Special One

I used to think I was a bit different to other martial arts practitioners. No, seriously, I mean being an established instructor from a trad martial art who moonlights in another (almost rival) martial art (BJJ) can't be too common right? And for a short time it probably was the case, since most of the BJJ comrades I met in the early days were people who only trained in BJJ. But recently I have come across quite a wide variety of guys, several of them who are instructors at their own school of martial arts. At Nick's club, one chap I met told me he runs a taekwondo-based MMA school here: http://www.ukblackbelt.com/ As a two stripe blue belt I thought he would be good, and in the two milliseconds it took for him to sink an armbar on me, my thoughts were quickly realised. God forbid I ever engage in a stand-up spar with him if he is this good on the ground. In fact BJJ now seems to attract a lot of guys who also train in other systems, especially trad JJ, like me. And the BJJ instructors and classmates seem to be very cool about this. It speaks volumes about the confidence they/we have in the art. Clearly, the idea that including an effective ground-based strategy into your repertoire is widely agreed to be important. So I am the special one no more, but I’m glad. The more we all learn to appreciate each other’s style, the better the world of martial arts. No secrets I say. Oh yeah, here’s the blooper reel to illustrate just how special I am:



It was grading day for my club students on Sunday. I had quite a few guys grading and all passed, thankfully. But a couple of errors were pointed out by the senior senseis had me cringeing because I was the one that taught them the erroneous techniques. Invigilating gradings is also frustrating for me as I can't help but look on at other students and critically thinking, Nooo, that was wrong, wrong, wrong. But having to perform in front of a judging panel is a nervous thing and nerves can play havoc with your memory, coordination, and ability to do, erm, ju-jitsu.
So thankfully, the senseis grant a large degree of allowance for this.
Speaking of grades, as we all know, BJJ awards grades ad hoc and not on a formal grading like trad JJ. so it was a nice surprise for me to be awarded my third stripe at blue belt by Nick Brooks. I'm quite chuffed as I feel accepted into the fold at what is still a fairly new club for me. I'd better watch my back though. A three stripe blue belt I think makes me technically the most senior non-teaching regular at the club. Gulp!

byMeerkatsu

in BJJ, jikishin ju-jitsu, MMA, traditional ju-jitsu, video

September 16, 2008

Special One

I used to think I was a bit different to other martial arts practitioners. No, seriously, I mean being an established instructor from a trad...

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It's Showtime Folks!

I've finally finished my epic showreel. For a long time, I have wanted to produce some video clips to add to my JJ Club home page. So that newbies can see what our style of ju-jitsu entails and perhaps to add a little flair to static words and pictures. In the world of martial arts, moving footage seems to connect quickly with people, and in today's YouTube generation, one can't afford to be left behind. It was good fun making the video and producing it. I learned alot about editing and the tedious process it involves. I hope it gives a fair reflection of the wide variety of techniques that we practice at the club - including throws, punches, kicks, locks, strangles, kata, kobudo weapons, groundfighting, stand-up etc.

So sit back, get out the popcorn, chill to the sounds of DJ Krush and enjoy.

Coming up soon, the sequel - IJJC - the lost blooper tapes!

byMeerkatsu

in imperial-club, jikishin ju-jitsu, video

September 07, 2008

It's Showtime Folks!

I've finally finished my epic showreel. For a long time, I have wanted to produce some video clips to add to my JJ Club home page. So t...

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CRABBY STYLE

I’ve been slightly obsessed with leg locks recently. It’s probably because my ankle injury highlighted just how vulnerable this part of the anatomy is. Our own Trad JJ style has a surprisingly diverse and full array of ankle, knee and hip locks incorporated into the syllabus. I say surprising, only because I never really looked at them in close detail, since they are generally integrated into a ‘locking set’ kata that you learn as a whole piece, or tagged on as a ‘finish’ at the end of a throw. But when I read through my recent purchase of ’65 Vital Leg Locks’ by Steve Scott, I realised that our style covered most of those contained in the book, including old skool wrestling favourite –the Boston Crab (as illustrated so touchingly above) In fact most grappling styles incorporate leg locks, there are a few in judo, Russian Sambo is most famous for them, and of course wrestling, oh and BJJ willingly includes them all.

