JUDO FOR LIFE

DISCIPLINE AND PERSEVERANCE

Hello friends readers of the magazine "El Camino"

Good start to the year everyone! In this first note of 2023, we will address the issue of Rational Personal Defense, or any other denomination (of the many that exist), to identify these actions, 1st. Part:

It is a very vast and sensitive subject, and in each culture they appear from antiquity to our days, paintings, frescoes and engravings, representing different forms of combat with weapons or without them, and many of them, became today, in sports activities and other they maintained a more warrior spirit.

In many cases, they tried to maintain the martial tradition (especially in Asia), honoring theorigins and the characters that created or developed them. In these, one observes the accompaniment of the physical part, with philosophical concepts for learning towards the growth as a human being.

Nowadays, the sporting aspect is the one that has worldwide diffusion and for which it is known tosome of these "Martial Arts" and "Combat Sports", the live television of one of the most watched international events (Olympic Games) and the biggest business in sponsorships, retransmissions, advertisements and creation of images, makes almost all have ever seen something of Judo, Karate, Taekwon-Do, Fighting, Boxing, since they form part of the Olympic family.

We can also see live (in Judo), National and South American championships, Pan American, Official International, and World Cups. Massive training sessions, courses online, constantly updating, etc. Something unthinkable years ago and thanks to technology, we enjoy all over the world. And just as we enjoy state-of-the-art technology and see how everything evolves, we must think that what the martial traditions of long ago bequeathed to us and that many have as something immovable, it must also have another approach, which allows my adaptability to thecurrent circumstances!

Those circumstances that have changed (in the aggressor and the victim), can be: the physical stateand psychological, the weapons used, the ways of moving around, the clothing, the surfaces onthat we move, the objective of the attack received, legal responsibility, compliance withauthority and taking responsibility for the consequences of my actions. Of course, they are just a list, where you can enter more changes that have occurred, from a long time ago, until our days. Let's go back less than two hundred years ago, in Japan. The Samurai was the stereotype of the "Special Forces Command" today. Fierce warriors created in a scheme that does not changed (armor, weapons and combat strategies, which stagnated over time) and at the same time deal with firearms and different attack and defense schemes in the field of battle, they succumbed. And when the Samurai in Japan, he had to stop using his edged weapons in his daily life, he began the change, which not everyone could accept or adapt to. Specifically in Judo, there are Katas (pre-established forms), which are calledself defense, which were created in the 19th century, (as the Kime no Kata, in 1888) and thelast created after the death of Jigoro Kano (1860-1938), the Goshin Jitsu, in 1956, wheretechniques of blows, throws, strangulations and dislocations are observed, as a response toattacks with bare hands, dagger, medium stick and pistol. A necessary modernization, in that era! Imagine now, if it will be necessary! I have studied Katas for years and they are an excellent means of learning techniques and defenses, counterattacks, combinations, displacements, etc. They are a guide to what is can do, represented in certain specific techniques. From constant repetition, the choreography that we see in exhibitions, exams and championships is produced. Always the same attacks, the same responses, the same forms of displacement, for the same side, the same targets for attack and the same responses. It's not that it's wrong, but we must remember that, they are only a guide of what we can do!

When I study and practice Judo, Jiu Jitsu or other martial arts and dedicate myself to developing the sports part, we already saw in previous notes, everything that I have to fine-tune, up to the fatigue, all the effort and sacrifice, to obtain a victory, a medal, a record!

What I know as a competitor can help me a lot in a self defense situation. Since I have experience in sports confrontations against others of similar characteristics than I If I were a non-competitive practitioner, I would also be qualified to deal with specific risk situations. But if I studied, practiced, specialized in that specific area within martial arts, combat sports and systems of combat, I would begin to discover a new reality, quite different from the fantasy that sometimes presents itself to us.

The above example works for anyone and can get you out of a high-stress situation, and perhaps without endangering our physical and/or moral integrity, or that of who accompanies me. But in the event that he had to face these facts, on an almost daily basics or professionally, for integrating security, police or military bodies, security guards, safety, etc., must be prepared mentally, physically, technically, tactically. Knowing that when wearing a uniform or being in a certain place, may be the object of attacks that should be controlled as quickly as possible, before go to another level of violence.

A good constant training in situations of violence will help me when the time comes to use my knowledge and adapt to any situation that arises.

The mere fact of attending a selfdefense seminar, once a year or every two years, does not qualify me for anything, when I have to use real defenses, in places that are not the friendly, nor companions that will not harm me. Of course, I'll have a better idea of whatto do, compared to those who never trained or attended any training of this type.

But attending regular classes, serious study, constant training and contact with specialized people, will be fundamental in the mental change, on which the other valences!

For example, in Judo you learn and train with Judogi (the Judo uniform), designed for support grabs, pulls, etc., and they teach me from the beginning, to unbalance the partner, taking in the first instance, from a sleeve and a lapel, marking well the direction of the imbalance, before getting the technique right to throw him to the ground. When I master those grips, I must begin to change them, to grip differently, to push it, to bring it on me, to make him spin, not to let him settle, not to let him balance his steps, to enter not only an attack technique, but to be combining more than one, to counterattack their techniques, continue with techniques in the same direction or in logical and contrary directions, to stop their intentions and to impose myself on him. Giving it against the ground, applying dislocation techniques, immobilizations and strangulations (these would be actions within the sports framework permitted).

These sequences are logical in the tactics and strategy to be developed in sports combats, but for that person who wants or needs something more, I teach similar actions, but now without the jacket, that he has nowhere to grab the strong fabric of the Judogi, and must take from the arms, the wrists, the neck, the waist, the legs and to try to end the combat as much as possible. Soon as possible. Up to here practically, we started from hand to hand (zero distance), now I make the opponent try to hit me or grab me and at that moment, I must redirect his blow or nullify his hold, I must disengage from a lock or strangulation attempt, i must learn to hit, where to hit, what to hit with, how to hit.

Now I begin to see that there are too many things to learn and improve, there are more things points that we learn in the combat systems whose teachings are directed to the immediacy of the problem! But as I said before, if I am left alone with what I saw in the seminar and I do not practice it or modify it, or test it, or do the minimum to maintain a reasonable physical/technical condition... what I have learned will not really help me, fault of the seminary? From the instructor in charge? No, my fault for not being professional!

After taking off my Judo jacket, I blindfold myself and work handto-hand, enhancing my tactile sensitivity, standing, or on the ground. What we see in the movies blocking blows or redirecting them while blindfolded, it's fantasy! If you don't have contact with the body of the other, you won't even find out how they hit you! Learn to throw the other, hit, dislocate, strangle, immobilize, reduce, control, drive, it seems like a lot, but there is more, and that is where weapons come in, the tools used to attack and to defend, to cause pain, to incapacitate, to end a life! And today, we see another daily reality on the news, the bad guys always have weapons and don't they hesitate to use them. Knowing something is always better than knowing nothing.