Enter the Dragon!

A martial arts colleague of mine, Mark Dransfield, has recently moved back to Perth, Australia. He has started a once-a-week class with fellow instructor David Brown: When : Saturdays, 2 - 4 pm Where : Nine Dragon Martial Arts Academy, Unit 2, 489 Nicholson Road (Cnr Panama Street), CANNING VALE I expect that they're teaching mainly Jiu-jitsu and classical Judo (similar to me), but Mark is also accomplished in Chinese Boxing, so don't be surprised if that enters the mix too. If you're in Perth and are looking to learn, go check 'em out!

In my previous post my mentioned that Goldilocks principle: "Not too little, not too much, just right". Here are other memorable expressions that I have heard from my instructors (plus the occasional fellow student) that I like to pass on: The Fonzie principle: We like to do the first armlock ( juji gatame ) with uke 's thumb pointing up (like Fonzie from the TV show Happy Days) because it makes it more difficult for uke to resist the lock by flexing his or her bicep. Fonzie or "The Fonz" "Elb-b-bow": Used to emphasize certain painful locks of the elbow. Try saying it that way; it's fun. "It's the way it shatters that matters ": Said immediately prior to slamming uke 's elb-b-bow into the mat, during self-defence practice. "Hiza guruma - and he certainly is!": Said while performing -- you guessed it -- hiza guruma (our 3rd leg throw), pronounced "he's a guruma ...". "Funny leg": A reminder f...

Last night we spent the bulk of the class applying jiu-jitsu tactics to escaping from common holds: An exhaustive variety of wrist grabs, plus a few chokes. The beauty of being grabbed is that you can feel exactly where your partner's hand or hands are, and with a little sensitivity the rest of his or her body too. If (s)he moves you can sense that as well. On the downside, you are now under attack, so distract! Strikes and kiais are the obvious way to go, but off-balancing and mis-aligning can help too. Now: In every class of any size there will be people who are strong enough and non-cooperative enough (at least when starting out) to prevent some of the basic leverage tricks of jiu-jitsu from working in their unadorned form. They know what to expect in terms of the specific escape being attempted -- it's a pre-arranged exercise! -- and use this knowledge plus their strength to foil the technique. They are in fact cheating. So it's reasonable to tell them to upbraid t...

When someone actively resists your attempt to apply a joint-lock, most people fall into the trap of applying more and more force. Besides being dangerous -- if it eventually works you may well hyperextend the joint -- this approach contradicts the "minimum effort" part of this month's theme . Pretty soon you find yourself exerting maximum effort to minimum effect. Three better alternatives: Distract : A light strike or -- even the threat of a strike -- to a vulnerable will take your partner's focus away from their resistance for a moment, and that should be long enough to apply the lock. [Other distractions: pinches, kiais, etc. can also do the same job.] Change the focus of the lock : Most locks either use or have the potential for a two-way action. Usually the resistance will arise at the point where you are applying most of the force. Switch your emphasis to another point of contact (and maybe back again). Flow into a different technique : Make use of the res...

What's the board-game of choice for the dedicated martial artist? Chess !* Chess is a two-player simulation of a war. Players start with equal forces and take turns, with first-mover advantage going to white. Unlike competitive sports in which physical skill can help determine the success of a maneuver, chess is pure tactics and strategy. Unlike most card games, there is no hidden information. Like combat one must try to inflict damage on the opponent, by "taking" pieces while defending your own, and -- more subtly -- work on position, lay and spot traps, and fight for eventual victory. * * * As a child I quite liked chess, but beyond learning the basics I was never really taught, and every time I tried to read a chess book I fell asleep. More recently, I watched this amazing interview with Josh Waitzkin, chess prodigy turned t'ai chi ch'uan champ now turning into a competitive BJJ-er (he's clearly a very competitive kinda guy!). It got me thinking: ...

The founder of Judo, Jigoro Kano , used -- in part -- the criterion of "minimum effort, maximum efficiency" to select techniques from the older jiu-jitsu schools to include in his new syllabus, and labeled this criterion as one of the two key principles of Judo, along with the goal of practicing for "mutual welfare and benefit". This month I will be exploring ways to reduce effort and simultaneously increase effect, together yielding higher efficiency (since efficiency = effect / effort). The first point when learning a technique is that when it isn't working, don't just apply more force. This is just adding extra effort (which we should be minimizing!). Instead, assume that something is amiss and vary it until it starts to work. Conversely, when a technique is working reasonably well, can you reduce the amount of applied effort and achieve the same effect?