Kaze Uta Budo Kai Forum Archive

I am sad and disappointed when I find that judo practice has descended into brutality. I have seen it many, many times.
Such occasions usually are tied to players getting involved in “Proving something” and winning/losing and pride and shame and basic animal peeking order dynamics of seeing who is the top dog etc.
All of which in my opinion are a complete waste of time, resources, and manpower.
Judo gets easily mistaken for fighting, and when it gets that smell about it, then the injuries will surely follow. Injury wise, I think we have done all the “proving” we need to; our litany over the past few decades includes a broken leg, a ruptured testicle, a disarticulated shoulder, several splayed ribs, a broken arm, a few crimped trachea, innumerable broken and battered toes and fingers, and of course innumerable mat burns, all inflicted as part of “practice.”
Make no mistake, I no longer have any need of such “proof” and I find the pursuit of such “proof” unacceptable in my dojo.
Such brutal “proof” is pretty easy to come by —its actually hard to avoid getting it. Programs that teach grappling arts that traffic in high injury rates are not rare. Brutality is typical—there are probably a half dozen joints in town where folks can go do the fight club deal under the guise of “learning MMA” etc. and get all the cranking and injury they want.
To build and maintain a competent technical program that does not produce much injury is a real challenge. We have had to evolve and restructure many times to get to a formula of play that works.
As a corrective in our standing work we have found that by emphasizing controlled drills and making the main practice nagekomi (with a little stugeiko on occasion) we get very good skill development with a very low rate of injury. By deemphasizing free randori and eliminating shiai we keep things pretty safe – this method works great.
In ground work we have kept it a little looser but perhaps this has been a mistake, Perhaps in nei waza it should be the same as standing; the main training time should be spent on controlled drills and light non-resistive, non-competitive, constant movement flowing play—emphasizing fluid movement and skill building rather than forms of submission. Resistance and methods of overcoming resistance should be proscribed as in stugeiko—to develop greater proficiency under controlled conditions, with everyone on the same page while also and minimizing the risks. Free grappling and shai should be kept to a minimum, or cut out entirely. No one should be cranking on necks or elbows—no one should be trafficking in “proof.”
This is Dojo—its not a fight club and I will not allow it to become one.

It is indeed sad when it happens. Why would a craftsman damage the tools with which he makes his living? Without a partner, you cannot practice Judo.

I started the serious pursuit of Judo in 1995 or so. I'm one of those guys with the innumerable broken toes. I've broken every one of them except the big toe on my left foot. Most of the smaller outer toes have been broken multiple, multiple times. I'm responsible for a broken leg. I was there when a shoulder was disarticulated. I've had separated ribs, and more bruises & mat burns than I can count. I've sweated gallons in a 120 degree dojo because we didn't have air conditioning. I've tasted the sweat of many partners as we pushed ourselves to exhaustion. Been there, done that.

I pride myself on the fact that we ran a Judo program for almost 10 years without so much as a broken toe. It's a testament to the vision that Nick laid out for us in late 1999 or early 2000.


When we have issues which lead to injury, this means that I have failed. As the captain of the Judo program, I do not take this failure lightly.


I think it is worthwhile to review and reinforce the importance of bowing to your partner. This act carries great significance, the most important being to thank your partner for the gift of practice, and to come together to practice safely. Somewhere, this is being violated. Proving things is a breach of this etiquette, as it is no longer a practice about our growth (i.e., Jita Kyoei, you-me-shine together), but about ego and pride... or possibly fear.

Great comments, guys! I agree completely.

In my 14 years of teaching judo, we've had one broken toe (mine) and one lady re-broke a knee that was pre-broke before she started with us - the knee ended up so lax that she had to have surgery. The knee broke during a demonstration of nagenokata - okuriashibarai - she was tori and she just misstepped and the knee buckled - truly a freak thing.

I am also proud that we've had astoundingly low injury rates and good skill development.

But...

Although you absolutely have to design your program so as to minimize injury potential, you can't use injury rates as a performance measure - because of the 100% prevalence of injury in long-time practitioners and because the potential for freak injuries like the broken knee above.