The Three Levels of Judo

From Mind Over Muscle: Writings from the founder of Judo, pp94-5:

The Three Levels of Judo
We have now established judo's three aspects -- training for defense against attack, cultivation of the mind and body, and putting one's energy to use. We have also affirmed judo's highest goal as self-perfection for the betterment of society. For the sake of convenience, let us place the foundation -- training for defense against attack -- at the bottom and call it lower level judo. Let us call training and cultivation, which are by-products of training for defense against attack, middle-level judo. The study of how to put one's energy to use in society comes last, so let us call it upper level-judo.

When we divide judo into these three levels, we can see that it must not be limited to training for fighting in the dojo, and even if you train your body and cultivate your mind, if you do not go a level higher, you truly cannot benefit society. No matter how great a person you are, if you die without achieving anything, as the proverb says: "Unused treasure is a wasted treasure." It can be said that you perfected yourself, but it cannot be said that you contributed to society. I urge all practitioners of judo to recognize that it consists of these three levels and to undergo their training without undue emphasis of one aspect over another. -- Jigoro Kano, founder of Judo

Since the passing of the founder of Judo in 1938 can it be said that mainstream judo has truly honored Kano's aims? I think that it's fair to say that modern "Olympic" judo prioritizes victory in sporting contest as its main goal.

Now: With this in mind, which judo would you rather study? Modern "Olympic" judo, or Kano's classical judo?

Dealing with conflict

Wow! My initial reply and last post seem to have rubbed my semi-anonymous commenter, Zara, up the wrong way. See his extensive comments following my initial response and follow-up post to this older article. A sample:

Granted, blogs aren’t the best source of information in the first place (usually the content is rather mundane, one-sided and superficial) but to be told to buzz off and ‘do your homework’ is a first. So much for common courtesy and cooperation in spreading martial-knowledge. A simple refusal would have been enough, I don’t need your condescending attitude, nor your useless advice. -- Zara

While somewhat miffed, I'm a bit surprised that I haven't run into this kind of conflict as a blogger previously. I am somewhat averse to public forums because I've got sucked into flamewars in the dim and distant past, where relative anonymity, plus lack of verbal and visual cues often leads to a downward spiral into insults and baiting.

In this case, however, I clearly lit the match, albeit inadvertently.

Let me explain my side:

Zara's initial post asking for some advice on a specific problem was sincere, and definitely not trolling, but I was hesitant to give a detailed reply because I am reluctant to even try to teach techniques over the internet. I don't know anything about Zara besides what he has written in his initial comment, and -- unfortunately -- because there was no way to contact him directly I either had to respond publicly or ignore him.

So I posted a somewhat curt reply and a low-level follow-up post with the kind of general advice that I normally give on this blog: Ideas that will help people with a clue already, but not specific instruction.

I hoped that he might get a bit out of it, and respond with a more specific enquiry, providing details of what he had tried and where he was getting stuck, etc. I probably should have given less advice and invited him to email then and there, but there you go.

Then I went off to attend to my daily chores, and that evening played around in my jiu-jitsu class a bit with one of the scenarios that Zara described, using it as a theme for part of the class, and tested out what to do in a tricky situation. I'll write more on that in a later post.

Late that night I read Zara's responses and thought: Whoops! You can read my comments at the end inviting him to email me, and pointing him to one more post.

Conclusion: From my perspective, I was pleased to get the interest, but cautious about how I responded. With hindsight, I should have taken more time responding, and asked Zara to be patient, and started off with an offer to take the conversation to email straight-away.

So, on reflection, I want to thank Zara for:

• Asking good questions, which will stimulate some more blog posts (once I figure out how to respond more usefully, without breaching my self-imposed boundaries)
• Prompting me to reflect once again on the nature of conflict, and to work on my tone and clarity when responding to comments from the privileged position of blog-proprietor

My offer stands to get in touch with me by email: tenchi.ryu.jiujitsu@gmail.com.

