Jikishin
Seminar and Tournament - By David Tedora
It
seems like only a few weeks since the last one, but on Saturday
3rd November we were back at Southend for the Jikishin Ju Jitsu
annual course and competition.
Star of the show as far as I'm concerned was our very own Sensei
Grant Wakeman, who kicked proceedings off with an aerobic warm-up
complete with ghastly repetitive 'music' the less said about which
the better. The one advantage was that it was too loud for anyone
to hear Sensei's unique approach to counting out repetitions of
an exercise ('5,4,5,4,3,4,3,2,3,2,1,1,1, last one, I lied, 1,1...'),
leaving those of us in the know with enough breath to give a sigh
of relief.
The course was an interesting mix of familiar and unfamiliar faces,
the former including Senseis Graham Sargeant, Chris Shepherd, Brian
Mallon and John Hunt (not to mention Brian Hebert) from Jikishin
and two superb Belgian instructors. Newcomers included a Sensei
Johanson from Denmark, who gave a witty and thought-provoking demonstration
of some simple but very effective knife defences, with particular
attention given to their applications in the dangerous and litigious
world outside the dojo. The big surprise was the presence of two
instructors from outside the world of traditional Ju Jitsu - a BJJ/MMA
instructor who showed some approaches to pins and triangle chokes,
and a Kung Fu instructor who concentrated purely on basic kicking
techniques but did so in such a way that I for one felt a dramatic
improvement in the power of my kicks as the demo went on. John Hunt's
explanation of the body's balance points was another highlight -
overall the emphasis throughout the morning seemed to be less on
dramatic techniques and more on simple principles whose implications
one could explore for oneself.
The morning ended with Grant and Sensei Eddie Garvey demonstrating
their new multi-weapon, aided by two teenagers from NKJJ's Kent
branch who went on to win gold in the Junior Pairs Kata competition.
A characteristically excellent demo was marred only by a stray tonfa
which cut Grant above the eye and necessitated a hospital visit.
After lunch the serious business of the competition started with
an Olympic style parade by all the competitors (efforts to find
the one Imperial Sensei present to lead the team out were in vain.
If only they'd followed the smell of cheeseburger they'd have tracked
me down easily). All in all the competitions were better organised
than in previous years - the decision to leave all the finals 'til
the end of the day made things easier but did leave some people
with long waits in between bouts.
One thing that really struck me was just how far the popularity
of groundfighting has developed - the men's groundfighting competitions
seemed to have more entrants than all the other adult categories
combined. And more and more of the competitors seem to have some
BJJ training, making things very competitive indeed.
Imperial and NKJJ had six entrants in the groundfighting - Mariusz
Raczsynksi, Wayne Maharaj, Anthony McEwen, Colm Hughes, Holly George
and Nazarella Scianguetta. Colm, Mariusz and Wayne were unfortunate
to come up against very strong competitors in the first round, but
showed skill and determination - their opponents had to work hard
for their wins. Wayne lost out to the silver medallist but won praise
from the eventual winner - 'Brazilian?' he asked. 'No,' Wayne would
have replied if I'd been scripting it, 'It's just my new groin protector.'
Holly - in her first competition - came up against a very skilful
Black Belt. As so often, the women's categories were woefully under-subscribed,
but while Holly was guaranteed a medal simply for being there, there
was nothing complacent about her performance. In Nazarella's category
as in Holly's there were just three competitors. In her first round
Nazarella - herself a newcomer to the competitive aspect of our
art - overpowered her opponent completely, but she lost in the final
(which I unfortunately missed). Anthony had a superb first fight
and was far too good for his opponent, winning convincingly. In
some of the day's other events that would have been enough to win
him a medal, but not in the groundfighting - he lost a close second
round match.
Sensei Tom Wyld's return to sparring followed a similar course -
in his first round he was positively imperious against a game but
inexperienced green belt, and in the next round he was crowded out
by an unimaginative but forceful opponent. When it came to the bronze
medal decider Tom was suffering a bloody nose but his opponent was
exhausted and it seemed that each of them was fighting himself as
much as the other - in the end the fight went to Tom, who had enough
in him to maintain pressure and controlled aggression to the last.
I emphasise the word 'controlled' here - this year's sparring saw
more injuries and disqualifications than any of us would like. One
unfortunate woman left the mat on a stretcher with her neck in a
brace - credit to those who won without letting the 'killer instinct'
get the better of them.
There was also Imperial interest in the Brown Belt Random Attacks.
In the first round Rob was pitted against an experienced competitor
who has won more than one medal in this competition before now.
But Rob won a unanimous decision and was straight through to the
final, which meant a mere 3-hour wait. Anh came up against the eventual
winner in his first round, but was sharp, dynamic and quick-witted,
even pulling off a fierce take-down which he'd only come up with
at Wednesday's training session - often the techniques that come
out in random attacks are the ones you're most familiar with, so
this was an impressive feat. I know, for I was that uke!
I was also Rob's uke in the final, and I have no idea what hit me.
Powerful and controlled though Rob's techniques were, he had to
settle for silver. However we did learn something new and useful
about Random Attacks. I've always been told that the judges don't
like to see sacrifice throws in this event, but the lady who won
used them for two of her three techniques in the final. She also
used an enormous amount of faintly ridiculous yelling, as did the
bronze medallist (Rob's first-round opponent). I must say I find
it a little disheartening that so much store is placed by the ability
to deafen your uke - a big 'kyai' on the final strike is one thing,
but when people are putting as much energy into stringing together
three or four multi-syllable spirit shouts as they are into their
techniques, you can't help wondering whether it's meant to judge
a Jitsuka's focus and dynamism or their ability to sound like an
antiquated Kung Fu movie.
NKJJK Senseis Grant Wakeman - fresh back from the hospital - and
Pete McCarney both competed in the two solo kata events. Pete gave
a fluent demonstration of the Nidan Long Stance kata, but I missed
his Sai and Grant's empty hand demo (in the latter instance we'd
all turned from watching Anthony in the groundfighting just in time
to see Grant bowing off the mat). What I did see was his weapons
kata, with an oar of all things (Papa Tedora's response when I told
him about this is unrepeatable and best understood if the phrase
'he used an oar' is heard in a Cockney accent. I told him that he
failed to appreciate the ancient Oriental values of respect and
deference for people who can hit harder than you can, but since
I wasn't talking about Arsenal, this fell on deaf ears). I'd never
seen this kata and I have no idea where it comes from, but the execution
was everything we've come to expect from Grant - fast, controlled,
fluid and dynamic. The only thing missing was an uke lying on the
floor screaming. Possibly wielding a paintball gun. Best moment
of the day was watching Grant sit and applaud as his name was called
out for the first of his two gold medals. 'Grant!' we shouted at
him, 'It's you!'
All in all a successful event for Imperial and NKJJ, with medals
galore and hopefully a valuable learning experience for everyone.
It looks as though the groundfighting skills that Seymour has been
working on with so many of our kyu grades is paying dividends -
surely a gold medal or two can't be far off?
ENDS
David
Tedora, 1st dan black belt, assistant coach at Imperial Ju-Jitsu
Club, South Kensington, London.
