Competition Video!

Here's my longest match from this past Saturday (I'm in the white gi). I made a lot of noise in this match, which I'll try to control for future tournaments.

Please leave feedback if you can!

Some thoughts on this match (other than telegraphing my crappy throws by kiai):

I'm happy with myself for being the first one to attack in almost every exchange. During randori I usually play the "wait and counter" game, but Mike Oshima who's an alumni of this tournament gave me the advice to be aggressive. It's likely the case that as my opponents increase in skill level, I'll have to force them to give me openings to attack instead of waiting. On the matter of what I attacked with, I was slightly better in using ashi waza with a purpose instead of randomly kicking at the legs like kyu grades usually do. My opponent even remarked afterwards that I could have caught him with an okuri ashi barai at 3:39 and a de ashi barai at 6:49 had I committed with my arms. I think what makes ashi waza difficult for me is that when I catch someone I don't realize it, so I don't build muscle memory for the movement. Clearly from my style of play in this match, I am equating ippon with maximum effort instead of maximum efficiency. At any rate, I met my personal goal of no shidos.

Next, I'm unsure how I feel about my (non) use of newaza. Since he won by ippon in our first match, I was intent on returning the favor so I kept letting him up. I'm still treating these tournament matches like randori and I don't know what it's going to take to get the concept of shiai to properly sink in. I don't know if I necessarily want to treat me opponent like an "enemy," but if I am going to accept donations and invest all this time/money into training I need to start being more focused on winning. If my older brother (Serra BJJ player and judoka) is reading this, it's not because I haven't been drilling the stuff! Something just didn't click that day- the most prime example is at 2:35 after my score where he is literally lying flat on his back (listen closely- an audience member says "osae komi!"). The only technical flub I had on the mat, as far as I can tell, was the juji gatme attempt at 1:10 where I reversed the position of my legs. I literally just drilled that attack a couple of days before- shame on me.

Finally, my stamina needs work. I've been rowing and biking mostly- probably need to incorporate running, jump roping, and... burpees, which I hate.

Thanks for stopping by! You're alright.
-Ben

2013 NCJA Tournament Report

I rarely travel with a team, so in order to make myself more comfortable I depend on the kindness of strangers that I meet in the steam room. Something about mutual misery makes people bond, even if they could end up being in your weight class. There were a couple of guys from UT (I think- I’ll have to double check) who let me keep my bag with their stuff, which I appreciated. In exchange I taped their matches, which is a simple expression of mutual welfare and benefit, yeah? I have no idea what it’s like to be an elite judo player, but I try to extend the general “don’t be a jerk” philosophy I use during practice to competition. You don’t have to smile at your opponent (well, I do), but arguing with referees, sticking your fingers in your opponents face, and cranking the neck don’t get you any closer to winning than simply playing the game does. My mat was pretty good, but I saw a lot of head diving uchi matas and medical intervention due to jerk-like tactics when I got a chance to walk around.

Anyway, to the matter of my matches… (1-2 record)

Standard Division Roster: Male, -66 kg 

In spite of having missed a bunch of practices due to school work I felt really prepared for this tournament, as in, the only thing that would stop me from winning is if my opponent was better than me. In what seems like a pattern, this was not the case! This is no discredit to my opponents (who have now become my Facebook friends), but my two losses did not have to do with technique. Here’s what happened at my first match…

First Match (Ghuloum, Michigan State): I get ready to bow and the referee comes over to me and says, verbatim, “If you step onto my mat with that, you will be disqualified.” My heart sunk. The less melodramatic referee comes over and says “Your gi is too small, you have 30 seconds to find a new one.” My proper gi size is a 2.5-3 and the smallest guy I could find with a blue gi had sleeves that went past my closed fists. I hoped my opponent would mess up a drop seionage so I could use sode-guruma jime, but he got control over my sleeves which trapped my hands inside. He took the victory by an uchi mata counter to a kuzushi-less kosoto gari. It was a beautiful technique and will probably end up on this years highlights, so my goal of ending up on the highlight reel might still come true! I was mad- I had gotten that gi on ebay for cheap and it said it was a 2.5. Instead, he sent me a size 2 top and a size 3 pants and I figured it was fine. Dead wrong.

In another showing of goodness in people, 4 properly-sized people came over and offered me their blue gi. This was nice, but because I was the first person to lose I would be wearing a white gi for all of my repechage matches. Speaking of which, my first opponent went on to lose his next match so we had to fight again! 

