Tuesday 1 July 03

First practice after the Kent open,

A few faces were missing from the tatami notably the team in Japan. We eagerly await the return of our fighters, namely Danny Murphy, Harriet English and Danny Gillard. We hope they return safely and soon. Other fighters missing from the mat are James McNeilly, Tim Slyfield and Andrew Pragnell. Andy suffered an injury during the Kent Open so he will not be around for a while. Andy you still owe me a drink I know you took my Lucozade and half my Redbull.

Everyone should remember that I am just the messenger I am not the author of some of the things mentioned in Sam’s corner. I will obviously give my opinion on some things such as Kata or technical practice or women but these are the things I have always tried to get to kumikata with. Those of you, who don’t know what kumikata is will not get that joke but it was very funny, trust me. Anyway, where is all this going? I will pass on to the greater Budokwai family comments made by others either in confidence or in conversation. But don’t worry everybody that doesn’t mean that you have to avoid talking to me because I’ll be the resident bigmouth. I will only write that which is meant for the wider audience.

So, with the get-out clause out the way I’ll begin to libel myself.

I spoke to Syd (Hachidan) before the renshu. Syd mentioned that he would like to see a technical practice session for the intermediates such as myself who aren’t really honing our skills as yet because we don’t have any to speak of. The tachi-waza randori is good for the advance judoka but not so beneficial for the new black belts. It makes sense because it will only develop bad habits when fighting in competition. An example would be throwing someone and the shimpan awards a waza-ari when it might have been an ippon. Tachi-randori will inadvertently teach you to let up and not go in for the kill, staying with uke and following up to the ground to get the Osaekomi, Kansetsu or Shime-waza. Conversely, it will be the same if you have been thrown and you think that it is all over. When in fact it was only a waza-ari or yuko. You could have continued to the ground and won the fight. Strange Judo (jujutsu) is the only martial art that fights in transition between the two states so missing this advantage can be crucial.

Anyway good to see Nat haunting the club even though she wasn’t able to train. Hugh is now a regular on the mat after a long absence from practice. Nick Collins seemed to be having a good time all by himself. Someone must have unplugged him from the matrix or is he just unplugged in the real world. Glad to see Andreas hasn’t found a new song to sing or whistle. Beautiful Judo, not so beautiful voice.  Andreas we love you.

I’ll take this opportunity to say good luck to those travelling to West Asia for the European B tournament in Istanbul, Turkey. Strange, why they should hold a European tournament in West Asia, mm! So Good luck Jimmy, Winnie and Simon, bring back the medals. Even though technically Winnie isn’t ours it doesn’t matter and come to think of it neither is Simon. I am not sure whether Eric is going out there maybe someone could clarify. Good luck to all the English Judokas going out there.

Not forgetting the achievements of our up and coming judokas. David achieved his blue belt on Sunday, congratulations. Someone else had a good result Sunday but I didn’t catch his or her name.  Please if there are any errors please let me know or if there is anything that needs to be mentioned again please stop me and tell me. Nothing is too small or too big. You can leave a note in the office with the lovely Grace. She won’t pass it on; as she hates me, so better still just find Diana or myself. Not really!

Will someone please let me know anything that happens with the junior judo, as I don’t have any real contact with it? Again, any information is good information.

Ray, can we have some prizes to give away in a competition? Everyone is reading this Ray. So make your answer the right one, you know it makes sense.

Just for the record when we line up at the end of renshu Peter Blewett, as chief instructor, should not be referred to as sensei but as Shihan. So the call should be announced as, “Moksoh, yame shihan ne-rei”, in oppose to “Moksoh, yame sensei ne-rei. Shihan means just that chief instructor, whereas sensei is just teacher.     

