40 days of sadness (oh, really)

Notice: this blog (as well as almost all my other online activities) will cease for 40 days (or at least 20 before i sneak online perhaps from the school cyber cafe. This is not a routine excercise. I repeat, this is not a routine excercise....

Well, whatever. With slipping grades and an over-hectic life, i guess it would be pretty good (don't think about the spam, don't think about the spam...) if i just cut off my internet activities for awhile. It's from a little booklet delivered at my church: 40 days of fast and prayer. So, not only do i get to cement myself in reality, i'll test myself in a very weird way. Frankly i've no idea how i'd react to 40 days without the com (i generally go online about twice a week, and that's about it) and i've come up with two possible scenarios:

A, I don't even crave for it, since i'm already so busy; and grow closer to God,

or

B, I tie myself to a chair and erect a plaster wall around my PC to prevent temptation from seeping through, and try to convince a judge to give me a restraining order. Oh, and grow closer to God.

B is a little too crazy, but you never know ... Anyways, this means you people out there so intent on finding out how life is over here [read: Karl (he just returned from a holiday in Kuching), Amanda (campus life), and Aldrin (normal blog reading rounds)] better count my blog out from their bookmarks for awhile.

And wish me luck.

To the terrorists behind the London bombings.

The Stolen Child

ai
Originally uploaded by shadowsun7.

By William Butler Yeats

Where dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake,
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake
The drowsy water-rats;
There we've hid our faery vats,
Full of berries
And of reddest stolen cherries.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can
understand.

Where the wave of moonlight glosses
The dim grey sands with light,
Far off by furthest Rosses
We foot it all the night,
Weaving olden dances,
Mingling hands and mingling glances
Till the moon has taken flight;
To and fro we leap
And chase the frothy bubbles,
While the world is full of troubles
And is anxious in its sleep.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can
understand.

Where the wandering water gushes
From the hills above Glen-Car,
In pools among the rushes
That scarce could bathe a star,
We seek for slumbering trout
And whispering in their ears
Give them unquiet dreams;
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Over the young streams.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can
understand.

Away with us he's going,
The solemn-eyed:
He'll hear no more the lowing
Of the calves on the warm hillside
Or the kettle on the hob
Sing peace into his breast,
Or see the brown mice bob
Round and round the oatmeal-chest.
For he comes, the human child,
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
From a world more full of weeping than he can
understand.

Random Poster 

Dear Diary

Dear diary,

I am resorting to this innocent form of writing, mainly because i wish i can downsize and be the boy that didn't know better about the world. Okay, let's see.

The whole staffroom hates us. 4s1, i mean. My class is suddenly the gossip station for teachers near and far. They think we're lazy, ungrateful wretches. Which we are not. I mean, look at this. i told Cikgu Jennifer that i'm not supposed to join debate, but after a few unfortunate events (which included the cyber cafe in the school), i was forced into the role. Plus i have piano exams three days from now, a rocket lauching project, 50 pages at least of add maths (4 chapters) and tuition in between. I'm gonna die.

And other people in my class are suffering - too many activities. And when we can't cope with homework, they scream.

Saturday Night Fever

The first thing that met my eyes when i rang the dojo's bell was the sight of Vincent opening the door, and a cat (yes, a cat!) lazing contentedly on the green tatemi mats.

"Ai, you come ke?" Vincent asked, but i had already bowed in the vague direction of the Shoman and had clambered towards the cat.

She smelled my fingers and allowed herself to be stroked gently under the chin. Vincent was pretty happy to have someone to talk to (as was i, since i didn't know who would greet me so early in the evening) and (as i suspected) the petting had to stop soon to do warm-ups.

While i was changing into my judogi, Tang came. He was much more disciplined than any of us and after passing an anime disk to Vincent he changed into his GI and started jumps. I followed suit and, for pure fun, we started practising newaza. Randori (free fight, which is free for choice of moves, but not free of bruises) was happening later that night and we were all nervous (although Vincent was injured - failed Uchimata- and was not competing), as usual.

*

Sensei briefed us through what was going to happen during the match and how the points were awarded, before letting us into the arena. I bowed, moved closer, bowed and stepped between the two markers showing the starting positions - right foot first. A lot of things in Judo relied on old samurai traditions - the right-foot-first-on-entering rule was to make sure you could draw your sword if someone attacked you while you were sitting, in the olden days, of course. Now it was just a rule, nothing more.

