fighting in zen judo

Newbie Joined: Apr 15, 2007 Posts: 2

hi, today i received my bja junior green belt at a grading and loved the competition of it all.
You state that your students do randori and kata but do they have to do any competitive fighting to get their grades or is it just demonstration of techniques?
If so don't you feel that your students are missing out on what i feel is one of the most fun parts of judo or do you feel that judo has become too competitive on the bja syallabus and that the fundamentals of Kano's teachings have been lost? Very Happy

Wren

Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 12:57

[quote="wren"]hi, today i received my BJA junior green belt at a grading and loved the competition of it all.
You state that your students do randori and kata but do they have to do any competitive fighting to get their grades or is it just demonstration of techniques?
If so don't you feel that your students are missing out on what i feel is one of the most fun parts of judo or do you feel that judo has become too competitive on the bja syallabus and that the fundamentals of Kano's teachings have been lost? Very Happy

Wren[/quote]

Hi Wren, Welcome to the Forum. Congratulations on your Green belt.
Taking your questions one at a time:-

Zen students don't fight for grades in the same sense as they do in the BJA, but competition is still part of all gradings above Yellow. The difference is that we are looking for a students willingness to have a go and spirit. This means that on the day your grading pass or fail isn't down to how many people turn up who are smaller/weaker than you.

If a student finds that he loves competition then I would suggest that he joined a BJA club, but I would also point out the possible down side, which tends to be injury and sometimes frustration. Highly competitive Judo Clubs tend to favour those who win and show promise at higher levels, sometimes this means that lower grades don't always get the support they need to enjoy Judo and end up giving up, both sport and martial art.

I don't believe personally that there is anything wrong with sports Judo, if it hadn't come about, Judo would probably have still been a minority martial art. I do believe that some of the attitudes and attitudes forced on local Judo Clubs, by the governing bodies, both BJA and BJC, cause more harm than good. I feel that students should be able to practice at other clubs, without being afraid of there governing body finding out and expelling them.

As you move up the grades and hopefully achieve your Black belt, you will hopefully find that other martial art have a lot to offer, which can be fed back into your Judo. I also would ask you to keep an open mind. I have found over the years, that I have learnt more from my student's than I have taught them.

In Budo

John Very Happy

Newbie Joined: Apr 15, 2007 Posts: 2

thankyou for answering my question. to be honest your idea of how to practice judo is a lot like my club where we start with simple throws and practice them until they are good enough, we then move onto harder ones.
we dont just learn throws for a fight and then forget them.
I think that zen judo would really help someone who is preparing for their bja theory exams and i understand the sport a lot more now.

wren

Guest

First, I'll admit that the concept of ZenJudo is relatively new to me. Until last year I had been out of active Judo for nearly 10 years, so those fads and fashions that came about in my absence are still foreign to me.

I'm struck, however, by Sensei's comment that competitive judo schools tend to favor (forgive my American spellings) the more promising students, leaving the lower grades without support. This rather flippant generalization implies that only Zen Judo schools care about their students.

I have no reason to doubt yours or any else's sincerity in wanting to support your students and promote the sport. I do, however, take umbridge at the idea that the care of the new judoka is relegated to only zen-judo. As a sensei who emphasizes Jigoro Kano's maxims in every aspect of his class, I feel you've unfairly compared apples to oranges.

Let me explain further. If I witness a man murdering a woman, does that indict the entire male population for murder? Certainly within a population, let's say "all judoka," there is room for a few bad fruit? Does the existence of those bad apples mean that we're all bad? Of course not.

In this way, I think it is unfair to generally indict "competition judo" for individual's bad behavior (especially when the purpose of that generalization is the rationalization your own doctrine).

--I saw a man in blue get arrested for robbery. Certainly, I shall never wear blue again.

Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2007 19:42

[quote="AubieSensei"]I'm struck, however, by Sensei's comment that competitive judo schools tend to favor (forgive my American spellings) the more promising students, leaving the lower grades without support. This rather flippant generalization implies that only Zen Judo schools care about their students.

In this way, I think it is unfair to generally indict "competition judo" for individuals bad behavior (especially when the purpose of that generalization is the rationalization your own doctrine).[/quote]

Welcome to the Forum AubieSensei. I don't wish to get into a general slanging match. Not enough hours in the day at present.
Sad

I felt I should point out the term used in the original post of
tend to favour . I think its only human nature that a highly competitive club with probably limited time and resources will tend to concentrate on those students who show promise. If as you say you spend more time coaching the less able, then you will agree with me that to help a less gifted student to reach their potential, takes a lot more time, resources and patience.

I don't feel any need to rationalization my own doctrine as you put it. In general most martial artists I have come into contact with have been friendly and open minded. One of the main concepts in all martial arts is to remain flexible and open to new possibilities, as soon as you loose this ability, and start to believe that your way is the only way your training will never progress in any martial art.

In Budo

John