The book is pretty cool as an introduction to this diverse facet of submissions. But my impression is that it really only offers an introduction and I personally would only feel comfortable using them if I was shown how to get a good position first by an instructor. In BJJ class, we’ve covered leg locks on occasion, but it is only rarely. My favourite is the knee bar. You can transform a giant uke with tree trunk legs into a weeping baby, tapping for mercy with this awesome lock. Having said that, I only ever managed to get this lock on once ever in sparring. I was quite chuffed, but only for a fleet moment since my uke was injured and out of the game for several months (not just due to my knee bar, but it didn’t help in his long list of injuries).

So I quickly realised that leg locks, although an awesome submission, are quite dangerous in training since a lock can go from ‘nearly-on’, to torn ligaments with just a few millimetres of leverage. In BJJ, MMA and subgrap sparring, inexperience or stubbornness could result in a serious injury if the uke does not tap out soon enough. In fact I seem to recall that only blue and above are allowed to attempt leg locks when rolling, and I think even heel hooks are disallowed until purple or brown. Maybe someone can clarify that.

So all this recent fascination of mine with leg locks culminated in a recent episode of
Cage Rage Contenders on TV. Brazilian fighter Jean Silva fought against Japanese MMA fighter Masakazu Imanari, a fighter who was billed as the ‘Master of leg locks.’ See his video here and you’ll see what they mean.Now if you fought against someone billed as a leg lock specialist, why would you willingly tempt fate and offer him your legs, as Jean seemed to do when he went for a crowd pleased spinning guard pass? Naturally enough, Jean ended up being leg locked. It was horrendous to watch since he got caught by what looked like a heel hook and in order to get out, he twisted and rolled frantically, only making it worse. Finally he tapped but Imanari held on until the ref pulled him off. Silva was seriously injured and remained on the mat for ages. Post match reports indicate that he suffered bad ligament damage to his knee – but it could easily have been worse.

byMeerkatsu

in books, mixed martial arts, techniques

September 02, 2008

CRABBY STYLE

I’ve been slightly obsessed with leg locks recently. It’s probably because my ankle injury highlighted just how vulnerable this part of th...

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Forked Tongue

According to google stats, I’ve just received my 2,000th visitor to the Meerkatsu blog this year. Of course this figure could easily represent 10 people visiting 200 times, or one person 2,000 times (more likely), I’m not entirely au fait with analysing the figures, but it is reassuring to know that some people read my rants at least some of the time. Interestingly, in the figures for 2007, there was an extraordinarily huge peak of visitors when I posted a photo of the rather gorgeous Kyra Gracie. So just for the sake of clarity, let’s see what she looks like again…

Taken from her website: http://www.graciekyra.com/
Every male BJJ practitioner I know goes on about Kyra, including me. But the website actually offers very interesting information, revealing her impressive fight stats and training photos and it endorses the widely held view that she is a tremendous athlete who is dedicated to her sport, which is more than can be said about me.

I had a number of people emailing me and commenting in my last post about the Chinese characters I wrote in the made-up fake martial arts diploma. It translates: I believe I am Chinese, but I am really a ‘Big Nose’.
'Big Nose' being an old-skool insult that Chinese people give to western ‘foreigners’. Other phrase book nuggets to use on your holiday could include ‘pale face white ghost’ (very nasty insult), ‘son of a turtles egg’ (probably the worst you could ever say) and ‘Imperialist Opium dealing scumbag’. OK I made that last one up, but in my experience, Chinese people used to be very blunt with their insults. What with the Olympics, international economy and general more openness they are probably much more world aware now and have more subtle insults. Or maybe not.

Anyway, the point I was trying to make was that I sometimes come across people here in the UK, especially martial arts fanatics, who live, eat, breathe, dress, and even speak with an oriental accent in their quest to be a martial arts master. It is really weird. But there are also reports of American BJJ instructors who, overnight, begin to take on a Portuguese twang when naming their techniques. For example, the word ‘guard’ is almost universally re-iterated by a Portuguese speaker as ‘Gwardo’, which is very quaint sounding but you know what it means. If you catch a native English speaker saying GWARDO, he has either been watching too many BJJ DVDs or has spent half his life in Portugal or Brazil…or just wants it to appear that way.
But nowhere is the ‘crime’ of pretending to speak in a fake accent more prevalent than in the karate dojo.
24FightingChickens master, Rob Redmond writes in his excellent website about just this very phenomenon:
To quote his article:

“I personally do not like using Japanese terms in my karate classes. I think it gets in the way of good communication, and that it makes things seem mystical that are truly quite plain and unimpressive. I also worry that use of Japanese in my karate classes will create an exclusivist culture where newcomers feel uncomfortable. I also tire of spending time and energy teaching the terms to students, or reminding them of what they mean. I also do not care for trying to teach pronunciation, since my Japanese is accented with American, it seems a little preposterous that I would be correcting pronunciation.”

