You are cordially invited for a 1.5 hours of randori at SFJI located 2530 Taraval Street – cross street 35th Av.

Hisanori Katabe had the pleasure to demonstrate and teach SFJI judoka his two favorite techniques Tai Otoshi and Uchimata. While showing those two basic throws, Hisanori emphasized a lot on kuzushi while performing the technique.

SFJI judoka fully appreciated his beautiful technique and his passion for the sport of judo.

Pictures

The USJF executive committee & the board of directors recognized San Francisco Judo Institute as 7th largest dojo in the USA with 148 members for 2010. Click here to view the full size  SFJI Certificate 7th Largest Dojo in the USA

If you have individuals who need certification becoming a Referee, the class is on Sat. with the practical exam on Sunday.  The tournament is intended for more novice competitors, Kyu ranks only, so hopefully you will send your students to this tournament.

Sensei Henry Kaku, DeLeon Judo Club

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Ukemi is one of the most essential techniques to learn in Judo, and the very first indispensable one the new student needs to master. Without the deep knowledge that he or she can endure a fall without getting hurt, the new student will apply excessive restrain in his learning and practice of any throw technique.  Safety of our students should always be our #1 objective.

There is sometimes to much urgency in learning the throws,  and too often to teach throws.  The SFJI instructors recognize this basic but essential first requirement in the player progression  and strictly apply serious ukemi rules prior to engaging into throw technique teaching.  Ukemi is based on the principle of “mutual welfare and benefit”. In addition to the safety and confidence this practice gives us, it is an essential part of understanding the more advanced techniques of Judo.

We will be adding additional Ukemi training on an unannounced basis. This will add very little time to the workout and will prove to be invaluable to judoka of all ages.

There is a very necessary progression to judo training.  Differences of opinion are heard throughout the judo community.  We all start with ukemi and we never stop our ukemi throughout our judo lives because it is our foundation for safety and confidence.  We see youngsters hesitant in practicing ukemi for many reasons such as fear, lack of coordination or boredom.  The practice of Kata, the demonstration of formal techniques is critical to learning technical precision and has been a requirement for rank promotion.  This has been greatly lost over the years, however, training clinics are conducted annually.  There is uchikomi the important development of techniques with a partner in rapid repetition.  Uchikomi is essential for development of technique to the point of not thinking about it and intuitive motor skills are developed.  The progression from uchikomi to sute geiko, the practice of throwing your partner while moving in a cooperative manner (uki sacrifices), completes the application of a technique.  Kanostressed the progression from kata and uchikomi leading to a very high importance of practicing randori.  Randori…….”The ultimate goal of randori is to develop the ability to rapidly cope with changing circumstances, to build a strong body, and to prepare mind and body for competition” (Kano).

Here is where much discussion takes place.  Why do we practice randori? The key word is practice and preparation for competition.  Randori is often practiced for the wrong reason when we see randori being used combatively.  Randori is a development process in free style to practice techniques without restraint, therefore seeing immediately the full effectiveness of the techniques.  Randori is NOT competition.  It is skill development for competition.  While we practice randori with great vigor, it is important to make full use of skill development, taking a fall for your partner, trying variations of techniques on different partners of varying stature. We need to refocus our practice of randori more toward the development benefits and not be so competitive. ….the debate continues!

Shiai is the place for competitive practice with full force and application of technique; aggressive and defensive.  Shiai is conducted in accordance with all competition rules and under supervision.  It is the basis for evaluation of a student’s technical advancement, spirit and sportsmanship.

Tournaments are the place where we test our skills in shiai and where rank promotion is earned. While competition is a main focus of what we do it is not the only place where judoka can benefit from the judo as a lifetime experience.  In addition to competition there is the formal practice of judo kata.  Kata is considered as important as competition and is performed for points scoring in tournaments requiring exacting skill and long committed periods of training.

The non-competitor judoka are very important. It is not imperative that everyone be a competitor to achieve success in judo.  There is a separate ranking process for non-competitors who have demonstrated their skills and are committed to judo as instructors, coaches, referees and administrators.  People of all ages come to judo for different reasons and their place can be recognized.  A commitment to judo can be a lifetime experience of well being, health, mental and physical conditioning and being part of a world family in the martial arts.  Judo is a way of life!