Second Match (Ghuloum, Michigan State): This match went the full 5 minutes and was basically me trying to return the favor of the ippon from the first match. In a very inappropriate move for a national competition (or any competition, for that matter), I refused to go into newaza even when he hit his head on the tatami and was literally lying flat on his back for 5 seconds. I won by waza-ari from kosoto gari and two shidos. The way I fought was brutish and, in my opinion, very ugly to watch. I hope my future matches are cleaner than that. Mohammad is actually very skilled, he just fought an extra match so I think I out-gassed him.

Third Match (Kumaki, University of Washington): I had talked to this gentleman before and I was actually excited to face him! He was fast- much faster than me. If you can imagine it, he attempted a seio nage. I stepped over to the right, but lost my balance and fell to my knees slightly in front of him. While he did drop to his knees, he got back up (making is nage, not an otoshi) and continued to drive into my shoulder even though I was turtled. This popped something in my shoulder and I grunted because of the shock, but the pain went away really quickly (I think it unpopped right afterwards). The referee instructed me not to move and the medics ran over to examine me. While they determined that my shoulder was fine, because they came over I had forfeited the match. Admittedly it does feel funny now, but I don't think it's serious... regardless, another disappointing end to a match.

The tournament ended with the awards ceremony, with all of the competitors sitting on the mat together. This was cool because we were all the same age and the tournament directors actually demanded that we mingle while they organized things on their end. Striking up conversation with some of the OTC ladies made me wonder what it would be like to date someone who also does judo. What would we talk about when doing judo is the only interesting thing about me? That’s a different universe that I don’t live in right now.

Anyway, I’d like to thank all of the people that have helped my judo over the years and also apologize for not bringing home a medal after all the time/hard work that’s been invested in me! Next time for sure.

Special thanks goes out:

• My parents for supporting me in everything I do, even if they will always think judo is a dangerous sport.
• My girlfriend for taking care of my injuries/setting alarms so I don’t miss flights (usually).
• Sensei Nick Roseto and Sensei Hiroyuki Yamashita for raising me on proper judo fundamentals (and for passing on their taiotoshi). Waseda Judo Club, Inc. (Lynbrook, NY)
• Sensei Shintaro Higashi and the guys at Kokushi Budo for pushing my competitive judo to the next level. Kokushi Budo Institute
• Sensei Hans Dudeck for drilling my terrible ashi waza. Biwako Judo Club
• The Tau Sigma chapter of Beta Theta Pi for hosting me at their house, which was conveniently 2 minutes away from the tournament site, and for chauffeuring me to the airport. Ean is the #1 pledge.  
• The Friedlander family for their generous monetary support of my judo- I look forward to training with Isa in the fall!
• Brian Jines and Columbia University Club Sports for making this trip possible.

Next up is blue gi shopping, then the Liberty Bell Classic (April 6-7). A video of my 2^nd match will go up in a couple of days, so check this blog periodically. In the meantime, here's a video of the winning Kata demonstration from earlier in the day. I didn't bring my tripod because I was competing, so excuse the shakiness.

Thanks for stopping by- you’re alright!

-Ben

Ben's NCJA Travel LiveBlog

3/15/13

10:00 PM

Conclusion: Iowa is too cold to take video of- I'm hydrating, studying, and get focused for tomorrow!

6:57 PM

12:30 PM

In my little cubicle at Chicago Midway Airport.

12:15 PM

Text from my mom: "Good luck with judo. Do not break bones"

My bones or someone else's? Both have been proven to stop me in my tracks. =P Also, if I was reading this I would probably think "What unwarranted self-importance! Where are his medals and national titles?"

12:00 PM

I realize that many of you were looking forward to a witty video of my travel shenanigans, but in my rush this morning I packed my camera in my checked baggage. (Yes, I have a dedicated video camera.) This will have to do- it may help the experience if you read it in my sweet, chocolately voice.

In case you have no idea what's going or why I'm writing again, I've flung myself back into the competitive judo world with the blessing of my parents and coaches. Part of the sudden motivation is this regret I've been starting to feel about having taken such a long break from judo in general. How good could I have been and how far would I have gotten? Statistically, eh and not particularly far, but entertaining the idea of a successful me has been drawing my ass to the tatami over the past couple of month all the same. Tomorrow I am competing in the NCJA Championship at Iowa State University, while will the biggest tournament I've competed in. This one is actually worth points on the national roster (which at this point, I have none), which I assumed wouldn't be the case given how restrictive the entry criterion are. Regardless, I'm not assuming my opponents will be any different than usual since 60-66kg players are usually on the young side anyway.

