Misdirection Magic and
Judo Waza
Firstly, have a very pleasant Thanksgiving. As a judoka, whatever
level you are at, don’t forget to be ultra thankful for that. I’ve been a
judoka since 1960, and every year I’m more thankful than the last. There’s an
expression, “We should have Christmas every day of the year.” I do a
mini-Thanksgiving every day, and judo is on the short list.
I’ve also been into performance magic forever, and have done it
professionally since 1972. I’ve lots of publishing credentials and
accomplishments, and currently write an ongoing column on Misdirection for Imagine
magazine. Not only just bragging, but giving some credentials for your
consideration of the thoughts herein.
Overall, magic and judo are very similar in thought and deed.
Perhaps another time I’ll have some fun with that for you. Here, now, are some
facts about misdirection, and we will tie them to judo.
In Magic
· People’s attention can be both misdirected and directed to your
will.
· People have subconscious, automatic responses which they can only
control with knowing endeavor.
· . Controlling someone’s attention is very easy.
· There are many methods of misdirection. In my book, Misdirection
for Close-up Magicians, I list 10 basic types. Since then, I’ve thought of
a couple more. This isn’t a list thereof, but what I’ve discovered about
attention control.
· Misdirection can be very subtle or very bold. (Look at the
elephant!)
· Creating the moment of attention control takes less than a second.
· Sometimes, the entire routine depends upon that attention control
at a critical moment.
· Misdirection can turn what would otherwise be just a puzzle into a
miracle.
In Judo
· You can use these tools at your discretion, and when you do, you
can even test them before using them.
· When something comes toward your eye, you blink. If you see a ball
heading toward your head, you duck. Some, you’ve trained into yourself, such as
covering your nose and mouth before sneezing. Your reflexes are automatic.
· This means that setting up a move can be very easy, because the
misdirection is based on controlling people’s reflexes.
· Creating or taking opportunity is what makes judo work. The creating
part is our main concern here. Like kuzushi, it happens in only a millisecond.
· All judo throws, and most ne-waza moves, depend upon creating the
opportunity, and controlling reflexes creates it.
· Take advantage of being able to pre-test them. I’ll share one of
my magic secrets here. In a couple of card trick routines, I have a move that
requires I have both hands on the deck when I do it. If a spectator were to
give it any thought, there’s no reason for me to have a two handed grip. So,
from time to time in my show, I take the deck in the other hand to perhaps
flick a speck of something off my close-up pad, or itch my nose, or point a
finger for emphasis. Often, at the same moment, I look into their eyes,
and then look back. When the time comes for the real business, the spectator is
pre-conditioned.
I’m
not giving up any magic secrets. I reveal this to you because you
wouldn’t catch me doing it. Just bragging again.·
Judo Direction / Misdirection Techniques
· The difference between
an elegant judo move and a nearly-not-really judo move that struggles and
forces its way to a conclusion depends upon how it begins.
In
order to discover what works for you, it is important to experiment, and this
is what randori is for.
1. Just do them and see what your ukes automatically respond with.
2. Know what you want for a response and play with ways to get it.
· Here is a list of simple things you can do.
1. A slight twisting or turning of your hand from the wrist.
2. A light pull or tug. (or a few)
3. A strong pull or tug. “ “
4. Push, one or both hands. “ “
5. A head tilt or rotation (any direction).
6. A foot tap (for sure, something more than the little meaningless
and useless footsy tapping we so often see).
7. A hip twitch.
8. Work in some pre-conditioning.
These aren’t just “fake outs”. The reflex you create is one that
takes attention away from what you intend, because your uke will be interested
in something else, by reflex or by direction thereto.
You can likely add some more. You don’t need them all, so
experiment and see what suits you best.
These might not seem like much, but they are. As with magic, they
are often subtle, and it is important not only to use them, but to experiment
and figure out when to do so. As I said, this is what randori is for
(randori isn’t shiai).
When a magician uses misdirection, the spectator doesn’t
afterwards say, “Wow! I sure fell for that misdirection move. Did you see
that?!” The spectator doesn’t know it happened, never saw a thing.
The same should be true in judo. As with magic, the controlling split second of
the uke’s automatic responses, should remain your secret.
I hope one day you’ll be thankful for these tips because they
helped make your judo work.