As to whether judo is a sport or a martial art; this will continue to be debated.  The art of judo is clear and need not be confused with the fact that judo is an Olympic sport and scored in competition.  –Ed

My introduction to Judo was in 1960 at the age of nineteen.  At that time my Sensei, George Yoshida, led the oldest dojo in the country strictly following the Kodokan traditions.  It was only four years after being a beginner that a major change in judo happened, it became an Olympic sport.  With judoka from all over the world coming together, the spirit of competition was heightened.  It was not long before the compulsory study of Kata was overwhelmed by the focus on high level competition.  While there were always local and national tournaments the need to groom Olympians became strong.

When coming to the San Francisco Judo Institute in 1971, I was very excited with the strong leadership of Sensei Mits Kimura and the strictness he imparted in training.  Kata was still emphasized and judo etiquette was always enforced.  The training was hard and the competitors were successful.  Yet, there was always room for beginners, kids, non-competitors, Kata, and those who engaged in judo for health and exercise.  The spirit of judo was strong no matter why you were there and there was an overwhelming respect for each other.  The embodiment of what Sensei Kimura set out for us is still what the SFJI is about and the current leadership has committed to continue in his footsteps.

In a recent SFJI Black Belt Association meeting we reviewed the result of the pre-tournament training with respect to the results of our kids at the USA Judo Junior Nationals.  We had several podium placements. Owing that this was a national tournament the level of competition was very high.  Nevertheless, the question of what our competition goals are with respect to the overall practice and teaching of judo at SFJI is being assessed.  I firmly believe that we need to pursue the highest level of competition while also providing a broad aspect of “a life in Judo”.

All of the above notwithstanding, there has been and will be changes.  If you watched the Beijing Olympics last year, you witnessed some very fine judo with strong application of technique, strength and the influence of different styles.  We observed the American Olympians compete against Eastern Europeans, French, Brazilians, and Japanese.  We only had one podium finish with Ronda Rousey taking a bronze.  What is this telling us?  The sport of judo has thousands of participants, being one of the world’s most popular sports second only to soccer.  Yet, the pyramid of participants required to support the few Olympians every four years is enormous.  It is this base that I feel we need to focus on.  That is judo for everyone.  To be able to have a balance of training that enables the most talented to be found, to instill respect and fun in training kids, to have hard disciplined training for those who wish to and can compete and not dismiss the traditions for the sake of a few.  The current SFJI training curriculum is currently being fashioned to do so.

There are differences of opinion on application of certain dynamic techniques in randuri training by young judoka.  Lest we forget that one of the premises ofKanois to permit the application of full force in a manner that avoids injury. Kanoindicated that full force of certain sutemi-waza (sacrifice techniques) by kids is not safe and could cause serious injury.  Amongst these are kata-guruma, drop knee seoi-nagi, makekomi, or sukui-nage where application by a skilled competitor upon a lesser skilled person could result in serious neck or head injury.  For that reason such techniques have been banned by some organizations and local and regional tournaments for judoka under 12 years of age.  There is no doubt that the effectiveness of such techniques will garner more competition success, but we need to be careful with whom, how and when we train with this in mind.   I personally reflect upon the directionKanowrites about training with an appropriate judo posture and not to be drawn into a bent defensive posture where your only recourse is application of sume-gaeshi or a pant grab (now ruled illegal unless it is used as the completion of another technique such a kouchi-gari).   We at SFJI are struggling with where to draw the line to maintain competitive success yet putting safety first.

In the past few years we have seen the SFJI change from just a few dedicated judoka carrying on in the shadow of our late Sensei to our current highly active training schedule and overwhelming membership.  It is active like the old days.  However, today we are functioning without a single master who strictly governs what we do.  We are functioning as a group with leadership built upon what has been passed down.  We are being bombarded with new influences and differing opinions from parents, new members from other dojos as well as our own long term members.  As we navigate our way through these transitions we must go back to our roots and revisit whatKanostarted out to do and where judo has come without losing sight ofKano’s philosophy of physical education, training the mind, the aesthetics of judo and the spirit of competition.  We will need to practice “the art of giving way” in order to be strong.

——-  Leonard Auerbach, Editor