Our training approach and program

In our Judo club, we carry on exercises in proportion to the bodily strength. Judo as a game belongs to the “fighting” games and so often assumes all the aspects of an intensive strength. In the practice of Judo, however, we teach Kata (forms). That is, the kata enables the Judo student to adjust the amount of exercise according to our students bodily strength and age, and yet is fully effectual both in respect to interest and benefit.

In all classes in our judo club we maintain:

• Steadiness, and staying power to the muscles

• Flexibility (giving mobility to the spinal column and other joints together with full elasticity of the muscles)

• Adroitness (quickening the function of the motor nerves and making movements both nimble and steady)

The natural posture, is the posture of a person standing quietly with his head and upper body kept upright, arms hanging without constraint and legs not so firm and widely apart. This is the description of the proper posture as regards its form, but it has a deeper, wider significance. When this posture is maintained, it may be considered that 1) the body keeps stability and does not fall.

There is an old expression, "Motion in rest." It means that rest is with motion, so it indicates the principle of natural posture.

In our Judo club, from the day you enter, we teach the value of courtesy and respect. We recognize the dignity of another's personality. In other words, it is the spirit of living in harmony with one another in social life. Every moment, the student learns that exercises in Judo should begin with courtesy and end with courtesy.

In our club, in order to gain the victory, surpass the opponent in mental power, technical skill, and physical strength. These three factors must be united in gaining the mastery over an opponent. The mastery is brought into play in the form of various techniques, and although there are a large number of them, they may be summed up and resolved into one word sen (initiative or lead).

Sometimes the opponent himself loses the balance, and at other times you positively destroy the opponent's balance, leading him to a vulnerable posture. What this means? destroying the opponent's balance before performing a technique and putting him in a posture where it will be easy to apply it.

In our club, every time we train, or perform a fight we teach our students to bow. In the standing position techniques we teach that we do not act against the force applied by the opponent, but, while following it, he makes use of the force and tries to break the opponent's posture. We have zero tolerance when it comes to bad manners or misbehavior to our opponent friend in class.