The other night at karate class, one the the fellow instructors from another karate club, made a negative comment about Judo. ( Not the first time, or second. so the freebee was up ) He doesn't train in it, has no idea about it, etc. Comment was " you would never be able to throw me. I would turn into a snake, and be so loose ". There was one of my senior students, and one girl he was trying to impress. I said, guaranteed, and within 30 seconds. Now I weigh 190, and him, possibly 140. He said go for it. I was going to try & be nice, and do something relatively controlled, as there were no mats on the floor. However, he went in for a double leg take down, and tried to be somewhat aggressive. So.... i wrapped both arms around his torso, and did the rice bag throw, tawara gaeshi. I kept his head tight, and upper body on mine, but man did his feet hit the floor hard. This took all of about 10 seconds. I said, " done, and done". He didnt say too much, and when my senior student as how his feet were, all he said was I have hit the floor before with my bare feet.
Hopefully, there will be no more comments about Judo, otherwise, shime - waza may be the next step.
I think he may have a higher respect for Judo now. I also think the girl was really impressed with the way he was thrown too, so it sort of back - fired. Oh well......
Nice one!
Most of the guys you meet in martial arts are great people, but you ALWAYS meet that one guy that just sets you off.
The good thing that came out of my experience, was it accelerated me getting back in to judo.
Its November of 1992, and two of my sons have been enrolled in a local karate school for a few months. I've given up playing cards after work since August, so now I spend my time with the wife and kids. Watching the kids, starts making me want to go back to judo, but I've done nothing about it. Now, the head instructor was one of the nicest guys around, but this night, some young guy is teaching that I've seen before. After the class, he tries to give me the sales pitch about joining the club with the kids. I tell him "No thanks, but I'm thinking about going back to judo". He starts talking about how judo is a nice sport, but it really isn't that good for defending yourself, blah, blah, blah. I'm being nice, in my responses, but my kids and wife are listening to this guy. Then he makes the mistake of saying something along the lines of "What would you do if your wife was being attacked? Do you think you could protect her with judo?". Now I'm pissed off.
Its a hardwood floor, but they have some real thin mats in the back of the studio. I tell him "I don't know. I never thought about that. Why don't you get the mats over there and I'll see if I can defend myself." The dumbass gets the two mats and it gives us about a 10' x 10' area. Mats are maybe an inch thick.
So anyway, I tell the guy to attack me and he throws a fucking straight punch, which I block and then I grab him and throw him with harai makikomi and knock the wind out of him.
Next day, I went and found a judo school. Started me back in judo after a 15 year layoff. The kids quit karate the next month and joined me.
If you tried to throw me, I would be a horned toad and spit blood in your eye. Then I would be a howler monkey and make so much noise you couldn't concentrate. Then I would be a squirrel and climb up a tree where you couldn't reach me. My awesome shaolin kempo karate would defeat your pathetic judo any day!
(Yes, I wasted two years of my life when I was younger training at a school of kara-tay. But I'm not bitter.)
I just got back from judo. I was randoriing against a brown belt. Of course, I wasn't about to get a throw, but I was doing okay until he got a scarf-choke on me and I had to tap. My windpipe still hurts. One of these days...
Bradl and judo guy -- great stories!
There's always one out there. Too bad there were no mats.
my story..
filming a judo video series with Swain and Keith Nakasone. He has a few uke's up there, and we are taking huge falls for him time after time. The guy who is doing the filming happens to be an Olympic Gold medallist in TKD who own his own film company now. He's good pals with Swain and they joke around a lot. More or less, we had a great time and a ton of respect for eachother. i know that guy could really fuck some people up and there's no way i'd be stupid enough to challenge that. on the same note, he knows that throws can fuckin hurt like hell and there's just no way he'd want to challenge that either.
and that's coming from 2 guys who were the very best in the world at what they do.
everybody should be confident about their art/training. but arrogance is just stupid. its the arrogant people who get tooled becuase they are nowhere near as good as they think they are.
great stories :) judo rules :)
Josh did you end up appearing in the final cut of the Swain video, and if so which one was it?
~charlie
king, im not sure, i havent seen the final cut. im sure i did on a throw or two.. but there were a number of uke's beucase all of us had different schedules and were available on different days.
all the same, every single one of us was sitting there in amazement--even the flm crew who really didnt understand everything. Its really difficult to fathom how amazingly technical the guy is.. you can tell him the name of the most obscure throw in the world, he'll look at you weird for a second, somebody says "you know, that one where you do this and he falls over there..." and in 2 minutes flat he is doing it as if it was his main throw back in 87 and able to teach it equally as well.
I dont think anybody from the US has his technical abilities. Okano is absolutley amazing, no questions about that, but i honestly think Swain will be every bit as knowledgeable when he is the same age. mat time and years in judo is the only difference between the two that i can tell.
Well, Okano at his peak is talked about in the same terms as Kimura and Yamashita though...
but Swain's book Ashiwaza 2 is OUTSTANDING.
I am sure that he is an amazing technician based on how long he was competitive at the very top.
Sothy,
i promise you that Okano hasnt lost a step.. he's older and nicer, thats all.