KAIZEN
Sept. 14, 2015
By Steve Scott

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www.WelcomeMatJudoClub.com

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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.