It is probably for this reason that our style of trad JJ does not use Japanese words to describe techniques. But this can lead to problems when I get the odd Aikido, judo or jitsuka from another style coming to my dojo and talking about techniques using the Japanese terminology. I just nod, sagely, narrow my eyes, and witter something inscrutable under my breath…was that an insult maybe?…I'm not saying.

byMeerkatsu

in blogs, humour, kyra gracie, websites

August 28, 2008

Forked Tongue

According to google stats, I’ve just received my 2,000th visitor to the Meerkatsu blog this year. Of course this figure could easily represe...

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Always believe in your soul, you're indestructable

Photo (c) Yahoo Sports/ AP News

Wow, what an Olympics we just witnessed! With all the Gold medal bling of Team GB, and the world records broken it was armchair sports fan heaven. But for me, one of the surprise highlights of this Olympics was the taekwondo.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m just stating an observation, but to my untrained eyes, tkd does look a bit funny. I mean, there’s lots of hopping around with arms hanging limply by the sides, a bit of argey bargey interspersed with amazingly acrobatic kicks that seem unrealistic in self defence terms. But I was proved wrong. The success of the GB team meant the BBC showed lots of TKD (well, more than usual) and you only really get a sense of the skills when they show the slo-mo replays. Some of the kicking on display was unbelievable - sheer speed, accuracy and skill. It also highlighted the darker side to sports – the biased judging and ‘blindsided’ reffing that I thought was a hallmark of Olympics long past. I’m really glad the British girl, Sarah Stevenson, got her results changed. It showed what a farce, in these modern times, that such a clearly won technique could go against her. The decision to change the final result was unprecedented apparently, so she’ll go down in history, despite her eventual loss in the semi (she won a Bronze later though). I was also amazed at the Cuban guy, Angel Matos, who kicked a judge in the face with such ferocity and speed, you couldn’t help but he amazed at the skill – but of course we don’t condone his actions do we? Yes, in all the slickness and glamour of the Olympics games this year, it took an ancient martial art to provide some gritty entertainment.

My post ankle injury BJJ is progressing nicely at the moment. I managed to get 5 bouts of sparring in last night, one of them with the female blue belt, multi Gold medal winning whirlwind that is Pippa Grainger. My god, this girl, although petite, is fast and furious and armed with some neat techniques. I managed to get a few sweeps during sparring but she was strong and fast, oh and did I mention she was fast? I’m pretty pleased that I can roll with such a high calibre of students these days, my only concern is that I don’t make a tit of myself too often by getting caught with basic errors.

byMeerkatsu

in

August 26, 2008

Always believe in your soul, you're indestructable

Photo (c) Yahoo Sports/ AP News Wow, what an Olympics we just witnessed! With all the Gold medal bling of Team GB, and the world recor...

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Martial Art Doughnuts

A-levels, SATS, GCSEs – every year the same headlines ring out – exams are getting easier, grades are too high, ‘A’ grades are worthless, etc etc. But of all the academia stories seen in the press during this silly season, the press seem to reserve a special sneer at the unusual and quirky university degrees that our beloved institutes of education appear to specialise in. You know the ones. Degrees in things like surf science, acupuncture, parapsychology, even a degree in funeral studies – the list of non-traditional academic degrees is endless.
So why not a BSc in martial arts?
I’m serious! A curriculum could include all aspects of sports science that affect martial arts, lots of practical training in eastern and western arts, coaching studies, psychology, physiology and anatomy, history etc.
A degree in martial arts would give weight to individuals who wish to pursue their career as instructors with universally recognised academic qualification, as opposed to a simple black belt in a style no one’s ever heard of.
STOP PRESS…I’ve just been informed, and this is no lie, that you can actually do a university degree in martial arts. It comes from the University of West Coast in Panama (not quite Ivy League then) and is a distance learning course (those dreaded words distance learning…ahhhhh!)
STOP PRESS…God, I knew it, this Meerkat is obviously quick on ideas, slow on realising them. The University of Bridgeport in Connecticut, US, has an established martial arts degree – and one you can actually attend, rather than from a bogus place in Panama.
STOP PRESS…OK I give up, you can do a degree in martial arts at the even more renowned, Indiana University in the US.
Oh well, back to the drawing board. Martial Art doughnuts anyone?
BTW - the diploma picture above contains some offensive chinese words - you know when you are paranoid that the Chinese waiters are mocking you in front of your face?

