WELCOME MAT ONLINE NEWSLETTER Oct. 31, 2010

This issue's quote; "Small things make big things happen." John Wooden

IT'S IMPORTANT TO "SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF SO YOU WON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT THE BIG STUFF." ANOTHER WAY OF PUTTING IT IS TO WORK ON THE MORTAR THAT HOLDS THE BRICKS TOGETHER.

If you're serious about winning at any form of sport combat (and real combat as well), you better take the time and effort to work on the small things...the details...that make the big things happen. Any of you who have trained with me, or have read what I've written in the past, know that I firmly believe it's vital to "sweat the small stuff" and often refer to John Wooden's quote that "Small things make big things happen."

When I was coming up as an athlete in my early career as a kid and young teen-ager, almost all of my instructors told us to work on our "major techniques." Little, if any, time or effort was given to working on made those "major techniques" work. When I was 16, I started training with Ken Regennitter, and he pounded it in my thick head that I had better start paying attention to working on how to control my opponent's movement (Ken didn't use the word "position" but that's what he meant). Ken also convinced me of the importance of effective, hardcore, rough and tumble and "blue collar" groundfighting.I had about 4 years of good, classical Kodokan Judo training and my throwing skills were pretty good, but my newaza stunk, to be quite honest. Although my preference was for groundfighting, I had only a basic idea of how to do it effectively. Ken spent a lot of time on the mat coaching me and handing my butt to me to insure that I knew what he meant. Often, we spent a lot of time working on details...things that weren't apparent or obvious, but necessary for success. Later, I was able to train briefly with Maurice Allan, the World Sambo Champion, and it was Maurice who told me to "Make your judo work for you." In that, Maurice specifically meant to work on the details and mold the technique to fit my body and my needs.

This meant that it was (and continues to be) necessary to spend a lot of time working on things like position, gip fighting, defense, rides, escapes, hip shifts, sit-outs, transitions from throws (or takedowns) to groundfighting, transitions from one groundfighting move to another (pin to pin or pin-switching), pin to armlock, pin to strangle, pin to leglock, armlock to armlock, armlock to strangle...you get the idea. The 'small" stuff that really isn't so "small."

One major thing, in fact the most important thing, that makes all this happen is showing up in shape. Your fitness level must be, as John Saylor puts it "in over abundance" and you must be in superb physical shape to make it all happen the way you want it to and to happen when you want it to (sorry for ending the sentence in a preposition). In other words, you have more strength, more cardio vascular capacity and more fire in the bell than is really needed, but having it makes it so that you can perform it as needed and make up for any technical flaws that you might have. So, the fuel that makes it possible for the small things making big things happen is being in shape, and being in shape so that your skills can be performed under the stress of a real situation, whether it's in a combat sport or in real combat.

Here's an example of what I mean by the "small" stuff or the "mortar that holds the bricks together." Every practice, and I mean every practice, make it a point to grip fight or grip randori with several partners. We often go several 1-minute rounds doing grip randori at every workout I run. We do it for a reason. It's a good warm-up, as we do it early in the workout, but it puts every athlete in a position so that he or she has to fight to gain a better position or advantage over his training partners. This isn't randori, as we try to out-grip each other, and it's very much "grip randori" where each athlete wants to dominate the grip and control his opponent. Each athlete works on his grip so that he can use it to actually attack with in a real match. Often, the grip fighting (grip randori) gets aggressive and this is good. This is working on the "small" stuff (but then gripping really isn't a "small" thing), meaning that it's the grip that sets up the actual throwing attack. If we simply jumped into working on throwing and letting each other do some throws without working on how to actually get the opponent into position to make them work, then we would only work on the "big" stuff and not the important (and necessary) detail of using the grip to set him up to throw him...or break his grip and counter with our own grip...or shut him down so he can't get his grip and we impose our own grip...you get the idea.

Another obvious thing that is the "mortar holding the bricks together" is to always when working in groundfighting, work on breakdowns from a variety of positions, controlling the position with an effective ride, then working for the breakdown, and work for the scoring move (pin or submission). There isn't an opponent on earth who will let you pin him or get him in a submission technique, so you had better work on the details so that you can effectively set him up so that it happens on a consistent basis. These are the "small" things as well. I'm amazed at how many people don't ever train on how to break an opponent down on a regular basis, and hope to merely fall into the move or rely on luck. If you want to armlock someone who is skilled, fit and resisting, then you better work on how to make it happen. No one will ever lay down for you and let you stretch his arm. You have to make it happen, and the only way to make it happen is to work on it on a consistent basis with drills.

Sure, working on lots of uchikomi helps your technique...but it only goes so far. You have to analyze why and how the technique works best and the only way to do it is to "sweat the small stuff." Simply banging out hundreds of uchikomi or butsukari won't get the job done. Work on the grip, movement, tempo, location on the mat, distance between you and your opponent...all that stuff. Do you work regularly on defense? Do you work on how to react if your opponent offers a good defense to your throwing attack? Do you work on countering your opponent's posting a leg or arm when trying to break him down or turn him over onto his back?