Anyway, back to the match.

"HAJIME!" Sensei shouted.

Both me and my opponent stared at each other stupidly.

"Start!" yelled everybody.

We slammed into each other, grabbing the collar and sleeve of the opposing person in the usual manner and immediately concentrated on footwork.People were yelling, but they seemed like buzzes in my ears, saved for Tang, who was shouting to me, "Relax man, relax!"

I immediately laxed my muscles, warily keeping an eye on his legs.

He spun, taking the position of Seoinage, but i backed off, forcing him to go back to his original position to prevent himselffrom being exposed.

I instantly cut into Osotogari, trying to hook his right leg and push him back, but i lacked the leverage - at this moment, an online article came to mind - a weird, and very useless wedge of thought squeezed in the unforgiving second, suspended in time - called 'Traditional Osotogari Doesn't Work.

I couldn't remember a word.

Damn.

He pushed, easily toppling me since i already had one leg up, and we both slammed the ground. He tried to newaza, but scrabbling for freedom, i grappled at his chest, preventing him from going into a dead pin.

"Stay there! Stay there!" Vincent and Tnag were yelling. Hell, they had more experience, so i stopped moving on the mat. Unknown to me, i had given my opponent two options:

A. Remain in that useless position
B. Let go.

He did let go, but only after Sensei yelled "Matte!"

We started again, taking starting positions and pulling and pushing wach other. My opponent spun into seoinage, but this time i sliced my foot at his to block him and swung downwards. A surge of hope filled me. He fell, but before i could get to an effecticve lock, Sensei yelled:"Matte!" again. I must've done something wrong, but my mind snapped back to the third round, not worrying about what Randori rule i broke.

This time i was tired, and was moving more wearily. "Seoinage!" Yam called out to my opponent. Even as my brain struggled to process those words, my opponent had spun around and wrapped his right arm around mine. Then the entire dojo became a blur as the familiar thrown feeling swept throught me. I landed on the mat with a sharp slap of sound, followed by my ukemi.

"IPPON!" Sensei shouted, showing my opponent had won.

We got up and bowed. Strangely i wasn't feeling the pang of failure. I was happy and strangely ready to do it again.

Defeat? Nah....

Experience.

:D 

T-bay

The thomian food fair was crazily hot, with us running around with baskets of food trying to tempt people into buying stuff that probably wouldn't move if it was sold in a stall alone. I was, unfortunately, one of the 'door to door' salesmen that were rightly treated as such.

It went pretty well, in my very humble opinion. Ours were amongst the first stall to close (which is good) with a whole horde of people buying kacang ma and ayam pansoh (which forced us, ironically, to work at selling the other less popular items, like bak cahng, for example *rolls eyes*)

There was a few weird stalls set up, like the Haunted House in one of the upper six classrooms, which promised cheap thrills, and, oh yeah, more cheap thrills. And then there was this frankly okay idea of a cool cafe, in another classroom that served up shakes with soothing music. Catch? You pay to enter. I peeked in and there were mainly couples 'paktoh-ing' with one of Dido's tunes played from a laptop.

Highlight of the day? Apart from boring myself half to death with watching Garrick playing Generals in the cybercafe, i got a free burger from Aldrin. Reason?

Helping him kirim salam to Cassandra. ;D

Traditional Osotogari Doesn't Work

osotogari
Originally uploaded by shadowsun7.

Taken from BestJudo.com
Begin in the right natural posture.

Make your opponent step forward with his right foot by pulling him gently to his right front corner. Put your left foot outside his right foot to break his balance to this right back corner by pulling him toward you with your left hand and pushing him backward with your right.

Lightly raise your right leg and swing it past your opponent's right leg. Clip his thigh hard from behind with your thigh. At the same time, pull down hard with your left hand and push toward his right back corner with your right hand.

Your Opponent's legs will fly up and he will fall directly backward.

It has long been a pet-peeve of mine that Osotogari is rarely taught as it is actually performed. All of us are familiar with the 'classical' form of the technique, as described and shown above. And as many times as we practice that form, when it's time to actually use this throw, in either randori or shiai, it's never done this way!! Interestingly enough, Osotogari is generally roughly the third leading throw used in competition, so it's not by any means a rarely used throw. And yet, it's rarely taught the way it's actually performed!