Finally, finally, after about 7 weeks of injury provoked inactivity, I got back onto the mat at Nick's BJJ club. It felt sooooooo good to be back in training, and the sweeps we drilled were excellent. I was a bit gutted to miss the sparring but it was probably for my own safety so soon after injury. Instead, I looked after a bunch of kids who were scarily good at BJJ, despite being so young and tiny - the future of BJJ.

byMeerkatsu

in BJJ, humour, mill hill bjj

August 19, 2008

Martial Art Doughnuts

A-levels, SATS, GCSEs – every year the same headlines ring out – exams are getting easier, grades are too high, ‘A’ grades are worthless, et...

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Balls of Steel

I came across this clip quite randomly (I googled Juko Ryu, more about that later). If I am honest, it is pretty amazing stuff, I can't work out how they manage to withstand punches to the throat and kicks to the groin. If we disregard the ambiguous claim of channeling 'chi' energy, I would imagine that this skill takes many many years of repetitive training of those parts of the body to tense at exactly the right moment.
Not easy, but certainly feasible physically (not that I would want to test the idea personally!)
Genki Sudo is a MMA star who rather shockingly knocked out Royler Gracie in an MMA tournament. Us Royler fans don't talk about that one too much. Ahem. BTW Royler is coming back to the UK in October for a seminar, hoorah! I'm getting my gi ironed in anticipation right now!!!!

byMeerkatsu

in traditional ju-jitsu, video

August 15, 2008

Balls of Steel

I came across this clip quite randomly (I googled Juko Ryu, more about that later). If I am honest, it is pretty amazing stuff, I can't ...

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Coach Trip

Ju-Jitsu was entering an exciting time when I first joined my club over ten years ago. The Association was abuzz with news that a good showing in the forthcoming World Games would ensure a favourable candidacy towards Olympic Games acceptance. Fast forward ten years and those heady days are long gone and as I watch the Beijing Games, I can't help but feel a tang of envy at the judoka, taekwondo and even wushu competitors as they show the world their exciting martial arts.
What went wrong?
Nothing really. I think Olympic acceptance was never gonna happen for many reasons, mainly, that (1) it already has judo which is too similar, (2) the world governing body for ju-jitsu (JJIF) is not powerful enough to lobby the Olympic officials and (3) there are too many competing and, let's face it, more telegenic sports than ju-jitsu. Heck, even BJJ, a very glamorous and lucrative martial art if you compete at top level, will probably never reach Olympic acceptance for exactly the same reasons. And anyway, does anyone actually notice the World Games? go on, test yourself, where is the next World Games gonna be? Answer - Kaohsiung in Taiwan. Where? Yeah, exactly. But if in 2009 you do manage to find it televised on some obscure satellite channel, you will find the likes of Team GB competing in events such as skydiving, korfball, sumo, tug of war, fistball, and....life saving!

I write about this because I just spent two whole days qualifying for my Level 3 coaching certificate. Not much coaching was actually on display, simply a boring powerpoint demonstration about ethics, child protection, communication skills etc. But what made it worthwhile was the brilliant stories and anecdotes from Sensei Terry Parker, founder of the Jikishin system and, with 54 years of jujitsu experience, a wonderful mentor and host for the sessions. But, inevitably, during proceedings, my mind did wander and the whole JJIF and World Games debacle did enter my head as I was longing to be somewhere else instead of a coaching lecture...like watching the Beijing Games.

By the way, some will recall my post about my all night vigil to complete 11 essays as part of the written assignment part of my coaching qualification. Well, I passed them and not only that, was told that I passed with top marks and that my essays should be used as model examples for other students. Phew! My traditional tactics of crashing for exams at the last minute still works. Sadly I can't remember a single word, so I can't say I learned much by writing them.

