To improve in judo, do more judo: Part 2

At KL Judo, we don't spend a lot of time on physical fitness training although on some sessions we do HIIT exercises as warm up drills.

There is a practical reason why we don't devote too much time to physical fitness training. Our players, who are either students or working adults (not full-time athletes) don't have that much time to spend on judo training so whatever time they have should be spent on judo skills training.

Weight training, running, calisthenics, etc... etc... can all be done outside of judo session and can be done at their own time. They don't necessarily need a judo training partner to do any of these things.

They can't however train in judo without a training partner. They also can't train in judo without a mat area. So, when they are in the dojo with training partners ready to go, they should be spending their time doing judo.

Should judo players supplement their judo training with jogging, swimming, weight training etc.. All these things build up your fitness and your strength and that must be helpful, right? Of course. And these are things you could do and should do if you are a full-time athlete who does judo twice a day and are up to your neck in judo already.

When you've done enough judo that it doesn't make sense for you to do any more judo than you already do, it makes all the sense in the world to do these supplemental training. When I was training full-time as a competitor in the early-90s, I did judo twice a day. I also ran and did weights. But I was a full-time athlete then.

None of my players is a full-time athlete. They are either students or have got 9-to-5 jobs. Most come for training only two or three times a week. If they really want to improve their judo, any free evening they have should be spent on the judo mat rather than running or doing weight training.

If you are already doing tons of judo and still have the time (and energy) to do weights and running and other physical activities that build up fitness, strength and agility, by all means do them. But how many people have that luxury?

So, whenever a player asks me: What should I do to improve my judo?, I always tell them the same thing: Do more judo. It is as simple as that.

To improve in judo, do more judo: Part 1

Several years ago when I revisited Camberley Judo Club, the club I trained at during my competitive days in the early 90s, the coach there asked me to give BJJ a try. They had sublet the mat to a BJJ class and their judo players usually would join the class.

He then passed me a white belt and said I should wear that in the BJJ class. It was the right thing to do because I had at that point zero experience in BJJ. I didn't know the rules, I didn't know the moves, I was an absolute beginner.

The stark differences with judo became obvious to me very quickly. Firstly, the moves they taught (for getting an armlock or a strangle, for example) were really very elaborate and took a long time to achieve relative to judo moves. I thought to myself, "That might prove to be an effective move if you have the time but in judo, a matte would have been called long before that happens".

When it came time to randori, we started on the ground (there wasn't even a pretense to start standing up). As a judo player, my instinct was to turtle up. Later, I found out this was exactly what BJJ players would not do. They never like to give their backs to the opponent. Instead, they pull guard (and lie with their backs to the mat).

Back then, I didn't know any better so I happily turtled up shielded myself from armlocks and chokes. My training partner climbed on top of my back and clamped on but wasn't able to really do anything. After a while, I thought he would move to a different position and try something else but he seemed content to clamp onto my back. Later, when I chatted with him, he when he clamped onto my back like that, in BJJ it's a score.

After the session was over, I went over to another judo guy and asked him what he thought of the training. He said he does it because the coach asked him to but he doesn't particularly like it because it's quite different from judo, which was his focus. I felt the same way.

I know some people who favor cross training point to the fact that the Japanese national judo team does occasionally train with BJJ people. So, it must be a good idea.

What they don't realize is that the Japanese national team players train practically every day, at least twice a day. They do so much judo that it would really be overkill for them to do any more judo than they already do. So, they try other things like BJJ to complement their training.

It's sort of like how rugby players in the UK tried some judo to complement their rugby training. These are professional rugby players who train rugby full-time. They do so much rugby training, they can afford to do something a little bit different just to offer some variety to their training.

For the rest of us, we hardly have enough time to train in judo. How many among us actually do judo six days a week? In my club only one or two players do anything close to that. A small handful train three to four days a week. Most train once or twice a week.

When the frequency of training is like that, any spare time you have for training should be spent doing judo, not some other "similar" sport. If you train in judo so much (like the Japanese who train twice a day), yes, you can afford to do other sports to add some variety to your training. But when you're hardly getting enough training in judo itself, you should be doing more judo (if you want to improve in judo).

Think about it. If you're a badminton player who trains only a few times a week, if you want to improve your badminton, you should be spending your time playing more badminton, not playing tennis instead. Yes, both sports involve racquets and both sports involve hitting an object back and forth on a court but they are really not the same sport. Different rules, different skill sets required.