Showing up and doing only randori or rolling every workout won't enable (or force) you to work on the things necessary to make you improve. You can show up and beat the hell out of training partners and feel pretty good about yourself...but only for so long. Eventually, you'll run into someone who's better. Not only that, but you'll soon run out of training partners or people who are willing to have the hell beat out of them. As AnnMaria Demars said; "There are no winners in randori." I know this if off the main subject, but really it isn't. Only doing randori does not allow you to work on the "small" stuff. You simply reinforce what you are already doing well if you're mindset is to fight at practice all the time. You'll never improve because you'll only concentrate on beating your randori partner and not being placed in situations that are necessary for you to learn. I'll discuss effective randori training at a later time.

Some of your best workout can be getting together with some training partners and working on moves. Work on things that actually come up in a match or real fight. Place yourself in a bad position and figure out ways to get out of trouble and then reverse the situation. I had many hours on the mat with my buddies as a young man simply working on moves and how to get out of them...working on position and rides. "Brainstorming" workouts where we worked on things that were not common to us, but may be common to someone else. In other words, we worked on the "small things that make big things happen" and the "mortar that hold the bricks together" and often found that these workouts were some of our best.

Train hard, but train smart as well. Working on the "small things" will certainly make you train both hard and train smart.

WELCOME MAT ONLINE NEWSLETTER Oct. 11, 2010

This issue's quote; "Train hard. Fight easier. No fight is easy." Clint Smith

ARE YOU DOING ENOUGH KATA IN YOUR TRAINING?

By Steve Scott

A number of years ago, someone asked me how often we did kata in my club. I told him "every time we work out" and I meant it. You and I both know that he meant one of the standardized kata of Kodokan Judo...Nage no Kata, Ju no Kata and so on. But I was entirely serious when I told him that we did, indeed, do kata every workout (and still do). The person who asked the question views kata in the light tht it's a series of movements that resemble more of a performance that a training exercise. Obviously, we were talking about two different approaches to the purpose of kata. I suppose it all depends on how one looks at "kata" and how it's used in training. I tend to view kata as a method of training effeciently.

Kata is structured training. The word means" form" or "shape" and the context for which it is used definitely implies that "structure" is the core of its meaning; and the use of it when discussing the teaching or practice of judo (or anything else for that matter) directly indicates that there has to be structure to any training program, workout, practice or class.

Kata, for about 50 years, has been thought of (and practiced) as a pre-arranged performance in judo and not the vital training methodoligy that it was inteded to be. It's a fari question to ask me; "So you're tuned in to what Jigoro Kano was thinking? Who are you to say this?" Actually, when doing more research for my upcoming book on judo, I found a lot of information that leads me to believe that Prof. Kano (among other early leaders of the judo movement) used kata to infuse structure into their dailing training programs. Kata was used by Kano to make sure that his early students at the Kodokan learned the skills of judo and didn't simply randori all the time. Kano developed the two kata known as the "Randori no Kata;" Nage no Kata (form of throwing) and Katame no Kata (form of grappling) to specifically provide structured training for his students at the Kodokan in its early days. Initially, the training at the early Kodokan consisted of a lot of randori. Prof. Kano was an adherent of the Kito-ry school of jujutsu and they used "ran o toru" (a phrase meaning "freedom of action") which Kano modified and became "randori." Randori mad eup the bulk of the training at the early Kodokan and Jigoro kano was concerned that his students were not sufficiently skilled in the technical aspects of jujutsu (soon to be called Kodokan Judo by most people). Practices at the Kodokan were rough and tumble; people were getting seriously hurt, but most importantly, Kano didn't want his Kodokan Judo te be just another form of rough-house jujutsu. He wanted his pupils to be skilled. Drawing on his formal training as an educator, Kano took the old concept of "kata" and added a new aspect to it. No long was kata only to be used as the primary way of tranmitting techniuqes from one generation to the next (as used in the old jujutsu schools of Japan), kata was to be used to give a structured, disciplined opportunity for training to augment the randori he was using.

In essence, Jigoro Kano developed the concepts of using a three-pronged approach to the overall development of his students; kata (structured training), randori (free practice) and shiai (testing of one's skills). This concept of kata, randori and shiai was innovative at the time, and continues to be used to this day. This is why I can honestly say that we practice kata every time we work out. If you look at it, kata, randori and shiai are used in every form of physical education and sport. In my upcoming book (as well as in COACHING ON THE MAT), I use the example of a football team using kata, randoir and shiai. The coach runs his players through their drills (skill drills where they learn their plays, as well as fitness drills and drills to increas the team's tactical application of the game-the situratinoal drills) during the week (this is the kata). As the team makes progress, the coach has them scrimmage to allow the football players a chance to execute their skills in a more realistic, game-like situations (this is the randori). On game day, the team plays another team in a real game, and this is their shiai. So, the concept of kata, randori and shiai are all part of a total appraoch to development.

