KAIZEN
Sept. 29, 2015
By Steve Scott

MATSIDE COACHING
     One thing is for sure and that is the fact that I coached a lot of athletes at matside in my long career as a coach, from local tournaments to World Championships. In this video (close to an hour in length), I present 22 different areas of advice that I learned along the way.
     Shown below are some photos from my coaching career that might be interesting to you.

(Photo above) This is me coaching at matside in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1988 with the U.S. Under 21 Judo Team. Look at the stopwatch in my right hand. We won quite a few gold medals in that tournament including Jimmy Pedro's gold medal at 65 kg.

(Photo above) The team photograph of the 1990 U.S. Team at the World Judo Championships for Under 21 in Dijon, France. Becky Scott was the Women's Coach and Jim Pedro, Sr. and I were the Men's Coaches. I think we had 4 of these athletes go on the be members of the U.S. Olympic Judo Team.

(Photo above) Becky Scott getting her hand raised by the referee after winning the World Sambo Championship in 1983 in Madrid, Spain.

(Photo above)  Becky and I with the team trophy for 3rd place in an international judo tournament in Lille, France in 1987. We were the coaches for the U.S. Judo Team. Welcome Mat Coach Ken Brink was on that team and won a bronze medal in the 86 kg. weight class.

(Photo above) The U.S. Team at the World High School Judo Championships in Tokyo, Japan in 1990. Welcome Mat athlete Joe Roberts is standing at left in the photo and I am standing at right.

(Photo above)  Steve Scott (left), Bob Corwin (center) and Gunter Neureuther (West Germany) at the 1992 World Judo Championships for Under 21 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Bob and I were the U.S. Team Coaches and Gunter was the West German Team Coach and was an Olympic and World Medal Winner as well.

(Photo above) I was training in Mexico at the Mexican Olympic Training Center in 1983 with Rene Pommerelle and the Mexican National Men's Judo Team. This is a photo taken before a workout. Rene is standing, fourth from left and I am in the center.

(Photo above)  Team Manager Ralph Reyes (right) and me at Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin, Germany. This photo was taken in 1987 when we were in East Germany training and for a tournament. Those were the days when there was an East Germany (Communist) and a West Germany (Free) and the Berlin Wall separated Berlin into East and West. I can tell you, life in West Berlin was a whole lot better than life in East Berlin.

(Photo above) The official team photo taken at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado of the 1983 U.S. Women's Sambo Team that competed in the Pan American Games in Caracas, Venezuela. This was one of the best teams I ever coached. We won 4 gold and 6 silver medals in 10 weight classes.









    

KAIZEN
Sept. 25, 2015
By Steve Scott

UCHI MATA
     I used to be a boxer-not a good one, but I did have quite a few amateur fights. Lack of talent and a modicum of common sense (although not much of that) convinced me to stay in the grappling sports. Glad I did.
     But, one thing good that came from my boxing career is noticing the commonalities in boxing and judo.
     For instance, I always looked at an Uchi Mata in Judo in the same way boxers look at a straight right hand punch. The straight right is a mainstay of the sport and is used by boxers in every weight class. Uchi Mata is a mainstay of the sport and used by athletes in every weight class as well. The straight right hand is a "classic" boxing move and Uchi Mata is a "classic" judo move.
     Since Uchi Mata is to judo what the straight right is to boxing, Seoi Nage (especially Knee Drop Seoi Nage) is the left hook. In boxing, there are guys who are left hook specialists. Most notably Joe Frazier, Mike Tyson and Miguel Cotto. In judo, there are Seoi Nage specialists and I always looked at the Seoi Nage specialists in the same way boxers look at the left hook specialist.
     Of course, there are the boxers who can deliver a straight right and left hook with equal ability just like there are judoka who can deliver an Uchi Mata and Seoi Nage with equal ability.
     Foot Sweeps in judo are like the left jab in boxing. They set up an opponent for the big bang. Don't get me wrong, a left jab is a devastating weapon, just like a foot sweep has been used in judo. A foot sweep can produce a big boom and get the Ippon, just like a straight left can put an opponent down in boxing.
     Also, boxers and judoka move in similar ways. Look at how graceful a boxer moves. Not graceful in a dance-like way, but in a deliberate, effective way just like a judoka does. No wasted movement and everything is functional. Additionally, a boxer must have an upright and good posture in order to effectively move and deliver his punches. Same with a judo athlete.  Good posture is essential to success in both sports. Boxing has its own version of Taisabaki, Shisei and Shintai. They may not have Japanese terms like we do in judo, but they are there just the same.
     Maybe these musings aren't great revelations or much of anything else, but they do provide some thought on how good movement is good movement in any sport.


UCHI MATA-4 VARIATIONS VIDEO
     Along this line of thought, I put together a video showing four different applications of Uchi Mata. It's posted above. Obviously, there are other ways of doing this classic throw, but here are four that might be interesting to you.

YOUTUBE CHANNEL
     Be sure to subscribe to my Youtube channel at www.youtube./user/welcomematstevescott

AAU JUDO
     The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) has the best practice and tournament insurance for judo that I know of. The membership year for AAU runs Sept. 1 through Aug. 31 each year, so please sign up and if you are a coach, sign your club up as well. Membership is really a good deal and we need more AAU Judo clubs so we can have more AAU Judo tournaments-both Freestyle Judo and using the Standard AAU Judo rules.
     To sign up, go to www.AAUSports.org.
    

 

Kaizen Sept. 20, 2015 Kuzushi Tsukuri Kake and Kime Elements of Success

KAIZEN
Sept. 20, 2015
By Steve Scott

THE ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS
     I'll let the video above do the talking for me on this blog post. The very real theories of Kuzushi, Tsukuri, Kake and Kime are discussed. The videos below shows these theories in action. Several basic foot sweeps are presented. in the first video and some effective drills are presented in the second.
     Keep training and best wishes.

