Samurai Judo and Jujitsu

Jujitsu Instruction
By Sensei Dave Parritt

Student Behavior:
All students must conduct themselves as gentlemen and gentle women at all times. Profanity in the dojo must be avoided even when you receive an injury. This is part of your training in both mental and physical discipline. It is the duty of all to practice with others and cooperate and be a good uki. Competition in the dojo is to be avoided as it leads to a breakdown of our family atmosphere. Everyone must take falls as this is the only way to get good at falling. (Remember to respect the uki by helping to break the fall, as he/she is not disposable.)

Dojo Etiquette:
1. Bow before you enter the mat and again when you leave. Bow before you practice with someone. This is not only polite but it gives your practice partner a change to get ready for you and can prevent injuries.

2. Gi’s should be white and clean; in an art where there is a lot of very close body contact, personal hygiene takes on a very strong purpose.

3. Do not try any techniques you have not been taught in this dojo until cleared by the Sensei. TV martial arts are to be avoided.

4. Be careful with your space. Keep and eye out for others working near you.

5. Sometimes we have a tenancy to talk too much about a technique. This leads to perfection of TALK-E-WAZA. Try and minimize your discussion of the technique and practice it as much as you can to develop muscle memory. Speak in a low voice while in the dojo.

6. Horseplay is not conducive to proper dojo atmosphere.

7. Do not enter the mat if you are late without the approval of the Sensei.

8. Do not talk to people on the mat if you are off of it as this leads to a distraction from training.

General Training Tips:
1. It takes a long time to become good at a technique. Do the techniques slow at first for your understanding and the well-being of the uki. Be careful with new techniques and go slow until you have some control over them. Do not try to rush the process as it leads to poor techniques and frustration. Enjoy the art and take your time. Rank comes but don’t be overly concerned with it.

2. Don’t torture your Uki; let go when he says “matte” or slaps.

3. The kicks take time to develop as do all Jujitsu Waza. If you try to stretch too much too fast, you may be injured.

4. Have fun. That’s the way you will stay and develop your waza. Take it easy on yourself, as you WILL learn in time. Trying too hard will make you stiff and lead to frustration and a desire to quit training.

Punching Tips:
1. When you punch, start with a relaxed arm and tense the hand about four inches before contact. NEVER extend the arm all the way as this injures the elbow in practice and can lead to a broken arm in a self defense situation.

2. In your mind extend the punch inside the target.

3. You must understand how to make a correct fist and hit correctly or you can injure your own hand.

4. The head and mouth are not targets for the fist as teeth stick into the hand when they break and the skull breaks the hand. In a self defense situation, you must not disable your weapons.

5. One of the best weapons you have is the heel of your palm.

6. The power of a punch comes from several things. The speed generates power. The hips help with the power and increase the energy of the punch. All good punches use the hip.

7. Focus. If you focus on the punch (and it will take time to develop, as it is an unconscious reflex developed after thousands of punches), it will become part of the punch. The focus will help you deliver the maximum amount of power with your punch.

8. Penetrate the punch into the target – a tap on the epidermis will not stop and attack. The punch must be delivered from a stable stance, as this will also increase the power of the punch. Wrist weights are alright, but don’t punch rapidly. Again in this case slow is the way to go. A good method for developing a powerful punch is to put a deflated bike intertube behind your back and hold it while your punch. It is one thing to punch air; but to get the feel of actual application, do one-step sparring with your uki. Later on you can do slow sparring.

9. Protective gear is a good idea as stuff happens and being able to deliver a little force to a moving target is a great way of developing your punches and all other strikes as well. Some people hit bricks, wood, and all other types of hard objects. The before mentioned practice is not good as you don’t want to injure your hands. A good way to do this without hurting yourself is to use a piece of semi-hard plastic or rubber a little softer than a mat.

Kicking Tips:
1. An effective kick is only as high as you can raise your leg without effort. An effective kick for true self defense purposes is to kick no higher than the ribs. Don’t try the ribs unless you are holding the hand. This has two effects: a. they cannot block your kick or grab your leg and, b. this will give you a trip hammer effect with your kick. It takes time to develop kicks, so be patient. Many people try to kick their way through a defense by the use of power. This is not a good practice. Kick when you have an opening. Remember; use the correct technique at the right time. With practice, you will develop this ability.

2. The power of a good kick is generated from the hips (as are most martial arts techniques). The hips are the first part of the leg when you kick. The kick without the hip behind it is either less powerful or sometimes just a way to leave yourself open to a counter attack after you tap him with your foot. Weights are a good idea but don’t kick fast; slow is the way to go. Use the bike intertube method, as this will rapidly develop your kicks. A groin kick does not automatically take out someone, they can still fight for a while and some people can fight through pain period. A broken knee is very effective, as it is difficult to chase you with a broken leg. Kicking a heavy bag is an excellent method of developing your kicks; not only do you learn to kick better but you get a taste of reality. Sometimes you kick in the air and feel like Bruce Lee. Then you kick something to the might sound of plop and you realize you have a long way to do. We have special kicking drills to do which will help you in the development of kicks against an actual person who is moving. At a later date body armor is worn to allow you to make moderate contact on the uki.