My first assertion: This 'basic' (or 'classic') form of Osotogari doesn't work. I'm fully aware that most Judoka reading the previous sentence will now think to themselves that I must know very little Judo to make a statement like that. However, Phil Porter makes a very similar statement concerning 'classical' Osotogari, so I'm in fairly good company. If you are facing someone who knows no Judo, and can be manipulated easily by you, then yes, this version of Osoto will work. But if you are attempting to make this work against either a resisting opponent, or a knowledgeable opponent, sorry, won't work.

This is rather easy to demonstrate... simply start looking for it. You'll not see it. It doesn't occur at all unless you are watching the 6-8 year old yellow belts... When you get to serious randori and shiai, the 'classical' form of Osotogari disappears completely.

Now, we saw in the above photos how Anton Geesink demonstrates and teaches Osotogari, let's examine how he performs Osotogari in competition. As you can see in this photo on the left, it would appear that Anton Geesink forgot everything he ever knew about Osotogari, since he's doing what is virtually a different throw altogether. Instead of stepping forward with his left foot, he has evidently either left it in place, or even stepped back in order to get a 45 degree 'angle of attack' on his opponent. It looks like it might even be the beginning tsukuri of Ashi Guruma, but in this form of Osotogari, uke will be thrown backward. To the right, you can see Yasuhiro Yamashita, who authored a book on Osotogari, executing the dynamic form of Osotogari. And yet, in his book on the subject, this was relegated to a couple of pages as a "variation". Then throughout the book, he taught the classical version, and all the competition photos showed the dynamic form of the technique.

One of the principles of Judo is Seiryoku Zenyo, commonly translated as "Maximum Efficiency with Minimum Effort". Another way to translate it, and a personal favorite of mine, would be "Best Use of Energy". My second assertion of this article is: The classical version of Osotogari violates the principle of Seiryoku Zenyo. Covered in detail below as I show why the classical version doesn't work.

Now, a step by step discussion of why this classical version won't work. I'm going to use the initial description of Osotogari given at the beginning of this article to make my points.

Begin in the right natural posture.
No problem yet...

Make your opponent step forward with his right foot by pulling him gently to his right front corner.
Now we have a problem... why are you going to attack the leg that has no weight on it? If you believe that you can exert enough pull later on to force uke to place his weight on his right foot, doesn't this violate the principle of maximum efficiency?

Put your left foot outside his right foot
Another huge problem... we are attempting to force uke backwards, but then we place our driving leg in the totally wrong place to exert any force! Take any six year old child, and ask him/her to push as "hard as they can" against a wall... and they will naturally assume a 45 degree 'angle of attack' against the wall. If a six year old doesn't have to be taught how to exert maximum force with minimum effort, why did we forget it? (Think about the 'driving' or rear leg of the Boxer doing a right cross, or the batter swinging the bat, or a track & field coming out of the blocks... yep, they're all at a 45 degree 'angle of attack'.)

to break his balance to this right back corner by pulling him toward you with your left hand
In order to pull downward (to set uke's weight on the leg you are attacking), you must be in a position that won't allow you to exert any force to the rear... you must be 'even' with, or slightly behind uke's vertical line. This particular 'pull' must accomplish more here than in the version which follows. Here the pull must actively set uke's weight on his right leg, in the version which follows, the pull merely keeps the already existing weight in place. Which is a more efficient use of force?

and pushing him backward with your right.
With what force? You are pushing against what? Try stepping right up to a heavy filing cabinet, and see how far you can push it. Then set one or both feet behind you at a 45 degree angle, and see how much easier the task is. Maximum Efficiency with Minimum Effort is a very real principle that can accomplish things if followed...

Lightly raise your right leg and swing it past your opponent's right leg.
Raise your leg while you are standing on one foot? I sure hope you succeeded in offbalancing uke to the rear, cause if you didn't, you're about to take a nasty fall. In the more dynamic form of Osotogari, you'll also raise your leg, but your path to the ground is blocked by uke.

Clip his thigh hard from behind with your thigh
Attacking the leg that has only as much of uke's weight on it as you've managed to pull onto it. If you've failed to pull enough weight onto it, you are about to take a nasty fall.