Judo and BJJ might seem similar but even the gis we wear are different (judogis are generally longer and looser). The rules are very different. The scoring system is different. The moves themselves are different. The style of play, the tactics, the emphasis -- all different.

If I'm a Japanese player up to my neck in judo training, maybe I would like to do some BJJ on the side. But I'm not. I don't get as much judo training as I'd like so if I have the time to do more training, I'd rather spend it doing judo.

Instruction vs Osmosis

When players have a lot of opportunities to do randori as well as shiai, it's possible for them to pick up a lot of good fighting skills even without much or proper instruction.

They achieve this through osmosis. By sparring with many good training partners, they naturally pick up winning techniques and habits.

Take for example, the skill of gripping. Even if a player has never been taught anything about gripping, if he spends enough time sparring with good players, he will develop good gripping skills. Either that or he'll drop out of judo. But if stays on, he will sooner or later pick up those skills. He has to, in order to survive.

Learning through osmosis only works if there is a lot of opportunities to do randori and lots of different players to train with. That's not usually the case at most places though.

If you don't have the luxury of learning through osmosis, you have to learn via instruction. If you are lucky, and have a good coach, you can learn a lot that way. I was lucky and had a really good competition coach who taught me the foundations of what I know about competition judo.

You can also learn from videos these days. There are a few online resources offering premium content for a fee. There's also lots of free content online via YouTube and social media. Some of it is very good. And, of course you can do your own analysis of international judo competitions and competitors and learn from that.

I did all those things, and more, when I was starting out. I bought tons of judo books, tried to collect as many instructional videos as possible and watched as many competition videos as I could get my hands on. You have to be like a sponge, soaking up all the knowledge that's out there.

In my club, I try to provide a very systematic approach to learning techniques but I also try to foster an environment where people can get to do a lot of randori and also some mock shiai. We do lots of these, even though we don't have anywhere near the number of players in top judo places like the university judo clubs in Japan.

When it comes to learning judo, it's not an either/or thing. It's not learning via osmosis vs learning via instruction. It can (and should) be both.

Culture + System = Club

What makes a judo club what it is? Ultimately, it boils down to two things: the club's culture and the club's training system.

Every club has its own culture. Some clubs are very traditional and some are not. For example, in many clubs you wouldn't be allowed to play music during training. In some very traditional clubs, you don't drink water until the session is over. At our club we play music and we encourage our players to be well hydrated.

Every club also has its own system. Again, some clubs are very traditional. They might require you to do tons of ukemi before you can even start throwing and you have to have trained for several months before you can even start doing randori. At KL Judo, we have you throwing and doing randori straight away. Some clubs believe nagekomi should be done only on tatami. We use crash pads.

Usually, if a player joins a club as an absolute beginner, they have no problems accepting the club's culture and training system. After all, it's the only judo club they've ever know. So to them, this is how it's supposed to be.

Problems can sometimes crop up when an experienced player from another club joins a new club. Usually whether that experienced player fits in with the new place depends on the reasons for them joining the new club. If they had left their old club because they didn't like it there, there's a higher chance they will accept the new club's culture and training system. After all, they had left something they didn't like in search of greener pastures.

If, however, they joined the new place not by choice but simply due to circumstances (e.g. they've moved to a new city for work or study), there's a higher chance they might not like the new place. This is especially true if they absolutely loved their old club and view it as the best judo club ever. When they join a new club, they will naturally view the new place as somehow inferior.

In my time as a judo competitor, I had trained at many different clubs in different countries. As is always the case, each club had its own culture and training system. My principle about how to behave in a new place was simple: When in Rome, do as Romans do.

If I join a new place it is for me to adapt to the ways of the new place. It would be ridiculous for me to expect the folks at the new place to change things around to accommodate me. I either adapt to the new culture and training system or I don't join.

At KL Judo, most of our players started judo with us so we've not had much problem fostering a specific club culture. And they all like our training system (if they didn't they would have left). We've had a few players come to us from other clubs and I'm happy to say most of them have managed to adapt to our way of doing things. They are now part of our judo family.

Over the years, we've had a very small handful of players who couldn't adapt though. And the reasons were always the same. They didn't join us because they wanted to but because circumstances were such that it was no longer practical or possible for them to continue training at their old club (which they preferred).

They didn't like how we trained and usually ended up doing their own things instead of getting on with the program. This is highly disruptive for other members who do believe in our system and who want to train according to our methodology.

In the end, these disruptive players either left on their own or in some extreme cases, had to be asked to leave. I should say this was not common at all. In the nearly five years since we started the club, there have been only three cases of this happening. In each case it was a very unpleasant experience.