By the way, a brilliant book about applying martial arts concepts to conflict resolution is Terry Dobson's Aikido in Everyday Life: Giving in to get your way. Clearly I still have a lot to learn.

[Edited following Zara's reply to refer to Zara as a he, not a she.]

What is the ideal gender balance for a martial arts class?

Ideally, I would like a fifty-fifty male/female split in my class.

Most adult martial arts classes are male-dominated, kind of the mirror image of yoga, dance and aerobics classes. I think that this reflects cultural norms and pre-conceptions, rather than anything fundamental.

Oral tradition has it that the techniques of our school of jiu-jitsu were formalized by a group of Chinese buddhist nuns living in Japan in the 16th century, a group that no doubt would have needed effective self-defence! Consequently, our art is well-suited to women, although men can learn it too.

Melanie demonstrating the Nurse's Grip Gooseneck

Generally speaking, having girls and women in the class benefits the blokes. They bring grace, rhythm and a lower center of gravity. Usually not as strong, and often smaller, women and girls need to work hard on their technique from the outset. Their presence also helps diffuse the macho vibe that you tend to get in all male groups.

Conversely, girls and women benefit from having males in the class. If they are ever attacked, chances are that it will be by a male, and they need to feel and practice with the generally stronger and larger sex to achieve self-defence proficiency, and confidence in their own abilities.

A further argument for a mixed class is the same one for co-education in general: That we live in a mixed-sex society and that spending time together is good for our social development.

* * *

My own class has tended to follow the usual pattern of more males than females, although my senior student is female, and acts as a role model for other women who join the class. Lately we have had an influx of women, so hopefully we can keep 'em.

When I was working my way up through the student ranks I was part of a core group of 2 gals and 2 guys (Melanie, pictured above, was one of the gals) who trained together for about 5 years, and I found the mix beneficial.

What's the gender-balance like at your school? What would you like it to be? What are the factors that influence the balance?

Compassionate thinking

One of my principal teachers, Kyoshi Adam Bradshaw, teaches that the martial arts can and should develop critical, creative and compassionate thinking.

• Creative thinking engages the imagination to see more than one option (most of the time)
• Critical thinking includes dispassionate evaluation when choosing a course of action
• Compassionate thinking biases us to prefer actions that prevent or reduce pain in others and ourselves

If it seems paradoxical that martial arts, whose subject matter include detailed and systematic study of methods of violence and inducing pain and injury can teach compassionate thinking, read on!

At one extreme consider the compulsively angry person who, when provoked, responds violently. Not many options there, and not much compassion either. This person is failing to use all three forms of thinking; (s)he is merely reactive.

At the other extreme is the avowed non-violent person who believes that violence is unacceptable, always. Such a person is not prepared to use violence to stop a violent aggressor even to stop serial acts of violence, and must find other means, or be reduced to being a victim or by-stander. If other means are found all is well and good, but if there is an insufficiency of creative thinking, or simply no viable alternative, (s)he may hold true to non-violence yet greater evils may result.

By contrast, the trained martial artist, familiar with the ways of violence has the option of using it as a positive action, as when Vladimir Putin -- Russian Prime Minister and 6th dan in Judo -- saved a camera crew from a charging tiger by nonchalantly picking up a tranquilizer gun and shooting it. Sure, the tiger felt some pain, but far greater suffering was averted.

Here's another story: Tai Chi instructor Arthur Rosenfeld explains how he neutralized his own road-rage by doing something nice for a guy who was stupidly honking him in a take-out line. Instead of getting into an altercation and teaching the guy a (painful) lesson, he simply paid for the guy's coffees (without telling him), and drove off. The feel-good bit is that the guy then paid for the next customer, clearly prompted by Rosenfeld's creative and compassionate action, and from there the chain continued for several hours, cheered up a lot of people, and even got reported in the media.

