A Karate Solution to a JiuJitsu Problem

A couple of weeks ago I learned a new takedown. The closest video example I've found is Chris Wells showing it as a 'spiral takedown' on youtube -- check it out.

At any rate, this sort of takedown is a whole new category for me. I've never practiced working from the collar tie position and I've never practiced reaching down to 'tap' a leg. It's pretty exciting to learn something so new. Of course, being completely new, it's something I'm no good at doing.

So now I've got a problem -- I want to be good at it, because it's an easy way to put some on their back with very little exposure to being thrown myself. And I'll probably see it in class again in, say, two years.

So how do I get better at it? How can I even remember how do it?

I hope everyone reading this is shouting "Practice it on your own!" at their computer screens. Because that's what it takes. But it's a throw and I learned it with a partner. And I don't have a convenient training partner. So one option, and it's a good one, is to find a training partner. If I could still train at Broad Ripple Martial Arts, I'd be able to rustle up some partners and some mat space. But where I'm training now, I still need to build those relationships. So in the meantime I need another option.

Fortunately, this is not a new problem. The teachers of the Chinese-Okinawan-Japanese arts solved this problem a long time ago. If I want to practice a partner technique without a partner I can use kata.

We learn kata as set routines. That's because we use kata to transmit the basic (and not so basic) techniques of Shorei Goju Ryu from teacher to student. But we can also use the concept of kata to practice any technique we want. Really, when you practice basic techniques like seiken-tsuki or han uchi ken you are doing a (very) short kata.

And that's how I'm going to practice my new takedown: In the air, without a partner. It'll probably look like goofy dancing to most people. But since I'll know what it means, I'll know it's making me better at tossing people onto the floor.

There are advantages and disadvantages to practicing this way, and understanding those can help you understand how to make your kata more effective training.

But that's for another post.