Yoshiaki Yamashita – Making Your Randori Work 

           
     Let’s get into our time machine and go way far back in judo history for some randori advice from the first of the best, Yoshiaki Yamashita. He was the first Kodokan 10^th dan. Yamashita gave 14 strong admonitions for becoming better at your judo. We can use the first four as essential points relating to randori. 

            In 1884, he became the nineteenth member of the Kodokan. After three months he earned his first dan ranking. After two years he received his fourth dan. In 1898, he received sixth dan. He was a member of the Kodokan teams that competed against the Tokyo Police dojos in the battles that created the initial and rapid popularity of the Kodokan. In 1903, he went to the USA where he taught judo to President T. Roosevelt and at the U.S. Naval Academy. If you do some online searches, you’ll see all of his suggestions, plus other very cool information about other aspects of his judo, including a video of him doing nage no kata at age 65.

            (Italics are his comments.)

1.      Study the correct way of applying the throws. Throwing with brute force is not the correct way of winning in judo. The most important point is to win with technique.

              Many think that to knock somebody down onto their back in both randori and shiai in whatever manner you can is good. Yamashita says no. To achieve a technically correct judo throw is a significant accomplishment; one to be proud of.  It is the accomplishment of the finer details and application of the biophysics, the timing, the chess moves of the “game”, all combined, that provide the ultimate rewards. These go far beyond the blunt and often overly lauded throws achieved by any means available.

          Throwing a person while you are wearing a judogi doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve done judo.  There are some things that apply to all correctly achieved judo throws.  To be a judo throw, a throw must use kuzushi, tsukuri, and kake. Each one is a separate study, and the blending of them is also its own challenge. In all endeavors, ask yourself, “Where is each in the throw I am studying?” Then add, “How can I best make each happen?”  You first need to know in what direction the kuzushi is applied. Next, the form of the throw has to correctly conform to the laws of physics. The kake should end with control. This last one puts a considerable amount of question to front rolling throws.  

            My advice is to try to complete a throw with zanshin. This is standing in a composed and alert posture and mental state. Here is a standard and repeated definition, “… a state of awareness, of relaxed alertness, in Japanese martial arts. A literal translation of zanshin is 'remaining mind'. In several martial arts, zanshin refers more narrowly to the body's posture after a technique is executed.” Sacrifice throws and makikomi throws have finishing postures that also comply. Zanshin speaks to Samurai battlefield success.

          I have a personal pet example. I don’t believe that initially learning uchi mata as a head diving, last moment kake application is in concert with Yamashita's advice. It is potentially massively dangerous, seems not to care about kuzushi and tsukuri and more about brute force, as the kake shows. 

        With this in mind, if you first learn any throw in its Kodokan standard version,  finishing standing and in control, before doing a "competition" or online variation, you can then learn how to apply your understanding of it to other options with possibly useful results. 

2.         First learn offense. You will see that defense is included in offensive. You will make no progress learning defense first.

            Learning to behave and think defensively can be a natural trap. The challenge of not being defensive when first doing randori is huge. Relaxing and seeking to focus on attack rather than rigidly keeping a randori partner at bay is contrary to our nature. Once a couple of counter techniques are known, it is easy to want to “wait in the weeds” and ambush your partner. 

            This can carry over into ones ongoing study and become too much a part of randori, perhaps forever. It leads to rigidity of the arms and body, making throwing more difficult. A judoka has to be relaxed prior to starting a throw; because muscles don’t move when tight, but must be relaxed to begin action. Bent over posture, overly defensive body positions are not conducive to good randori. When both partners are defensive, fewer throws are attempted and those that are can be both ugly and possibly result in injury. Shizentai is the best posture for both offense and defense. If you aren’t sure what that is, you owe it to yourself to find out and apply it.

            There might be some irony here. Because defensive bent forward posture was considered not dynamic and not attractive judo, and because it seemed to be a major defense against shooting leg grabs, leg grabbing and even touching the hand below the beltline, became a penalty. Bending over that way had been a penalty, too, but rarely called.  Now, players frequently bend over excessively as a common posture and no penalty is called. Perhaps we might consider creating a new penalty for a new offense: Ugly Judo.

3.      Do not dislike falling. Learn the timing of the throw while you are being thrown.

            I know judoka who get up with a big smile from having been thrown by a really nice throw. Feeling the essence of the good throw definitely helps provide a sense of how a throw works, both the overall parts and the throw specific ones. Whenever possible, I would volunteer to be uke for senseis teaching a throw. I tried to become such a good uke that senseis and others chose me to be uke for their demonstrations. It seems to me I learned more that about the technique being taught than did those watching.

            Here’s a fun trick. Sometimes in randori you can have fun by saying to yourself you will let your partner’s next throw succeed. If the throw is tried and doesn’t, not because of any defensive response from you, you learn about the amount of effort required to thwart offensive techniques. Sometimes the partner’s lack of proper technique will be all you need for defense.  This will help you to relax and focus on your own offense. You will also learn the vulnerabilities of a poor attack and be better able to deal with all attacks, using maximum efficiency.

4.            Practice your throws by moving your body as freely as possible in all directions. Do not lean to one side or get stiff. A great deal of repetition in a throw will be rewarded with a good throw.

            It is often our own rigidity that creates our biggest throwing problems.

            In randori, not attempting throws while just waiting for it to feel like the “right” time, is wasting precious time. By moving your body freely and loosely, and relaxing, the opportunities for throws will become more prevalent. They were always there, but you now have given them the opportunity to be discovered.  If you make a throwing effort and it doesn’t work, you will still have the opportunity to learn from this. Try throws frequently, and be sure to get loose first. Judoka who have learned to be more fluid in randori will tell you that they consider this a major forward step in their judo progress.

Bonus Yamashita advice, Number 14 - There is no end in learning JUDO.