Sam    

British Judo: jigotai against the future

No doubt that we (the British) are a proud lot and have much to be proud of. The Industrial Revolution, football and many other things our ancestors either made or invented. But none of these things would be possible if the authors of these benchmarks in British history squabbled over this, that and everything they could. Imagine the Germans won the Second World War because the allies argued, yes unimaginable. Not the fact that we would have lost but the fact that we could have lost due to the bickering of our leaders. So why is it that so many of our great institutions are found wanting for the same kind of solid leadership and direction that our nation is so famous for?

Judo came to Europe in 1899 in the form of a team of Ju jutsu masters. Among them was Yukio Tani. It wasn’t really until Gunji Koizui came to England that it was really established. The first club was our very own the Budokwai. (I am sure that it should be spelt Budokai). Anyway, Koizumi helped create the British judo Association after the War. The BJA came into existence on 24^th July 1948 for the benefit of judo as a martial art, sport and recreation. Trevor Leggett was the first Chairman of the BJA. At this point the aim is clear and the vision is tangible. So, where did it go wrong? I am not sure when or how but what I am trying to establish is that whatever it is, it is still eating away at our sub-conscience to this very day. 

In England there are still many different associations and organisations. I dare say there are still yet more in Scotland and Wales. Just to name a couple such as the Amateur Judo Association, British Judo Council. During the 1950’s, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s there was a power struggle that as we know the BJA won and was recognised as the governing body for British Judo in Britain. The Tug of War between the BJA and the BJC was very acrimonious as were the other bodies. This struggle for power was endemic and nearly defined Judo of the 60’s and 70’s. There are many examples of the competitions being held and judoka just wanting to take part in their sport would arrive to find that they weren’t allowed to fight because their grade wasn’t recognised by a particular governing body. Ok there will be those who will say that there are insurance reasons and safety reasons why this happened. Sorry, rubbish!!!! It was about money and control, nothing else. “I will not recognise your grade because I can’t make any money out of you.” Well this is not what they said but it is implied in the excuse given. The problem has only just resolved itself now that the BJC has become a total affiliate member of the BJA and the other clubs that surrendered their autonomy to either of the big organisations before the merger. This from a pure Judo perspective was nonsense but if you are a businessperson concerned only with money profits and bodies on the mat then it meant everything, it was judo itself. “ No money, no judo.”  The facts are simple judo must be one of the cheapest sports to take part in. All you need is a judogi and others in a judogi. I know this is a crude example but the truth cannot be denied. So why have we not been as successful as other sports in Britain?

The Brits are known for their quaint traditions and gentleman’s clubs and societies. We have a society for nearly every different thing you can imagine. We are an island of individuals. Maybe it is something in our make up that makes us fight over things. Our ancestors fought over land and titles; our ancient ancestors fought each other. The Angles, Vikings, Saxons and Jutes fought each other until they were bored of fighting. So it could be our genetic make up that predisposes us to this habitual in fighting. No, I don’t think so either. I just think it is pure and utter lust for good old power and money, pathetic!

Right, so what are the results of all this selfish lust for power and money? Well one obvious result is that we are behind the rest of Europe in Judo terms by at least 20 years. Well I was going to list the rest but I would assume that being behind by at least twenty years was enough, but I’ll go on. We don’t speak with one voice and even now the BJA has won the struggle there are still other societies and organisations that have stayed deliberately outside mainstream judo because of the lack of tradition and the in-fighting among other reasons that plague British judo’s official representative. If British judo had not quarrelled itself into a time warp we could have excelled Judo in this country to a greater status than we have now, minority sport. Yes I hate the phrase as well but it’s the truth. Unlike our French cousins who do speak with one voice, we were too busy trying to advance individual personalities and societies than we were propagating judo and its values. I make no apology for sounding idealistic and naïve but I suppose it was the same idealism and naivety that brought judo to Europe and the rest of the world. Kano’s dream and idealism must have been intoxicating. Maybe if we (they) had accepted that judo is the raison d’etre and that everything else is secondary we might not be in this judo Jurassic age. Had we (they) got our act together sooner we might have been able to channel all of our energy in the same direction. Not to mention the fact that others watching us might treat us with greater respect, maybe even taken us seriously. We might have been able to campaign in the early days of the state school development to have a greater influence in their sport and physical education. Who knows whether any of this is just conjecture or whether it would have been true. I wonder what Kano would have thought just before he decided to create a better style of Jujutsu. Vision is not what you see but what you want to see.

