Kaze Uta Budo Kai Forum Archive

I came to the boards tonight to ask this question, and ended up asking Nick for a definition, commenting on something Kyle said about knives, posting a recipe, and reading a bunch of stuff I'd not read before. Now, two hours later, I'll get my question up.

Mike Rigsby, who is the judo coach at Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches, TX was going to a lot of judo tournaments back when I was competing and we'd meet and talk to each other a lot. He was really interested because of the blind-guy thing, and the competitive judo aspect, sighted vs. unsighted, etc. We'd talk, and hit it off. Great guy. he asked me once after I reached shodan about coming up to SFA and showing his group of mostly beginners, but all college-age guys & gals some of the things i'd picked up in tournaments. We talked about it for quite a while.

Well, the planets aligned or something, and he got in touch with mne a couple weeks back, and I'm going up with my bud Austin TO Stephen F. Austin (which I thought was noteworthy enough to tell all of you Austin was going) to teach some randori variations of some of the most common nage-no kata and gokyo no waza techniques.

I'm starting with the premise that I'll focus on Osoto-gari, Ippon-seoi-nage, & tai-othoshi.

In my head I've got the usual package of variations based on timing, movement, step-differences, and grip differences, which the beginner/intermediates might not have seen as Mike teaches a structured, university program which is highly kata and uchikomi-based.

For example, standard gokyo no waza Osoto on the right side with standard right side sleeve-lapel grip "seems" to be very different when one moves the hands from the R-hand on the lapel and L-hand on sleeve to the vicey-versa, but the throw is executed the same with a very minor spacing difference, I've found. Or, wihtout changing grips, you can throw Osoto when uke steps in, or out, with either his/her R-foot or L-foot, you just change where tori has to go/be. Stuff like that.

Anyone have any other ideas to remind me of? So much has flown past int he past 17 years of the judo I can't keep all of the nifty tricks and tools in the front, nowadays, I try to just remember the basic principles and roll forward. But, you know beginners don't want to hear that.

So? Give! What ya got?

I offered at taking a stab at talking about ... well actually regurgitating Bob Rea's talk on foot sweeps, but Mike nixed it. For which, I was actually grateful, when I thought about it. I'm still trying to understand most of that.

I suppose I should have mentioned in the original post that the clinic is tomorrow, Saturday, Nov. 19, 2011, so there was a little time-sensitive nature on my request. Ha! No worries, I'll do what comes up natural!

OK, went to SFA to teach at that mini-clinic...

I am confused. Is it always like that? I've been teaching martial arts of a punch-kick nature for 25 years.... this is the first time I've been "the guy" teaching a judo clinic. Is it always like that, or do I just suck? LOL! I didn't do anything strange or out of the range of what I would consider the "ordinary," I was quoting what Raymond teaches, or what Bob Rea teaches every time I speak to them. I even brought with me a couple guys who've been in front of Ray & Bob to quality-check my plagarizm. Is that how you spell plagarizm? Is it plagarism? Anyway, I was copying.

These beginners were looking at me if I said the moon were made of green cheese (which everyone knows it is), but they didn't have the proof yet. I felt weird, just saying.

Is this a normal response or do I just suck in my communication skill-set to the beginners?

It is a weird feeling to be "the man" teaching a room full of folks.

I have very, very little original material -- stuff that I have created from scratch, all my own. I regurgitate lessons from my teachers, add what I can in my years of practice, and hope it helps folks out. It isn't plagiarism, it's giving them what you know.

Normal is a highly variable metric. What's normal, ordinary, plain old Judo for us tends to grab people's attention like we're from Mars. We play Judo with finesse, like playing a violin. Competitive people are power players (by and large), then play a violin with a hammer. Just different. It's normal for them to play with a hammer. Then you hand then a bow, and show them how to drag it across the strings to make music, and all of a sudden you're from Mars.

welcome to the weirdness...