KAIZEN
Sept. 14, 2015
By Steve Scott

My web pages;

www.WelcomeMatJudoClub.com

www.ShingitaiJujitsu.info

www.FreestyeJudo.info

www.FreestyleJudo.org

www.WelcomeMatTrainingCenter.com

www.WelcomeMatStore.com


AN AGGRESSIVE DEFENSE WILL WIN MATCHES

     One of the most neglected aspects of training is defense. All sports have some element of defense so that the player or fighter can survive an opponent's attack and come back to counter-attack. And, while defense is an integral part of any judo, sambo or jujitsu match, it's more often than not the most neglected aspect of training.
     My belief is that defense should be aggressive-yes, aggressive. If you've seen my video on kobo ichi, you know what I mean. The concept of kobo ichi affirms that every match or fight has an ebb and flow to it where attack and defense take place in a linked or continuous pattern. Interjected between the attack and defense sequences, there often is a "null" period where there is either no activity or there is a scramble between the grapplers in an effort to regain control. These "scramble" situations are well-named; they are a scramble where neither fighter has the advantage and attempts to gain the advantage over his opponent.
     In any event, the constant movement of who will dominate and exert control over the opponent is what makes a fight a "fight." Because of this, it's fundamentally important for a grappler to know how he/she can best defend himself in order to initiate a counter-attack and again dominate and control his opponent.
     The video above shows a hip block and cut-away. Watch it and look at how the defender stops the momentum of the attacker and immediately regains his balance, distance and position to re-establish himself as a threat to his opponent. A hip block defense is an aggressive defense. In other words, this method of defending against an opponent's attack immediately allows the defender to re-set and launch an attack of his own. This is what kobo ichi is about-attack and defense are on in the same.
     From my observation, most defensive movements used in judo and sambo are the "hop around" type where the defender literally hops around the attacker's body to avoid the throw. This works, but it also does not stop (or even nullify) the attacker's momentum. The best-and most aggressive-defense is to do a hip block, cut-away from the attacker and immediately attack with your own throw (or other move.)
     This is what I mean by aggressive defense.

     "A good part of winning is not getting beat."  John Saylor

     My books COACHING ON THE MAT covers this pretty well, but my later book WINNING ON THE MAT covers the entire subject of defense more comprehensively. There are numerous (what I call) "lines" of defense and in WINNING ON THE MAT, there are good photographs from actual judo matches along with commentary on each one. The subject of defense is covered in other books, but I'm not sure if any cover it in-depth as I did in these two books. No brag, it's simply a true statement that like a lot of people, a lot of books tend to ignore the subject of defense.
     So, watch the video posted along with this article. In it, I discuss how to drill on hip block and cut-away defense in a realistic and applicable way as to what actually takes place in a match. My advice is to actively drill on defense as often as possible, if not every workout. I visited Ken Brink's Saturday workout this past week and he used this drill as a normal part of his training for his team.  By drilling on defense, and drilling on it so that excellent skill is exhibited and executed during the drill training in practice, this becomes a reflexive or automatic response on the part of the athlete and he/she will develop and use an aggressive defense as part of his overall style of fighting.


YOUTUBE CHANNEL

     Be sure to visit and subscribe to my Youtube channel at;

http://www.youtube.com/user/welcomematstevescott

      It's free and there are over 600 videos on a variety of technical skills.


SOME WORDS OF WISDOM

     "In this age of criticism and new ideas, for any teaching to have effect, it must have behind it some indubitable reason of fact. Whatever one affirms must be based on facts or reasoning which no sane person can deny or doubt."          Jigoro Kano, 1932


SOME INFORMATION ABOUT RANDORI

Randori; "to take freedom of action." Now, randori is known as "free practice" and used as a standard part of training in Judo.
     Ran; disorder, riot, freedom
     Dori; to take, fetch, put in place
     When Jigoro Kano studied Kito-ryu Jujutsu, he was exposed to what was called "ran o toru" in the Kito-ryu training. Basically, this was what Prof. Kano later introduced into his new Kodokan school as "randori."
     Randori is a match (a match is a "shobu" or contest). It's training and it should be structured so that the athletes doing it gain more technical or tactical skill. Much like a boxer uses a sparring session or when a powerlifter or weightlifter "max out" a judo, sambo, jujitsu, MMA or submission grappling athlete should use randori. It's controlled, has a purpose and should be safe. It's not a time for the tough guys in the gym to beat up on the not-so-tough guys in the gym.

     "There are no winners or losers during training. It's training. Period."   AnnMaria DeMars

     Okay, that's about it for this Kaizen installment. Keep tuning in to my Youtube page. As always, thanks for your support.





KAIZEN BLOG
     Okay, I've joined the 21st Century and started a blog. It was yesterday that Derrick Darling congratulated me for making a real effort to embrace new computer technology. I'm still not on facebook (and have no plans on getting on it-so that's technology that I'm not embracing) but doing a blog might be a good vehicle for the Kaizen online coaching program. So, for now let's see how this goes.
     Actually, this will be mostly a video blog and the videos that are posted will do the talking for me. If something needs to be added, I will. But for the most part, a new video will be posted on a (somewhat) regular basis. Please continue to go to my Youtube channel at http://youtube.com/user/welcomematstevescott and if you haven't subscribed yet, please do so. It's free.
     The video on Transitions will start us out on this new blog format. Actually, "blog" is a strange word and takes some getting used to on my part. But, as Derrick said, I'm embracing new technology-at least new for me.
    Enjoy the video.