Recent Blog Postings I Like

I don't read a ton of blogs (you can see the ones that I do read on the right side of the page), but here are a few (mostly) recent postings that I like:

Dr. Ann Maria DeMars: 

Pat Parker:
Gerry Lafon:
  • Stretching (not recent, and I am not yet sold, but it has me thinking)
  • Turnouts (not sold on this either, but again, good to noodle)

btemplates

9 comments:

Jacob said...

Chad, I read the thing about stretching.... interesting. I'm willing to give it a try. You want me to work up a warm-up/stretching thingy to try at practice, using dynamic stretching?

kodokanjudo said...

For the most part, I have always used the mayority of the stretching exercises that are printed in the book "Judo Training Methods" (1962) by Ishikawa and Draeger, Chapter 7 and part of 8.

kodokanjudo said...

The stretching methods that are recommended for judo in this book are a product of the Butokukai in Kyoto, Japan. My sensei was a product of Takahama's teachings and both Ishikawa and Takahama were products of the Butokukai. Coincidentally, Bernie is also a product of Ishikawa's teachings and he has been my primary sensei for the last nine years.

kodokanjudo said...

I'll bring a copy of the book to class this week so you guys can see it and take it home to read.

kodokanjudo said...

As far as turnouts as judo skill... I've never read anything writen by Kano that even remotely suggests that is proper judo. As a fact, he encouraged proper ukemi above most judo skills. Ukemi and taiso (stretching/warmups) are the first line of safety in judo. Cano went out of his way to make judo safer than koryu-jujutsu, so it easy to say that turnouts do not fit in with Kano's idea of judo.
As far as Saigo and Mifune, they simply had the rare ability to "ride" their attacker's technique like we see Mifune repeatedly do in his film (video).
We see further evidence of this skill in some old short clips with Okano-sensei "riding" uchimata attacks and landing on his feet with his own opposite side uchimata to down his partner.

Chad Morrison said...

@KodokanJudo
Re: Judo Training Methods, I think I used to own that book, but I can't find it now, for the life of me. Anyhoo, as I recall, there was some good stuff in there, but I think that the best training methods of 1962 are not the best training methods of 2011. As we have improved our understanding of the human body, and "exercise science" has come in to its own, meaningful improvements have been made since then. Similar to my feelings on most of the kappo (resuscitation) - CPR is far better than performing the "human billows" on someone that isn't breathing.

Re: Turnouts, I agree. I think that Mifune trying to land on his feet and "head rolls" are very different things. I am all for teaching how to safely cartwheel out of certain throws, and how to flow over certain throws like Mifune (though someone will have to teach that to me, first), but I'd have to see some damned compelling evidence before teaching someone to put their head on the ground to avoid being thrown. There are worse things in life than being thrown... Like a neck injury.

Patrick Parker said...

I dont especially like the turnouts instead of ukemi, and I agree that kano likely didnt think that epitomized judo, but here's another example of that floating turnout like Mifune did (about 50 seconds in)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w5dwS5jpz4&feature=share

Chad Morrison said...

Oh, and @Jacob: Yes! I don't think I will want to get rid of all static stretching, but where we can get something that uses judo-esque actions and dynamically stretches, I think that is a better way to spend our time. Just use your small inner fish, and I'm sure you will come up with something great.

Chad Morrison said...

Oh, and @Jacob: Yes! I don't think I will want to get rid of all static stretching, but where we can get something that uses judo-esque actions and dynamically stretches, I think that is a better way to spend our time. Just use your small inner fish, and I'm sure you will come up with something great.