I remember sitting in the Phoenix Public Library in the summer after my fifth grade year at Emerson Grade School on Palm Lane in Phoenix, Arizona; there was a gigantic, incredibly heavy plaster and cheesecloth cast on my right arm, and my right elbow and right wrist were bent at a 90 degree angle, because the doc had experienced a little problem in getting the jagged ends of the broken radius and ulna to stay in alignment.
So turning the pages was kind of a sinister project, you know?
My fifth grade had been slightly more eventful than the years prior and afterward, because an eighth grader I didn’t know from a hole in the ground had decided, one lunch hour, to give me an impromptu lesson in vocabulary, and judo. Specifically breakfalls in judo. Or what happens when you don’t know breakfalls in judo.
For instance.
He’d taken a judo class or two at some local club, and apparently was having one of those days when the only way to make himself feel better was to find somebody who was a nice, safe victim.
I fit the bill. A head shorter, thirty pounds lighter, stammering, and scared of my personal shadow, I did just fine.
That is, I was the object lesson showing the results of leverage, momentum and gravity when he used an outer reaping throw to demonstrate his judo expertise.
I was not a voluntary partner in the demonstration.
Now, that event gave me several things; a broken right arm (no breakfall classes? not good!), an abiding interest in health, healing and longevity, a lifelong interest in martial arts (particularly breakfalls, which have saved my life several times since I learned them), and a strong interest in avoiding environments in which I might become an involuntary demonstration partner.
At the library there were just about five books on self-defense and martial arts. There was George Mattson’s The Way of Karate, which rocked my world.
There was a two-volume set about Judo, which I already knew was effective, and I dearly loved those books. One volume taught throws, one volume taught groundwork in judo. And Oda knew a lot, and was generous in what he taught.
There was an illustrated (with line drawings) self-defense book compiled and published by Sports Illustrated, and I’ve never been able to find it again; I doubt the reality could match my memory. But if any reader finds that book, which would be an old paperback published by Sports Illustrated on the topic of self-defense, with line drawings as illustrations, I’d love to see it to compare it to my memories.
And there was “Kill or Get Killed”, by Rex Applegate, an encyclopedic volume that was way over my head. While it contains some of the most effective martial techniques known to mankind, it’s probably good that I didn’t like it as much. Those techniques, used on the playground at Emerson, would have led me down a road terminating at, oh, Folsom Prison.
Students today are have much more to chose from and review in learning about self-defense and fighting.
I recently screened the first two volumes of Winning, Competition Karate
by Yukiyoshi Marutani & Hideharu Igaki.
Here’s all you need to know about it: first, I couldn’t tell what style the authors had trained. Maybe Shotokan, maybe something else. I’ve been too lazy to track it down, although I’m certain that information is all over the internet and probably on the DVD jacket.
Second, the DVDs that I’ve looked at in this series are nothing short of brilliant and remarkable. The production values are very good, but why would you care?
When you watch the approach these guys take to traditional karate sparring techniques, and you learn from them, you will get better at what you do. For these guys, sparring and teaching sparring in the context of karate tournaments is just another day at the office. They are professionals.
If you want to watch how the grown-ups do it, this is a series you need.
And seriously, when I think about the wealth of information that is available today on the internet, I’m almost glad it wasn’t around when I was a kid.
Information overload would have set in, and I would have given up on the topic entirely.