Speaking of which, cutting weight has to be the most annoying sport-related practice in the world. Boarding the plane I was 2-3 pounds over my goal weight and I'm definitely going to have to bike/treadmill/sauna when I arrive at the tournament site. I wonder if they'll let me check myself on the official scale. While it seems like I'm generally on top my stuff, I almost didn't make it to this layover in Chicago (which is where I'm writing from). Basically, I underestimated how much 2ish hours in the sauna would exhaust me, so I completely overslept and I had to borrow money from my girlfriend for an emergency cab to LaGuardia. In addition, I didn't completely grasp the fact that having membership in USA Judo vs. USJA vs. USJF actually meant anything until my USJF card was rejected for registration. Basically, try to jump head first into this student-athlete thing has not been as smooth as I imagined. Finally, while I have been granted informal permission to stay at the Iowa State Beta house, I do not have the contact info of anybody who will be able to pick me up from the airport/let me in. Great start, right?

I'm going to go work that out now- I'll probably post more after weigh in's about how much cutting weight sucks and how I deeply regretted not getting a deep dish pizza while in Chicago.

Thanks for stopping by! You're alright.

-Ben

"Higher Judo: Groundwork" by Moshe Feldenkrais

During the manic phases of what I call “manic-procrastination disorder,” I usually end up misplacing my productive energy into judo stuff. At the end of an hour-long binge, I had was a proud owner of a new judo website and a funky old newaza book called “Higher Judo: Groundwork.” The first print ran in 1952 and it had apparently become quite rare, but luckily enough it had be reprinted in 2010 in paperback. You know me and my obsession with ground work, right?

So, who was Moshe Feldenkrais? Apparently, he was a pretty big deal. A pioneer of judo in France who hung out Jigoro Kano, as well being a scientist of sorts, he was interesting enough on his own to convince me to shell out $17 for his book. This was the last in a series of judo and jujutsu literature, meant for experienced judoka. Though I usually like to read the foreword, the 2010 one speaks more about judo as it relates to the development of the Feldenkrias Method—something I can’t even begin to pretend to care about. 

In terms of judo content, “Higher Judo” contains 300 line drawings (traced from actual photos of Feldenkrais and Mikinosuke Kawaishi) with accompanying commentary. Unlike most instructional books that stick to explaining 1 or 2 pictures at a time, Feldenkrais works to tie together different positions, constantly referring back to earlier pages. This has the advantage of synthesizing the work, but is also makes the 200-page book frustrating to read through. Therefore, it may be better said that “Higher Judo” is meant for brown belt judoka and black belt-level readers.

“Higher Judo” represents one of the first attempts by a judoka to capture “proper” newaza instruction in print. There are definitely other instructionals covering newaza, but it seems that the goal of judo print during the mid-20th century was capture judo through a series of photographs. The line drawings lack color, which is a choice probably made to draw your attention to the text. Even if you are a visual learner, the best photography of the 1952 was not that good, such that the crispness of the line drawings is actually superior from an instructional standpoint.

In the paragraph above, I put quotes around the word “proper” newaza instruction because it seems to be the least standardized part of judo in proportion to how often we have to deal with it. The fact that Feldenkrais, an apparently reknowned grappling expert and contemporary of Kano, poured so much detail into this book is very interesting. I say this because I’ve never seen judo newaza taught in his terms, which reinforces my idea that unlike tachi waza, the judo community have yet to place a standard on the whole of newaza technique. There are a set of techniques required for grading, but the proper application of ju on the ground deserves more attention than it currently gets. The positional nature of newaza lends itself well to didactic instruction, which is exactly how Feldenkrais attempts to teach it. Here is the table of contents:

Example of "Higher Judo" Content

1. Judo Practice…17

2. Uniqueness of Action…42

3. Where We Start and Why…46

4. Principles of Ground Work…53

5. Some Useful Exercises…56

6. Ground Work Tactics…67

7. Starting Ground Word…77

8. Six O’clock Approach…87

9. Right or Left Approach…121

10. Head On Approach…160

11. The Astride Position…181

12. Opponent Facing the Ground…207

Sometimes I think that judoka have this illusion that they’ll open a book by a pre-WWII black belt and find the entire catalogue of modern Brazilian Jiu Jitsu techniques which, quite frankly, is ridiculous. The farther you move from the founding of Judo, the more you can see how the sports have evolved into totally different things—for better or worse. Even if you have no sense of historical accuracy and think that BJJ comes from Japanese Jujutsu, what people are doing in modern competitions does not resemble old school, “true” Gracie Jiu Jitsu (as Relson Gracie will gladly tell you).