So there you go. As you progress up the ladder of any organisation, be it sport or commerce, you inevitably come across bureaucracy, politics, officiousness and administration. The powers that be see it as a necessary goal in promoting the martial as a safe and respected sport. Nothing wrong with that. But as I wade through binders full of pages about health and safety policy and ethical obligations, I cast my mind back to the excited talk of World Games and Olympics and wonder if it has all ballooned just a bit too much beyond what is actually necessary and what is actually needed to maintain a decent organisation. During the two days, the best bits were when us candidates could actually express an opinion and share experiences about our own coaching tips. I learned a more through listening to what others experienced directly in their clubs than from the pages of any manual. Oh well, only another 3 years until I renew all the licences again.

byMeerkatsu

in jikishin ju-jitsu, sports coach, traditional ju-jitsu

August 11, 2008

Coach Trip

Ju-Jitsu was entering an exciting time when I first joined my club over ten years ago. The Association was abuzz with news that a good showi...

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Singapore Ju-Jitsu

I must give a shout out to Stephen Chee Shihan, founder of Ju-Jitsu Kobudo Singapore, who made our man Rob Line so welcome. As some of you know, Rob was a big presence at my club, having trained up to brown belt and was a winner of several medals in the random attack competition. He left the UK to take up a post in Singapore and wondered if he could find a good club out there. Well, Rob just emailed me to say he found a club and wrote a detailed account (which I will post in full on the Imperial website in due course) of his first session, here’s a snippet from his article:

“I had emailed the most promising looking jujitsu club last week, explaining what I was looking for and a little of my background training with Jikishin. I received an immediate reply from Stephen Chee Sensei, inviting me to join his dojo and make sure to ‘bring my gi’ on Sunday. Result. Turns out Stephen Chee Sensei is a 6th dan Jujitsuka, affiliated to the World Jujitsu Federation, which was developed by jitsu luminary Prof. Robert Clark in Liverpool.

After warm-up, was sparring. The rules were 1) no punching in the face. 2) Er..that’s it. We rotated along the line swapping partners every 20 seconds, and trying to work throws in. I managed an inside hock counter to a roundhouse kick on one of the brown belts - happy with that – and then the next fellow attempted a cheeky hip throw. I pushed him off and swept his leg - he didn’t go down, but was certainly well off balance. That was fun.

Finally we repeated the 20 second sparring rotating line-up, but with groundwork. This was interesting also, and I have to say that practicing at Seymour’s BJJ-infused groundwork sessions stood me in good stead. I fought three blackbelts, one orange belt and one brown. Drew the first four and submitted the last one, so I was quite pleased. With that the class was nearly over ; some warm down exercises brought things to a conclusion.”

From the impressions given by Rob, it seems they run things pretty well in Singapore and ju-jitsu classes are no exception. I noticed on the web that Stephen Chee is not only a 6th dan in jujitsu, but is a 5th dan in judo, 4th dan in karate and is also a qualified krav maga and arnis instructor…phew! What a cv. Good luck to Rob in his continuing jujitsu studies.

byMeerkatsu

in

August 05, 2008

Singapore Ju-Jitsu

I must give a shout out to Stephen Chee Shihan, founder of Ju-Jitsu Kobudo Singapore , who made our man Rob Line so welcome. As some of you...

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The Winner Takes It All

Recently I’ve been coming across a lot of newspaper articles about up and coming young sports athletes who are supposed to be the great British hope for medals when the Olympics comes around to London in 2012. But we have a number of young talents in the UK who are already winning gold medals at non-Olympic sports, and in the world of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, there is arguably no brighter star than 17-year old Daniel Strauss.
I’ve just got the news that Daniel, who is an assistant instructor at Nick Brook’s Mill Hill BJJ club and regular crusher of Meerkats, has won gold at the blue belt, featherweight category at the Rio de Janeiro State Championships. This tournament is pretty much up there amongst the big prestige events in BJJ, OK it’s not quite the Mundials, or the Pan Ams, but it’s still Rio and attracts the top competitors around the world. So to take it to the Brazilians and beat them at their own game…5 fights – 4 won by submission…is an out of the world achievement. Read more about Daniel’s fights here.
When he comes back, I shall give Daniel the honour of beating me up yet again, erm, pretty much as he always does anyway. God, and when I think back to my days as a very lazy, spotty, geeky 17 year old, obsessed with girls but too scared of them (hey, who said nothing has changed??), it's hard to fathom just how much work, dedication and personal sacrifice it takes to rise to the pinnacle of this, or any sport.