Today, we've reached a point of critical mass and our club's culture and training system is so deeply ingrained that there's now a natural barrier against disruptive forces. If someone new doesn't like how we do things, they will be gone very fast because they will realize very quickly that they just won't fit in. All they have to do is come for one trial class and they can know right away. It will be that obvious.

We've worked really hard to establish the right culture and ethos for our club. And we also painstakingly continually fine-tune our training system so that it can really serve our players well. It's a lot of hard work and it's something we treasure. If a new player were to join us, they should accept: When in Rome, do as Romans do.

Finding that balance

Yesterday, after a successful judo session (actually two sessions, an earlier one for children, their parents and other adult beginners; and a later one for competition training), I was talking to one of the members who attends both sessions, about how difficult it was at first to strike a good balance between the needs of recreational judo players and competitors.

We started out as a very competition-inclined club, so whenever a recreational player joined, they found it quite tough to keep up. But at the time we didn't have many recreational players so we couldn't justify having a class just for them.

This all really began to change with the introduction of a children's class, which very quickly led to the introduction of the Family Judo concept whereby we would encourage parents to take up judo as well, and train on the same mat as their kids.

Most of the kids and most of the parents did not have any judo experience (though a few did). Basically, most were beginners. As such, the Family Judo class is very suitable for adult beginners (who weren't necessarily parents) as well.

Initially Sunday had only one session with kids, adults and competitors each having their own separate tracks. Today, we have two separate sessions. An earlier one is for kids, parents and adult beginners and the later one is for competitors. There are some overlaps among the attendants. Some competitors choose to come early and train with the beginners. And some beginners stay back to do some advanced training.

This is most welcome. But what's important is that each session has its own purpose and the people attending it know what to expect. For example, a competitor who attends the beginners' class knows that what we will be working on are the basics. Similarly, a beginner who attends the advanced class will know that it will be a more intense session.

So far, this has worked out really well. We will continue to fine-tune and improve our offerings over time.

Can you learn judo from books?

Judo seems like the type of sport that you have to learn from a real live teacher rather than something from a book. Even a video might not be good enough as some people might not be able to pick up the nuances of the techniques even when they are able to see a moving demonstration of it. Many people need a real live instructor to point out their mistakes etc.

But if you happen to be in a place where there's not a lot of judo or if you don't have an advanced competition coach etc, you can learn a lot of things from various sources. If live teaching is not available videos are the next best thing. And if those are not accessible, it's books that you can learn from.

When I first started out in judo, I was in a university in Austin, Texas  Not much judo there. We learned the basics but to go beyond that, I turned to books. I recall the first few books I bought were by Neil Adams. I'm pretty certain I learned how to do a juji-gatame roll from one of his books. (The videos would come later).

These days, videos are abundant so there's not a lot of judo books anymore. But I think they can be useful as a handy reference if done well and if the techniques are catalogues properly. Also, if each technique is broken down into clear component parts and captured in stills, it could be very useful for learning.

So, live teaching is best. Videos are second. But books can be useful when the first two options are not available. It's how I learned.

Judo Concepts

When people speak about judo basics, quite often what they are referring to are the traditional or classical forms of judo techniques (or you could call them the "Gokyo" or Kodokan versions).

This is not what I mean when I refer to basics. To me, judo basics or fundamentals refer to concepts that help make your judo game more effective.

Over the years, I've accumulated a lot of knowledge about various judo concepts but until recently, I had never really thought about these things in a very systematic way. After putting some thought to the matter, I came up with the following modules that should be taught to anyone who wants to do well in judo competition. (Many of these concepts would be useful and applicable to recreational players too but many of the concepts have little to no relevance to people who do not intend to compete).

The ones marked with an asterisk (*) are concepts that are universally applicable to anyone who wants to improve their judo. The ones without an asterisks are relevant only to competitors.

I plan to teach these concepts every Sunday.

Concepts
1.    Stance*
2.    Family of Techniques*
3.    Types of Grips*
4.    Gripping Strategy
5.    Stiff vs Flexible Arms*
6.    Distance vs Close Fighting
7.    Timing*
8.    Movement*
9.    Action-Reaction*
10.    Combinations: Standing*
11.    Combinations: Groundwork*
12.    Transitions: Standing to Ground
13.    Transitions: Ground to Standing
14.    Judo Chop
15.    Strategic Attacks
16.    Edge Play
17.    Shido Play
18.    Korean Shake