At the same time, pull down hard with your left hand
As above, this is only possible if you are in the wrong position to deliver effective backward force. The amount of pull required is greater here in this version than in the more effective version. What's more efficient?

and push toward his right back corner with your right hand.
Which is at best, weak, and at worst, not possible. Notice, that in the classical version, the pushing and pulling is done with your hands, whereas in the more effective version, the pulling is still done with one hand, but the pushing is done with your whole body, driving off a strongly set leg. What's more efficient?

Your Opponent's legs will fly up and he will fall directly backward
You will remain standing, which won't happen in the dynamic form of Osotogari. And in order to remain standing, and to execute this classical version, you have completely failed to deliver the force needed, at the appropriate locations, with maximum efficiency. It is also very easy to resist this classical version. So easy, in fact, that this classical version is never seen against a knowledgeable, resisting opponent.

Now, on to the dynamic, better way to do Osotogari, staying within the principles of Judo.

First, let me identify the basic elements that will be important.

1. We want to attack the leg which has the majority of the weight already on it. Generally, this means you'll attack the rear leg, and in general, against a right-handed opponent, this means his left leg. (Although I'll give a right side example.)

2. We will want to have a 45 degree 'angle of attack'. This means that instead of stepping forward into your uke, your first step will more than likely be backward. This is the largest difference between the two types, and the one most easily recognized. There have been those who believe that this doesn't predate 'Olympic' Judo, but here's a series of photos from 1905 showing a large space between the driving leg and attacked leg: Old Osotogari Not much of a 45 degree angle, but certainly not the current practice of putting tori's left foot next to, and alongside uke's right foot.

3. Instead of pushing with the right hand, we will be 'setting' our entire forearm into uke's chest. This creates a solid 'connection' between uke and the forward momentum of our whole body. Much more effective than 'pushing' with the right hand!

4. And... somewhat more 'esoteric', this is a 'driver', not a 'roller' throw (See anything by Geof Gleeson or Phil Porter on these concepts). Your attack will not be from the front of uke towards uke's back, but from uke's side to his other side.

To put this effective version of Osoto Gari together, you'll wait until uke has stepped backward with his right foot... at that time, you'll step backward and slightly to the right with your left foot. At the same time as you've stepped backward, you'll be slamming your right forearm against uke's left side chest, and pulling downward with your left hand (Your right arm looks like it's delivering an uppercut to uke's chin or ear). You'll now reach out with your right foot (you are now leaning on your left foot with a 45 degree forward lean), and attempt to 'hook' uke's right knee. Then just 'drive' forward... although notice that your 'forward' direction is actually more sideways by your uke's viewpoint. Very common at this point, by the way, is the need to 'hop' forward to maintain the optimum 45 degree angle of attack (maximum force).

In the Ippon Masterclass "Osotogari" - authored by Yasuhiro Yamashita, the following series of photos appears, and Yamashita titles it "One of the finest Osotogari's ever photographed"... Angelo Parisi throwing Shota Chochosvilli (shown at top of post)

Notice the power generated by his '45 degree angle of attack' that Parisi has. This is the most efficient use of strength!

Demonstrating the ineffectiveness and failure to follow a principle of Judo, does this mean that a classically taught Osoto Gari has no place in modern Judo? No, not at all. The classical version is very easy to take a fall from. It's doesn't require the skill at ukemi that the more effective version requires. And during the time that Judoka are acquiring the falling skills needed at the higher levels of Judo, they can still learn the 'demonstration' form of throws. And this sort of comparison between classical, and dynamic effective versions, can be done for other throws as well. And in many throws, the classical version is the most effective version as well... De Ashi Harai comes to mind here.

Judo is evolving, both for the good, and in some aspects, for the not so good... and if you are not keeping up on new techniques, and new methods of training, teaching, and doing Judo, then you should look into finding out about these things.

I hope I've given you something to think about the next time you're teaching Osotogari. Especially when you're teaching your more advanced students. I don't believe that a Judoka should make it past brown belt without a firm grasp of the difference between the classical and the dynamic forms of Osotogari. They really are virtually two different techniques, in my opinion, even though both the IJF and the Kodokan recognize both as the same throw.