But, the Wagon-Wheel of success doesn't stop there folks. Of course I should also mention Nick’s own fantastic achievements at winning Gold in the brown belt category at the CBJJ International Masters & Seniors Tournament, also in Rio.
As one comment from a poster on the European Fight Network forum affectionately observes:

“This is further proof (as if it were needed) that of all the skinny old brown belts held together by sticky tape, Nick is the best”.

Indeed! But it's also pretty cool that I'm training at a club full of successful and decorated competitors. I shall take this as inspiration when I myself attempt to win a gold medal at this year's Jikishin Nationals in the slightly less than Copacabana surroundings of Southend on Sea.

byMeerkatsu

in

July 28, 2008

The Winner Takes It All

Recently I’ve been coming across a lot of newspaper articles about up and coming young sports athletes who are supposed to be the great Brit...

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Testing Times

Well Meerkatsu world is not exactly alight with martial art prowess at the moment as the ankle, despite making good recovery, is still too tender to run on or do anything jitsu. Still, it doesn't mean I am not busy, as the British Ju-Jitsu Association Governing Body coaching certification course is looming.
Let me remind readers what this mighty honour involves. First you need to have a senior grade. Purple belt is accepted but to be honest, most coaches apply for their licence when they reach first dan. Then you need CRB clearance. Understandable of course, who wants crims running our ju-jitsu schools...God forbid they might even know how to fight too. Then you need your first aid badge up to date (within last 3 years). This is mightily sensible and I won't be trite about this issue. Several bits more paperwork and then, here comes the really onerous bit - the homework you have to do before being allowed to participate on the 2 day course which costs £100 plus travel.
Now, for some reason, I got my wires mixed up and did not realise that my 'distance learning pack' was actually a single letter with essay titles and a website url to visit. Somehow, in my pea sized brain, I simply did not read the letter properly until the deadline to submit these lovely essays passed by.
So after a few stern words from the BJJAGB officer and I am allowed to submit them a week later. Realistically, what with small issues of children that wake at 4am, a day job and a ju-jitsu club to run, it leaves me only two days (make that two late nights burning the midnight oil) to write 11...yes 11 essays each filling up one A4 page.
Oh boy, now I don't mind a bit of background reading around the subject. Heck I don't even mind exams. But to wade through pages and pages of bland, unstimulating, GCSE-sports-science articles about health and safety policy and communications skills doesn't exactly fill me with excitement. But I gotta do them since I run a club and it would be weird to be a coach and not be qualified to be a coach.
So, forgive me if I seem a little stressed, but it's been decades since I had to submit essays for homework and and I've 3 more essays to write (yes, the time really is 1:34am, leaving me with 3 hours sleep before my kids wake screaming). Oh joy of joys.

By the way, as light refreshment, see if you can make out if this guy in the youtube video, is real or a spoof. Those who have done even one minute of BJJ will see that the techniques offered are not bonafide BJJ, but the chi power thing made me suspect it as a spoof. Anyway, see what you think (thanks for Nick Brooks for passing this on).

byMeerkatsu

in

July 18, 2008

Testing Times

Well Meerkatsu world is not exactly alight with martial art prowess at the moment as the ankle, despite making good recovery, is still too t...

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Ju-Jitsu Book Reviews

I can't help it, I love buying books about martial arts and especially Ju-Jitsu and BJJ books. I don't even read most of them, but I have to buy them.
But there are some that are worth mentioning, so here are my views on a couple, starting off with traditional jujitsu.

Ju-Jitsu, Eddie Ferrie, 1990

In the old days..I say old, I mean pre-UFC and the Gracies... jujitsu pretty much meant one thing - a syllabus-based system of self defence techniques culled from karate, judo and aikido with a few references to more ancient techniques and habits. BJJ has changed this and today, jujitsu could refer to quite a large range of styles. But let's stick with the jujitsu that we know and love and the one to which my JJ club mostly adheres to.

