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.
