Judo Determination
If you add determination to your life, it will improve your judo. If you add determination to your judo, it will improve your life. I’ve wanted to write about this for several months, and it has always eluded me. Before validating the opening statements, it is necessary to understand “determination”.
Determination is a state of being.
Determination is not:
Stick-to-it-ism.
Tenacity
Fortitude
Positive attitude
Obsession
Compulsion
These are descriptions and synonyms. For me, determination is more about indomitable spirit. In that regard, it comes closer to being my somewhat fantastical idea of what a samurai warrior was.
Let me tell you a story. Several years back, I went to Chicago to compete in the then Masters division. I won my first two matches with o-soto-gari for ippon, so I was doing okay. My next match was against a lifetime judo friend. When we did randori at home, I will venture to say that I often came out ahead in the standing part. That was never true of the ne waza. Before “Hajime!”, I wasn’t overly concerned. The moment we took grips, that changed.
I felt the grip of a two time world masters champion. At the time, I didn’t recognize my situation, nor analyze it. It was only many years later that I realized that my defeat-producing resultant stupid judo move was in part caused by that first and ongoing subliminal domination. The grip wasn’t especially stronger than ever, it was not oddly placed, and it didn’t have added defense in it. It simply sent the message that the person owning it was determined to prevail.
My friend’s grip took away my timing, game involvement, and strategy and tactics savvy. I couldn’t have related that at the time. In retrospect, I knew something was off. My throws weren’t there for me. In desperation, I attempted tomoe nage. How many times before and since have I told my competitors to never do a sacrifice throw as a desperation move? Did I need to add, never against somebody who loves mat work? Honestly, on the way down I already was saying, “Oh, sh*#!” , and I could hear my judo buddy chuckling.
I’d wager that when I was a young competitor many of my opponents felt that determination in my grip. Before matches, I’d walk over to the trophy display and look at the gold and say, “You’re mine. You’re coming home with me today.” There are reasons why my judo friend is a two time world champion, and I believe his skills and his love of treachery aside, his intrinsic determination to win his judo matches is a fundamental one.
Some people are more deterministic in their approach to life and its tasks than others. That’s who they are. For many, that’s just how they always were, since diaperhood. It is possible that many are determined not to be the bad side of the coin, be the loser, the non-finisher, the drop out.
You can’t just summon up determination, unless you’ve trained yourself to do that. How many people who are suddenly determined to stop smoking, stop drinking, lose weight, make more money, drastically change their lives fail, sometimes over and again?
The purpose of this blog isn’t to make you a champion judoka. It is to point out that in order to succeed at tasks you need determination
. Judo can, in a turn around sort of way, teach you determination.
Set yourself a determined goal.
List the steps necessary to attain it.
Put a time marker on the steps.
Make it long enough that it’s realistic.
Make it challenging. (Don’t say “ten uchi komi” when you know it should be fifty)
Set “work” times when you will work on them.
Give them their own space and place.
Don’t miss your own appointments.
Be aware that procrastination and task avoidance are how failure works to subvert your efforts to succeed. See them as minor moments and carry on.
Start with small tasks you know you always find challenging and train yourself. Keep your ultimate goal in mind. That is to become a black belt at determination domination. Look at it like a judo match, and take a determined grip.
Use determination as a tool to help with small but challenging judo tasks. You want to improve a throw? Go ask for help. Create times to do nage komi on it. Want to improve your ne waza? Go get scuffed up by somebody good, a bunch of times. Get some mat burns. Better endurance? You know what to do, so start sucking wind.
It is said that successful people are those who are willing to do what unsuccessful people are not. That doesn’t mean illegal activities. It means the extra fifty uchi komi, the getting up an hour earlier to go for a jog, asking for help, forcing oneself to complete tasks. Since it’s things you aren’t wanting to do, only you can complete the list. Doing these things creates self-determination.
Determination isn’t about a single task. It is about what you are. It is about what you make yourself.
Determination is a state of being.