* * *

By training in the martial arts we can lessen the negative effects of fear and anger on our actions. We train to enable us to perform at our best -- in every sense -- in difficult and even life-threatening situations.

Developing Social Qualities 2: Cooperation

To develop your martial arts skills, you will need more than willingness and instruction:

You need training partners.

There are -- at least -- three good reasons for this:

1. You need someone to execute the techniques on you so that you can feel how they work.
   
2. You need someone to execute the techniques on so that you can learn and refine them.
3. You need practice executing the techniques on lots of different people, so that you can make them work on anyone regardless of shape, size, strength or speed.
   

What is more, your training partners need you for the same reasons. So learning a martial art is a shared enterprise, and requires cooperation.

Assailants, Opponents and Training Partners
A person who attacks you with the intent of causing you harm is an assailant. To survive you will need awareness, presence of mind, physical conditioning and self-defence skills.

A person who is trying to defeat you in a competition is an opponent. To win you will need competitive spirit, knowledge of the rules of the game, and relevant skills and physical conditioning.

A person who is paired with you in a class is a training partner. To learn and develop you will need to work cooperatively (and also apply your patience, perception and intelligence) to get the most out of any class.

Working effectively with training partners will help you build the skills and qualities needed to face opponents and to survive attack.

Becoming a Great Training Partner
Want to get better at martial arts? Become a great receiver of techniques Then the best martial artists will want to practice with -- or demonstrate on! -- you and you will feel how the techniques should be done. You will learn by osmosis.

Being a great receiver means giving the appropriate degree of resistance or energy to allow your partner to execute the technique that the two of you are practicing as well as (s)he can. This will vary depending on the experience and skill of your partner. For example: If a beginner is trying to throw you, you will need to guide her into placing you into the correct position to be thrown. Do that with a black-belt and she will be insulted!

Working as a Team of Two
You can think of your and your training partner as a team of two, working together to make the technique work as well as possible, and figuring out all the details that make it work. Once you have the basic idea of the technique you can try little variations to see what effect they have, and how the technique can work against particular resistances or under varied circumstances.

Remember: Your training partner is not your opponent. Your partner will often play the role of an opponent or assailant -- as will you for your partner -- but you are both on the same side.

Your real opponents are ignorance and ineptitude. Your instructor can provide guidance, but it is up to you and your "team" to do the hard work.

By working constructively with partners with different personalities and levels of experience you will obtain many benefits, and become increasingly adept at the art of cooperation.

Developing Social Qualities - Part I: Trust

Kancho, the grand-master of my style said: "The Martial Arts begin with trust".

I had just given my first martial arts seminar on The Science of Judo, in which I likened the training hall to a laboratory for personal experimentation, and it was generally well-received. But Kancho was making a fundamental point: Without trust between student and instructor, and between training partners, there can be little learning.

When you first step into the world of martial arts you need to make the decision to trust your instructor. This is critical, not only to learn, but for your own safety and that of your training partners.

Training in the martial arts involves learning deliberately dangerous techniques which must be practiced safely:

• There are throws: You need to learn to fall safely as quickly as possible, and to learn how to throw your partner safely
  
• There are strikes: You need to learn how to strike safely so that you are learning proper technique and distancing, without damaging your partner when (s)he fails to evade or redirect the strike
• There are joint-locks and strangles: You need to learn to apply these techniques slowly and gently, and when receiving signal submission when the technique takes effect and not be a hero by "toughing it out".
  

Maybe you are a skeptical person who thinks that trust must be earned and cannot be given. Then you should observe closely before joining a new class and ask yourself,

• "Is this instructor trustworthy?", and
• "Do the students trust each other?"

If the answer to either question is no, you should not join the class. If the answer is yes, then you can trust your own initial assessment and begin by trusting the instructor and your new class-mates.

Through on-going training, your trust for your instructor and training partners -- and their trust of you -- should grow, as you all practice in a sincere, safe and trustworthy manner.