Anyway, as a grappler you should not be looking to “Higher Judo” for the answer to your ne waza woes (which can only be solved with more practice). It serves as a historical piece and has a lot of great ideas concerning the general approaches to groundwork and principles that guide them. More importantly, as students who hopefully will spend time amassing experience and knowledge to become teachers someday, “Higher Judo” shows what happens when a smart person really thinks about grappling in-depth, as a science. His work is imperfect, but given the time when it was published is was far ahead of its time in that it recognized problems in instruction and the practical application of classical techniques. If you can get past the foreword and the constant plugs for the Feldenkrais Method, “Higher Judo” can be a great tool for the further development of your judo. 

Link to buy:

http://www.amazon.com/Higher-Judo-Groundwork-Moshe-Feldenkrais/dp/155643927X 

Thanks for stopping by! You're alright.

-Ben

About Atarashiido.com!

The company logo.

A few weeks ago I sent out invites to a Facebook page called “Atarashiido – Judo by Judoka” and I thought it would helpful to provide some context! The idea is to centralize high-quality judo media, driven entirely by reader contributions. There are millions of judoka in the world with interesting stories to share—it’s not just the Kimura’s and the Mifune’s that matter! “Ju” is a concept that can express itself in many different ways, from tournament performance to personal conduct. Unfortunately, meaningful content gets lost among the dribble on forums and YouTube, to the extent that people begin to associate those awful things with judo culture. Ultimately I want to help change the face of judo online, since the Internet is an integral part of the life experience of the modern judo players. The average person will inevitably attempt to supplement their training with online materials.

Search box blocked by control panel
dropdown on JudoForum, 11/24/12.

The natural question at this point is “Aren’t there other judo websites online? Why should I care about this one?” First and foremost is the aesthetic quality of the current batch of judo websites. From coding errors to poor design motifs, they make me less likely to stick around and enjoy the material. Certain forums are so poorly maintained that they are host to malware, which creates a cost-benefit scenario that doesn’t work in their favor. A deliberately simple design will reduce the need for maintenance, as well as allow reader to focus on the content. No clip art, no terrible stock GIFs of the Gokyo, no broken search boxes… just judo.

Next, I’ve found that even the best online judo personalities tend to run out of things say rather quickly. If you’re talented, you’ll be able to master one, maybe two techniques in your lifetime, meaning that it will be impossible to constantly put out high quality material on a wide variety of subjects (like many people attempt to do). Because we’re drawing on the wealth of knowledge of entire community, we will be able to post original and diverse content on a regular basis, something that I have not seen in my many hours of online perusing. The staff will take on an editorial role, to work with contributors to maintain the quality of our website.

I can't even... JudoInfo 11/24/12.

So, how can you help? If you’d like to contribute an article or video, simply e-mail:

contribute@atarashiido.com

If you’d like to volunteer to help code, design, or be an editor, please e-mail:

recruitment@atarashiido.com

Thanks! The website launches on New Year's Day!

-Ben

Our current design.

Hudson Judo Promotional Tournament Report

Sorry this is coming so late, it's midterm season at Columbia.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Today the Hudson Promotional Tournament at Tech Judo, to advance to nikyu through Batsugun. Two decisive victories in a row against other sankyu’s was all I needed, which on paper didn’t seem that difficult. The fact that my time in grade (2.5 years) is over twice as long as the “recommended” time in grade for this promotion for non-competitors honestly made me feel like I was sandbagging a bit. I've also technically been judo-ing for 13 years... I’ll get back to how wrong I was later.

After my shift running dorm security I took a subway down to Port Authority where, of course, I ended up getting lost. I run around MTA every day, but somehow I couldn’t handle New Jersey Transit? Luckily the bus to North Bergen was a full 20 minutes late, so a full sprint up a few flights of stairs put me a train in time to get there an hour early. Earlier in life I remember tournaments running extremely inefficiently, as in parents yelling at the tournament directors, heavy weights ending up in kid divisions, and score boards malfunctioning. Billy Martin and company ran a very smooth tournament, and if that is the standard for Hudson tournaments now I’m extremely impressed.

Once I confirmed my attendance and looked around, I felt a sweeping sense of “other-ness.” There were big groups of people from other clubs there, shooting the breeze and warming up before the tournament. There was interclub mingling going on that I wasn’t part of because I didn’t know anybody. Eventually I found my courage and re-introduced myself to some guys from Oishi Judo—they were nice, and remembered me more for being that kid from Madagascar more than anything. Even with some social capital, I was still awkwardly doing stretches and plyometric exercises by myself to warm up. After way too long of doing that, Billy Martin roared and everyone lined up. He gave a nice speech about positive Judo, which I appreciated.

