5 Inspirational Quotes From the Founder of Judo to Transform Your Martial Arts Training
Kano Jigoro’s tips to train smarter not harder
As a young man, Kano Jigoro came up against some formidable martial artists. He realized that he could never beat them by training harder.
He needed to train smarter.
To do this he combined the aspects of different schools of jujutsu to create Kodokan Judo.
Here are 5 of his quotes that will help you train smarter too.
“It won’t do for far-thinking people to place importance on winning or losing.”
We’ve all been there (especially us beginners). We treat every training session like a contest. We fight to block the throw or the guard pass. But it can be hard to control how much force and pressure you’re using when you’re focussing on winning. This can lead to injuries.
But Kano thought training shouldn’t be about winning or losing. Or being better than your partner. It’s about improving. You only need to be better than the last session. That’s it.
By switching the focus from winning to improving, you’re able to relax more, which means you see more opportunities. Then you get to practice the techniques you’ve been working on.
“The pine fought the storm and broke. The willow yielded to the wind and snow and did not break. Practice jujutsu in just this way.”
When practicing martial arts, you can end up in some uncomfortable positions. Positions that most of us aren’t used to. When this happens, some people freak out. Their movements become erratic. They get out of breath. They forget the concepts and techniques they have learned.
Because they don’t accept the position.
Kano said don’t fight the position. Be pliable. Stay calm, accept the position, analyze what is happening and what you need to do to improve the situation. Then wait for your opportunity.
But if you fight it, it’s harder to see those chances. So don’t focus on the escape right away. Think about improving your position. Then the escape will come.
“Apply just the right amount of force — never too much, never too little.”
Sometimes you grip so tight that your fingers hurt after practice. Well, maybe you’ve been holding on with too much strength. Or there are other times when your partner can escape or sweep. Because you’re not giving enough pressure.
As martial artists, we need to be able to selectively apply force. This is called selective tension.
In other words, applying force only when necessary. You don’t need to grip with full power all the time. You only need to grip with full power when you’re initializing your throw.
Or let’s say you’re on top in side control. You don’t need to apply full pressure on your partner all the time. You only need to do that when you feel they’re about to move.
By applying the right amount of force at the right time, we can protect ourselves and our partners from injury. We also become more energy efficient. Gripping with full power the whole time is tough. So selectively use power and you’ll be able to train longer.
“In randori we learn to employ the principle of maximum efficiency even when we could easily overpower an opponent. Indeed, it is much more impressive to beat an opponent with proper technique than with brute force”.
Continuing from the last quote is this one. Moving as efficiently as possible is one of the principles of Kano’s judo. We don’t want to be forcing techniques.
For beginners like myself, it feels easier to use power during training. We can muscle through techniques to hide deficiencies in our technique. It feels easier but it isn’t. Because it’s less efficient. We need to use way more energy this way.
We should be training smarter. We shouldn’t be focussing on winning.
Our focus should be on completing the movement with efficiency. The only way to do this is by spending enough time drilling to master techniques.
By nailing the technique, understanding the variations, and what might happen, the movement becomes efficient. Then you don’t need to muscle it.
“To ask may be but a moment’s shame, not to ask and remain ignorant is a lifelong shame.”
Finally, we’re all training to learn. And the learning never really ends.
To continue improving, Kano said we need to ask questions. We need to be curious. We need to be willing to learn.
It would be a shame to miss out on all the knowledge and experience of our training partners by not asking questions. So during training, ask questions. Be curious.
Think about the possibilities and ask ‘what if…’