If you wanted to learn about this art in print form back in the oldie days, then Ferrie's book is the main guide to the background, history and modern day status of the art. It introduces all the aspects that typically the syllabus covers, from basic blocks, strikes and kicks to throws, locks, pressure points and weapons. It even has a section on gun defences! In general, the tone is light and easy without being burdoned by too much technicality. On the chapter of ground techniques, Ferrie wisely advises: "always keep the testicles protected...this is perhaps the most vulnerable part of the male anatomy"..quite.


Jiu-Jitsu, The Official WJJF TrainingManual, Robert Clark, 1991


So you've learned the history and liked what you saw in the Ferrie book. Back in the old days, you could learn all the syllabus techniques, step by step from the Robert Clark books. There was even a correspondence course one could follow with a black belt available by post to those who completed the course. Much has been muttered in JJ circles about this, and many other aspects surrounding the man Clark,but let's stick to the facts.

Robert Clark was one of the founding leaders of the style of JJ that most of us practice today and without his endeavours, arguably may not have been the success it is today. So we owe him some respect.

My own style of trad JJ closely follows the WJJF syllabus and so many of the techniques are identical (there is some argument about which came first...Sensei Parker says Jikishin came first so I'll take his word for it). Therefore I found these books to be very helpful when I was training for my kyu grades. Each technique is illustrated with four or five nicely posed and clear photos, followed by a short description. There is no discussion about the origin of the technique or the relevant possible applications, it is just a simple a-follows-b write-up. I personally would like more discussion for each technique.

The WJJF is still going, and these books can still be found on Amazon or Ebay. Worth getting if you train in trad JJ.

I wonder what Clark makes of all this cage fighting nonesense?


Ju-Jitsu, Martin Dixon, 2003

Here's a book written at a time when UFC, the Gracies and BJJ were starting to make big waves around the world of martial arts. In the ground fighting chapter, an allusion is made to this:

"ground-fighting has been very much in vogue in the last few years, but there is nothng new in the techniques."

This book basically follows the Ferrie book in terms of describing the components of the modern syllabus. But a huge chunk of the book is dedicated to non-technical aspects,including chapters on Ethics and Codes of Conduct, Philosophy, How to Find a Dojo etc.
I find all this boring and unnecessary. Speaking as a punter I want to see cool techniques and a description of how to do them.
But Sensei Dixon, who is Chairman of the governing body of Ju-Jitsu in Great Britain, obviously felt these were important to write about.
Overall however, the techniques are described fairly well and the photographs are a big improvement on the Ferrie and Clark books. It's a big ask to cover all the aspects of modern ju-jitsu in such a slim book but this book offers a useful introduction to beginners, if they skip the first half.


The Ju-Jitsu Handbook, Roy Inman, 2007

Roy Inman is an 8th dan in judo and a senior instructor at the world famous Budokwai in London. I was very curious that a judo expert was writing a ju-jitsu book so I bought it. At 250 odd pages it is the thickest ju-jitsu book here and it is in full colour.
Modern ju-jitsu shares many techniques with judo. In fact you could argue that ju-jitsu is judo with added punches and kicks. It is probably true to say, that given most ancient ju-jitsu ryu were secretive and unwritten, judo (and possibly aikido) was the only means by which modern syllabuses could be based. A sort of reverse engineering of martial arts.
Anyway, back to the book. The style offered here is very judo based obviously. The uke and tori in each photo really follow through with their throws in a very 'judo'style of throwing. That last sentance probably sounds pants but exponents of our style of ju-jitsu will probably understand what I mean. Although the photos are very clear, the accompanying descriptions are woefully brief.
Having said that. I like the book. The style difference is very minor so won't stop a student from picking up tips. The format is logical and and easy to follow. And all the basics are covered, from breakfalls to neck cranks and sacrifice throws. The ground-fighting chapter is a little better than the books above, but offers no more than a tiny selection of old-skool ground defences - as if BJJ never existed - which is strange given that it was printed in 2007. (and even stranger when you consider Roger Gracie - unstoppable World Champion - trains in judo at the Budokwai too). Anyway, I digress.
To sum, this book is the best so far and worthy purchase for keen jitsuka everywhere.

byMeerkatsu

in books, traditional ju-jitsu

June 30, 2008

Ju-Jitsu Book Reviews

I can't help it, I love buying books about martial arts and especially Ju-Jitsu and BJJ books. I don't even read most of them, but ...

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