Judo Magic – Mind Control

October, 2023

Somewhere herein I need to think about what I call “judo magic”. You might perhaps want to think of it as “misdirection”. Magicians nowadays distinguish between “misdirection” and “direction”.  The latter term might be best for describing what this judo magic is about. The idea is to direct uke to take an action which they don’t realize is the underlying thing that makes the throw work.*

It works on the same principle as Renraku Waza, combinations, but this is much more subtle.  The idea is to get uke to respond to an action that is really a set-up, not the true threat.  Sometimes, these don’t seem very subtle. Even then, they are.

One I really like consists of a very small but sharp action of my hands (almost just a wrist twist), torso and head turning toward uke’s right front corner, as I started a step around.  This got a small but strong moment of resistance that I used to then do o-soto-gari to uke’s rear right corner. I can’t really call that harai to o-soto. It resulted in uke having an automatic response to the opposite direction.

Important note: sometimes a subtlety is so subtle that it isn’t noticed at all, and it can be used without follow-up just to see and feel what uke will do. It’s a freebee.  This “free trial” is a very important thing to try, appreciate and remember.

Some are not so subtle. The late Rene Capo (two-time Olympian) used to enjoy doing a scary hip twitch to the front, then a nidan ko-soto to the rear. It was a “not-so-subtle subtlety. It worked embarrassingly well (I recall). Sometimes, he’d reverse it and take me to the front. It was a common pre-attack maneuver that many competitors were doing in that era, and it seemed to work really well until folks started to train against it. It still would work.

When I was just starting out, Gokyu days, I did a very unsubtle move that worked 90% of the time. I’d tighten up my fists and strongly push uke backwards with a couple of serious steps. When I felt the resistance, I’d relax my arms completely and spin around into morote seoinage.  It was really, really simple, and almost to the point of being “dumb”.  As time went on, I thought for some reason that nobody would fall for it. I stopped doing it, as I was in search of sexier things. Not long ago, I tried it again, and it worked even better. A special note: if you do this, be sure to move forward from your center of mass, not your shoulders, and don’t make your arms more rigid than minimally necessary.  Without getting too esoteric about it, it was so blatant that it really was subtle.  It worked with the combination of the initial power and then the total relaxing, and if you study (try) some go no kata, you’ll appreciate this even more. This same basic “push and reverse” idea works in all direction; although the “push uke back, then release to the front is maybe the easiest. You can test them all.

I cannot say for certain about this, as it is only a speculation. I always wondered what Kyuzo Mifune was doing with his extreme head-bobbing action prior to yoko wakari. It looks very odd and creates an almost predictable action. I wonder if this causes uke to resist being drawn downward and forward, setting up for the kuzushi for the throw.

This is all strategy and not tactics. So often I’ve seen opportunity in my rearview mirror. The chance happens, and moments or maybe hours later, I replay the chance. If only I could have taken advantage!  Well, I learned how to create that chance, then forgot about it, and then I relearned it.

Judo action is not analyzed during attack, but responded to. We play against uke’s reflex responses. As we play, we hope to analyze the ongoing situation and strategize. It is the reflex part we are going to direct.

I’m going to take this opportunity to get metaphysical. In judo, there is a place I call “The void”.  Again, a physically involved study of go no kata will really help you understand this, but that can be a bonus and you don’t have to physically do it. I push you, and you push back. I suddenly stop being there.  In the moment you respond, I have simply become nothing. Within that void, I create my movement and let it happen. It is as if time stands still and I move within it. Perhaps it is only in my imagination. 

One time when my Japanese friend Kazuo Hirayama was in town doing a seminar for my students, he was talking about directing ki.  Kazuo sensei is now eighth dan master in Shorinji Kempo.  He was endeavoring to get us to try to create ki via contact movement with our partners, and it was not really happening very much. Nobody seemed to be getting it. He stopped us and said, “You try too hard. Now, just pretend.” I swear, some of us started thinking it was happening. Very Yoda-like. So, if you want to seek out the void, just pretend.

Let’s get back to reality. I push. You push back. I don’t force anything, but I go to the place where the throw happens, and uke shows up.  I join his force with my pull and turn, in the correct tsurikomi architecture.  A miracle happens, because the throw works effortlessly. I’m thinking to myself, “Wow! I wish I could do that all the time.”

It is what a magician does when utilizing direction control. It can be a very complicated subject, but for simplicity let’s say a magician directs your attention to something that will gain your attention. Maybe it’s done with just a look, or it could be a large motion of a hand putting an object on the table, and many more methods. (In fact, I’ve published a book on the subject and currently write an ongoing article on it for an international magic magazine.) The magician directs your attention, you respond, and during that moment a secret and unsuspected and unnoticed activity happens.  In judo, I push you and you respond. I have directed you into making a reflex action. It’s a trick. You might know the name of the resulting throw, but you very likely won’t know the directional secret move that made you respond and contribute to it.

If you add all this to making your judo work, you will get magical results.

 

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*I am a professional magician, too, so I know about these things. In fact, I’ve published a book on the subject of misdirection and currently write an ongoing article on it for an international magic magazine. The similarity between performance magic and judo is very strong.