Throwing Tips:
1. One of the biggest surprises (of the unpleasant type) is to be thrown to the ground without any idea of what is going on. Not only does this give you the psychological edge and put them in an exposed position for a follow up, but also a good throw can cause very serious injuries. Through your study of Jujitsu, you will be thrown many times on the mat. Think about what cement would be like.

2. All throws consist of three parts; breaking the balance, moving into the throwing position and doing the throw. ALL of these parts are of equal importance in the execution of a throw. A seventy five percent throw will not work; all parts of the throw are needed.

3. Throws work by breaking the balance, using momentum, timing or redirecting the force of the uki. Throws take a lot of practice and must become instinctive if they are going to be an effective part of your arsenal. Like any other technique in Jujitsu you cannot force a throw, you have to do the right throw at the right time. Different throws work for different body sizes so get used to working out with all sorts of different people.

4. A small person can throw a big person with a good throw. It’s good to practice with that person you seem to be having trouble throwing as this will help your throws become more effective.

5. After static practice to learn the basics of a throw, get used to practicing while you are moving as this will assist with the practical application of throws. With throws you always must keep the safety of the uki in mind. If the throw does not feel right, stop. Make sure you are aware of where you are so you don’t throw them off the mat or into someone else.

6. A few pointers are to bend your legs for a major throw as this will make it work better. Keep you back close to the uki and lean forward with them. If you separate the two bodies, it is very easy to block the throw. Most throws work with the bodies moving in the direction of the throw. As a general rule the body will automatically move in the direction of the head. This torque is combined with leverage a method that gives throws their devastating power. A good way to make this work is to “throw with your nose”; this is a mental technique to make your head follow in the direction of the throw making the body do the same therefore giving you a powerful throw. Along with the head and legs being bent the hips play a very important part of a throw. The body must be relaxed when you throw. For this reason learn how to throw with the proper technique and don’t “POWER” you way through. Speed comes with time, so take your time.

Joint Locks:
A proper, well executed joint lock will either control an opponent by pain or injure a joint sometimes to the point of breaking it. Again, like in all Jujitsu techniques, it must be done in a fast, fluid manner. If it does not work, don’t try to force it but do the following: A. switch to another joint lock. B. Add atemi waza to the technique. C. Do a throw. D. Quit and try something else. Don’t give the opponent time to counter you by taking too much time with you move.

Falling:
Most of us are apprehensive about falling, it is natural to not want to fall and if you are somewhat reluctant to fall maybe your sense of self preservation needs to be developed to a greater degree than what it is now. We start from the ground to teach you how to take a fall and give you confidence in your ability to take a fall. We then start to roll from the knees and work your way up to standing falls. It takes time, but you must remain relaxed and above all don’t hold your breath.

Just before you hit the ground you must slap with your fingers together. If the fingers are open when you fall you can break them. A kiai means to shout by doing this you tighten your abdomen and exhale air from your lungs. We have a saying “You will learn to kiai the easy way or the hard way”. The hard way is to get the air knocked out of you. Falling takes practice and the only way to fall is to do it. If you take a hard fall (and you will) it’s like being thrown from a horse; get back on it. When you throw remember to pull up on the arm as this works like a break and makes the fall easier. Remember to help the uki fall as they will be throwing you in a moment and you will want the same amount of consideration. When you fall don’t reach for the ground as this can cause injury to your shoulder and wrist. Wait for the proper time to slap. You do not need to feel the mat as it will be there and it will never move or run away from you.

Mental State:
In the older days the Samurai was taught to not fear death, as this will cost you your life on the battlefield because your mind is cluttered with fear. These days we seldom go to battle with swords and have to work so we must do other things than train for battle. We do try to conquer our fear of pain, falling, not looking good in front of others, fear of losing. When you practice, you must try to be relaxed, thinking too much slows down your reactions. Don’t think about what you are going to have to eat after class, this sounds funny, but you must develop the ability to just react. Do a technique when it is right and don’t try to make one work when it is not the time. This takes a long time and is one of the long range things to work for. To be able to respond you must be relaxed (easy to say and very hard to do). The techniques will come in time so don’t try to rush them. If you think of how water flows this is the way a good Jujitsu technique works.

Repetition:
If there is one thing I remember from when I began, it’s the words, “Do it again”. Repetition is the key to perfection of technique so be ready to do the same thing over and over. After forty years with some techniques I still am learning them better. This is one of the pleasures of studying Jujitsu, these techniques become like old friends and you begin to enjoy doing them and feeling them work.

Pain and Injury:
If you practice Jujitsu for any length of time, you will experience a certain degree of pain. The purpose of many of the techniques you will learn is to deliver pain and some are designed to injure the opponent. While we try not to injure our practice partner, things do go wrong. A serious injury is very rare. (If you check on sports injuries, you will find we have a much lower accident rate than does football, baseball and basketball.) Bumps and bruises as well as a sore joint will occur. Don’t dwell on this just practice your techniques. This is also a part of your mental conditioning used in the application of Jujitsu.

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