of yellow belt gradings recently. This is not because we are freely and easily handing out yellow belts but just that many of our beginners have reached a level where they deserve to be graded.

We are pretty strict about grading. I always make sure our players really know the techniques in the yellow belt syllabus very well before I promote them.

There's no point promoting people who just have a cursory understanding of the techniques and can't demonstrate them very well. My standard is that they must be able to guide a brand new beginner in these techniques.

That may be a high bar but I think it's what it should be. If a person wearing a yellow belt is not able to properly and adequately teaching a beginner how to do yellow belt techniques, they shouldn't be a yellow belt.

A yellow belt is the lowest color in the colored belt series yet, it's the most important in a way. A friend from Canada once told me that the two most important belts in a judoka's career is yellow belt and black belt.

The yellow belt because it's your first ever belt promotion. The black belt... well, it's obvious why that one is important. But yeah, the yellow belt is significant.

In time, we will have a lot of high ranking colored belts and quite a few black belts in our club. But they will only get their promotions if they know their techniques well. You can be assured of that.

Teaching the gokyo

Last Saturday, I began teaching our senior players the Gokyo, which was most recently updated in 2017.

We went through about half of the tewaza (hand techniques segment) which has 10 legal throws (there are a few hand techniques that are no longer legal under IJF rules and we don't teach those).

It took quite a while to go through just five or so techniques because we broke them down into their component parts. I didn't want to just skim through the techniques. I wanted to go into great detail because these players are going to grade for black belts. I want them to know the throws inside out.

I was delighted that the response to the Gokyo session was very positive. The players all found it interesting and useful learning that stuff.

We will devote Saturdays to learning the Gokyo. Their grading is in November so we have time to go through everything.

Gotta stay up to date

The statement above is as relevant in judo as it is with business. Yet, you do have lots of traditional judo clubs with traditional judo coaches who insist that judo is what was taught in judo textbooks in the 1960s. It's as if time's stood still for these old senseis and nothing that has happened since their heyday is legitimate.

Judo is a very dynamic sport that has never stopped evolving. In fact, over the past 10 years, judo's evolution has hasten due to the many new rules that have been implemented. The way the game is played, the tactics and strategies employed and even the type of techniques used are affected very much by the rules. The rules play a huge role in the evolution of the sport.

Thankfully, due to YouTube and other online resources, it's very easy to keep up to date with what's happening in the world of judo. All the major events are available online for you to analyze and learn from. It's all there.

The only question is whether you want to make the most of it. Sometimes, it does feel a bit overwhelming because there's so much content out there. It's really information overload. But that's a good problem. Certainly better than too little content or information available.

I think it's absolutely crucial that coaches stay on top of the latest developments so they can update their students on these changes. It's the responsibility of the coaches to do that.

Why you shouldn't convince someone to do judo

Recently I had a conversation with one of my students who was so keen about judo that he said he would try to convince a few of his friends to take up the sport.

I told him there is no point trying to convince them if they are not interested in the first place. The reason is that judo is such a tough sport -- in every sense of the word -- that unless someone, themselves, want to do judo, they will quickly give up on the sport.

Judo is very difficult to master. You can train for months on end and still not be able to throw anyone or catch anyone in groundwork. That can be incredibly frustrating. Not everyone has the patience and perseverance to stick with judo long enough to be able to do it well. It normally takes a long time. It really does.

It's also tough on the body. Let's face it, judo is not a gentle sport. It's a physically demanding sport, which should not come as a surprise. After all it involves slamming someone to the ground, pinning them, strangling them and armlocking them. Not exactly tai-chi.

Given how tough judo is, unless someone has a real interest in the sport, they will not stick to it. Some friends might try judo out of curiosity. Some might agree to do it out of courtesy or just to humor a friend. These people won't stick to judo. They'll do it once or twice or perhaps a few more times after that. But eventually they will give up.

So, there's really no point convincing people to do judo. They either want to do it or they don't. If you have to convince them, don't waste you time. 

How to train in newaza

There are two ways you can classify newaza techniques. One way (the conventional way) is to group them under the type of techniques they are (e.g. hold-downs, strangles, armlocks). The other way, which is less common, is to group them according to the position tori and uke are in relation to each other  (e.g. tori is riding on uke's back).

Although the first one is overwhelmingly the more common approach, I believe the second one is superior because when you end up in a groundwork situation, you will need to assess immediately what options are available to you from the position you and uke are in. You can only do that if you've been thinking about newaza from the standpoint of positioning rather than merely the type of technique you wish to use.

Start by choosing one technique you wish to specialize in. Let's say it's the rolling juji-gatame. Once you've decided on that, you have to attempt to do it every time you get a chance. That means in randori, any time the match goes to the ground, you've got to go for an armlock.

I have a player in the club who likes to try left and right side for every technique. That's a mistake because you need to build up muscle memory and that can only happen if you choose a side. If you're going to do juji-gatame, is it the left arm or the right arm you are going to attack? Decide and stick with your decision. If you've decided to attack the left arm, go for that arm every time.

Next, figure out how to quickly get into the juji-gatame starting position from every angle. Of course the ideal scenario is to be sitting on top of uke while he is in a turtle position. But what if the situation isn't ideal? How do you get from where you are at to where you want to be? That is what you've got to figure out.

Then, during randori, you've got to try it out. Whenever you and your partner fall to the ground, you must immediately attack with juji-gatame. Over time you will gain proficiency in getting into the technique regardless of the position you find yourself to be in during groundwork.

When you've mastered that technique, you have to identify a second newaza technique that will be your back-up in case the first technique doesn't work. Maybe your opponent is very guarded against juji-gatame and you need an alternative attack. That's when the second technique comes into play. Ideally, the second technique is easy to transition into (from the first attack).

Note that if you have a regular training partner, that person will be used to your attacks and will develop strong defenses against it. Over time, you will find it increasingly hard to catch your training partner with your favourite newaza technique. But that is good. It forces you to find creative ways to still catch him with it.

If you are able to catch someone who knows exactly what you are going to do and who is familiar with your techniques, imagine how effective that technique would be against someone who is not familiar with it.

This about it. If you can still catch your training partner, who is thoroughly familiar with your technique, that means your technical capabilities must be quite good.