Being at the bottom of Judo totem pole, sankyu and 66 kg, my matches were one of the first. I think I was 3rd lightest at the tournament, which is pretty good! I thought I had let myself go. Anyway, my first match was against a fellow from one of those trendy MMA schools that does a little bit of everything. He had a Brazilian flag on his arm and his judogi was oddly textured, so I deduced that he was a primarily a BJJ player. We bowed and he took a low defensive stance, which I knew I was going to end up using sumi gaeshi to deal with. Initially I got a wazari through de ashi barai and ended up in his guard which, honestly, I didn’t feel like trying to pass. My goal was to save energy this first fight, so I fended off a couple of juji gatame attempts and stood back up. I don’t know if my arms are incredibly weak or I just suck, but my arms were already tired. We got a very generous amount of time in newaza for the one exchange, which made me happy inside even though I didn’t actively participate in it. Anyway, win by sumi gaeshi.

Next up was a gentleman who grew up doing sambo and wrestling in addition to Judo. How do I get stuck will all of these ground competent people? Was Billy Martin playing a trick on me? In this match, I got outgripped and wasn’t able to land him on his back. I probably could have been a lot more physical because it (would have been) my last match, but I wasn’t thinking properly at the moment. I realized that I just wasn’t used to the adrenaline—my focus was so bad that I couldn’t even complete a koshi jime (clock choke) because I couldn’t remember where I was supposed to put my other arm. We ended up drawing, but because I had to win two in a row it counted as a loss for me.

I bowed off and got some encouraging words from the audience, that I fought well and looked better than my 2^nd opponent out there. My first opponent even asked me to show him the technique I threw him with! People were very friendly here. After relaxing for about a minute, I realized just how tired my arms were, how bad my cardio is, and that I wouldn’t be able to do two more matches if I didn’t do something about. I tried to do so yoga on the open mat, but that didn’t really help. Oh well. Before I knew it, we cycled back to me and I hopped up for another match.

This time, it was a taller brown belt from Oishi (I think). This entire match was a blur, but I think I ended it with tai otoshi after about a minute. It was extremely embarrassing being as tired as I was, but the tournament doesn’t wait for you to catch your breath. The next guy was literally the lightest guy in the division, who I tossed around for 4 minutes and got ¾ of a point (I think). He was pretty good at spinning out of normal angles, so I decided to try yoko tomoe nage. With a minute left, and ¾ of a point lead. Stupid stupid stupid. He dodged it and pinned me with kesa gatame. I was literally gassed and only managed to work my way out with about 3 seconds left on the osaekomi clock, so I lost. Dammit.

from judoinfo.com

Although I didn’t get thrown and threw all my opponents repeatedly, I still wasn’t able to win two matches in a row. I was a little bit frustrated, but I think in this situation it was a case of my opponents (and new friends) being much better prepared than I was for the tournament. Better cardio and safer throw choices would have been my friend, which I’ll keep in mind for my next tournament in a few weeks. Unfortunately, none of the guys I faced advanced either! I guess we’ll do this again in spring. I definitely need to work on my mind set for competitions. I also got a video camera, so I’ll be able to put up videos of my other tournaments.

Thanks for stopping by! You’re alright.

-Ben

Batsugun tomorrow! First Judo tournament in two years.

Hey loyal readership,

It's the night before the Hudson Judo Promotional Tournament and I'm feeling a bit of anxiety. On some level, I thought that I had mentally outgrown caring about rank- after all, I've been wearing my brown belt so long that the caked on dirt and blood makes it look black anyway. That said, even if I did care about rank I'm (theoretically) only moving from sankyu to nikyu, so what's the big deal?

I think that part of me, after taking such a "long" break (percentage of lifetime-wise) from Judo, is afraid that I've wasted my potential in regards to becoming a great judoka. Yes, I know that Judo is primarily a form of education that uses physical activity as a way to express it's philosophy, BUT, at least for me (and what seems like a large portion of the modern Judo world), success in shiai has always been a strong desire, if not a driving factor in the practice of Judo. Realistically though, I have a lot of catching up to do. I have very little doubt in my mind that at least a couple of those extremely talented players from my youth is now doing greater things than I am now. That's exactly what they are now: great. Note, that "great" is distinct from "talented" or "prodigious"- rather, through diligent practice they have realized their potential. That's scary to me.

Regardless, (like my ability to do taiotoshi) the dream of one day being in the Olympics or a World Championship has never left me. In spite of how scared the thought of going against people more experienced, bigger (open weight), and taller than I am, I think the best course of action is to just try my best and see where it takes me. I'll write about my experience tomorrow!

Thanks for stopping by! You're alright.
-Ben