We have clubs outside the British Judo Association and outside the BJC. They are what we might call grassroots independents. Why are they outside the ‘system?’ I won’t bore you by going over the same ground as above. The problem is why they won’t get involved in the system. British Judo should not be so arrogant as to say that it is not their problem or as myopic in thinking they will not be affected.  The problem is that we might have another Adams or Randall. I mention our male champions and not the female success because it seems that success is something our women have got down to a fine art. Our males, as in our schools, are failing they, need help.

Anyway, if we don’t make our judo in this country a single entity then we will still be considered a minority sport. The maxim holds true ‘unity is power.’ Numbers are also power and if we were a unified body we could demand a better deal from central government and a better financial deal from sponsors and even television rights. I do hope that those of you who are reading this don’t think this is just a pipe dream because I wouldn’t like to remind you of the French example, which isn’t a million miles away. France has judo on their satellite television and terrestrial. Well, it makes me almost want to say if you lot had done your homework, you could have made real money had you put your heads together earlier. 

Now I’ll take the time to justify why I threw in all the history at the beginning. We are (supposed to be) the Japan of Europe. We had the first Judoka here in England and the links with Japan. Kano studied English language and culture at university. Our country had the head start we needed to infiltrate mainstream culture. Things could have been a lot different. Imagine this scenario. 10:30am English, 11:30am Biology, 12:30pm Break time, 1:30pm double period Judo. There are thousands upon thousands of British children who have done judo at one time or another so the interest is there. The problem being that we don’t have the infrastructure to encourage return or retention, which is more important.

“The future is that which we make it;” I think the saying goes. So what can we (BJA) do to put British Judo back on the pathway to success and true prosperity? Well we can start by arranging a system of inclusion of the current non-affiliated clubs that plod along doing their own thing. If there is a way we can bring them in out of the cold in a way that does not affect their financial freedom and gives them help and doesn’t dictate to them it might just work. Affiliated does not mean, “you give me all the money and we’ll give you a badge. Clubs live on the weekly subs that are paid to the club and other events that raise money I don’t see why there isn’t a club levy which is paid by individual clubs to an umbrella organisation, such as the BJA, that then gives the members all the rights and protection for competitions. This way it would give the BJA access to all the potential best un-tapped young talent in the country plus individual members would have the access to the greater British Judo family. I hear you say that different clubs will have different standards. Good chant I say but that wouldn’t be a problem. Here are the scenarios: if a club has a standard that is too low the members would soon find that they will not be very competent against other judokas. If someone doesn’t want to compete then it will not matter, they can treat it as a sport or just a recreation after work or school. It will only matter if the judoka wants to compete. Also I suggest that it will drive up standards nationally. Why? Because when instructors are aware that they have to send their students out to the wider judo world to compete then the club will be on display. In a free market judo world the week instructors will only last as long as they have been sussed out. So it will drive out the poor instructors and drive up the standards. Also it will diversify our aims. We will have to include other ways of grading instead of just shiai. We could include kata, which the BJA have recently re-introduced; to what extent we don’t know. It will not just be shiai dominated it will have to listen to all the areas of judo and their specialisation. A real Broad Church. This kind of organisation will demand to be heard and listened to.

This is only an idea but it could be a reality. I hope the future resembles something like the above. We have all heard at one time or another the chant of a good sensei; “turn-in take a chance give up the jigotai position who’ll never learn anything if you don’t try.” We must release ourselves from that stiff past and relax our tired example, which is stuck in jigotai. We can only learn if we have a supple body, which allows movement. Only when we have a supple body can we then begin to do judo.