By relegating kata to the stiff, regimented performance that it has become is to do it a dis-service. Kata is the structure that allows us to retain the skills of the past, practice safely and in an orderly, structured way and provides a framework that enables every judoka an atmosphere to learn.

Here's a photo showing kata during a workout at John Saylor's training camp. It may not look like the "kata" people are comfortable with, but it's a kata in every sense of the word nonetheless.

WELCOME MAT ONLINE NEWSLETTER Oct. 1, 2010

This issue's quote; "Discipline yourself so others won't have to." John Wooden

TRAINING AT THE BARN OF TRUTH

It took us 17 hours to get to Perrysville, Ohio from Kansas City, Missouri; 4 hours more than normal and making it the longest road trip in a long time. For some reason, the traffic around Dayton, Ohio (no matter what time of the day or night) is terrible. We ran into 3 traffic jams and at one point Eric Millsap was driving no more than 7 miles per hour for about a 20-minute stretch of time on I-70. We had guys in 2 cars and Eric and I played catch-up to Nick Rothwell, Jeff Owens and Derrick Darling most of the way. At least, the traffic jams provided for more chances for all of us to solve the world's problems and tell dirty jokes. Okay, enough griping about the road conditions...the workout at John Saylor's barn was great.

John had a good crew of guys at the Barn of Truth on the last weekend of September. Mike, Scott and Miguel drove in from Maryland and the rest of the bunch were Ohio guys who wanted to get a good workout with the Welcome Mat bunch. Sean Daugherty and Mike Hallman ran several of the workouts and had some great drills that we certainly will work on at Welcome Mat. Mike's fast-paced and mobile style of groundfighting is not only effective, but a lot of fun to do and I'm glad he lent his coaching skills to the group assembled. Sean's a stud on leglocks, and I'm looking forward to having him get together next May with Jarrod Fobes at Saylor's Spring Camp (May 14 and 15, 2011). That will be a leglock clinic that will need to be filmed.

We started things off right with a good 90 minutes or so in the Barn's weight room before getting on the mat and John introduced the guys to some of his training methods. John has a hard core gym, and is my kind of place. The kind of place where spandex isn't appreciated, but sweating is. This photo shows Jeff Owens benching with John Saylor spotting him. We all gave Jeff a lot of credit for not running away after looking up and seeing that scary view of Saylor from the bench. Seriously, look at the thick PVC pipe Jeff is pressing and what it's holding on each end. Not your typical bench press routine, but one that works the ever-living crap out of your upper body providing serious, functional strength.

We trained on the mat about 8 hours per day for 2 days, getting in as much mat-time as possible while we were at the Barn. And while the workouts were great, the comraderie of being there was even better. I guess there's nothing like shared abuse to make for a cohesive group of people. Melissa Stage, John's office manager, worked her rear end off to make everyone feel comfortable and welcome and she has our sincere thanks. Unfortunately, John didn't have any of his famous potions available for us to drink (see last issue) but that didn't dampen the atmosphere. By the way, Jeff Owens was promoted to Shodan in Shingitai Jujitsu (Saylor was impressed with Jeff's progress since he saw him last year and wanted to make the promotion at the Barn) and Mike Hallman was promoted to Yondan (in an overdue promotion...Mike is really-make that really- skilled). Belt rank isn't the main thing in our world of jujitsu and judo, but these two guys deserved their advancement in rank.

My main goal was to have our Welcome Mat athletes work mostly with John, Mike and Sean and I made it a point to only chime in when asked. We picked up a lot of good ideas on position drills and leglocks from Sean Daugherty and some really effective guard passing drills from Mike Hallman. Fritz Goss and John Powell also stopped by, offering a few words to the group. I know Fritz has done some motivational speaking recently and I would love to see him talk to a bunch of salesmen or something. He would have those people so worked up, they would sell stink to a skunk. John Powell related some of his experiences in Vietnam and it kept everything in perspective when anyone might think he's a "tough guy" after hearing some of the stuff John went through. It's one thing to roll around on a mat, but it's a totally different thing in combat.

One of the highlights of my trips to Perrsyville is spending some time with John's parents. While everyone stayed at the Barn and listended to Melissa's band "Hagatha's Bluff" practice on Saturday night, I went over to Rev. and Mrs. Saylor's house across the road and had a nice, quite visit with them. Melissa's band is great...really...they are professional musicians and play good rock and roll, but it was a good time to get away and have a chat with the Saylors. I might add that John (like me) is an animal lover and I always like visiting his cats and dog. His cat, Dippy, has more personality than a good many people.

All in all, it was worth the long trip. It always is. We had some concentrated, serious workouts with serious people. No one, not one single athlete at the camp, was a specialist in kuchi waza. Everyone drilled, rolled and worked hard...and we enjoyed the comraderie that only shared abuse can engender in a group of athletes, even if it was for only a couple of days.

As October goes on, I'll pound out some more thoughts. The weather's beautiful in Kansas City and tomorrow is Saturday. That may call for walking around the block a few times with some dumb-bells after some time in the weight room. Nothing like trying to irritate father time on a pretty Fall afternoon. More later; until then stay healthy.