Monday, November 19, 2012

No Hesitation Drills


In thinking about what the players at the West Coast Judo Training Center needed to work on this weekend, it occurred to me that they had the same need I see everywhere, all the way up through the international level.

That is, players need to overcome their hesitation. They wait for the perfect opportunity to attack and miss all of the "okay" or "possibly okay" opportunities that face them every few seconds.

When Ronda started judo, I told her that if you did not attack every three seconds, you got a penalty. She want along thinking that her first three years of competition until Tawny Uemura (I'm STILL pissed at you for this, Tawny) told her that it wasn't true.

Of course, by then, the pattern had been laid down and she continues to attack pretty relentlessly to this day.

Yesterday, we did several drills with the purpose of reducing hesitation. In one, players randori and if they don't attack every three seconds, they get whacked with a belt. As you can see, you need a few assistants to make this happen. As you can also see, the players are attacking with much greater frequency than in the usual randori session.

Attacks on the mat count, too. So do non-attacks. Lay and pray, get whacked with a belt.

This is one of several drills we did to reduce hesitation.

On the way back, I was thinking about how I would really like a book on drills. I called Jimmy and said,

"Hey, now that we're done this one, what do you say we write another book?"

and he said,

"NO!"

But I told him that I really would like to have a book on drills, and I had a lot of matwork drills that did not get in this book and I was sure he had a lot of drills, too. At which point, he said, he would think about it after this one came out which either means he might do it or that he just wanted to get back to watching the Patriots.

As to why this book is taking so long to be published, I have no idea except that it is apparently always this way with books. Supposedly it is because the publishers have to do all kinds of marketing for months to convince people to buy it, so lots of three-martini lunches with buyers from Barnes & Noble have to happen first. Seems sketchy to me, but that's what the New York Times Sunday Book Review says.

A few months from now, when I meet some of the deadlines for my day job, I think I may start on a second book. By the time I get around to it, hopefully our first book will be out and I will be able to talk Jim into doing half of it.

3 comments:

Fitz said...

If you are physically and athletically superior. Yes it might be a good advice to always attack. But as you grow older and weaker, or you are fighting a much stronger, more skilled and more athletic opponent; relaxing, conserving energy and surviving I think is the key. This is what I currently believe as a Gracie Jiu Jitsu student which I learned from the ideas of Ryron Gracie's Keepitplayful dot com.

Dr. AnnMaria said...

If your point is to win matches, then you need to attack.

If your objective is to roll around and lose some weight, which is a FINE objective, then relaxing and surviving is a fine attitude to take.

Unknown said...

I'm not sure I can get behind the idea of getting older and weaker - since I've started judo, I've gotten older (inevitable) and stronger (highly feasible - especially as research shows even very old [70-80+ yr old seniors build muscle) and more flexible by competing with stronger, more skilled, more athletic individuals (and by having a top-notch black belt pushing the class). Of course, I get thrown and submitted an awful lot (and gas out even more) - but isn't that the point of rough-and-tumble play? I.e., to push oneself and accept both success and defeat, but ultimately to learn, get better and get stronger (and, ok - earn ice cream!)?

In any case - I like the idea of constant attacking (I might have to start with a 5-second rule) - I'll have to see if I can convince my black belt and senior brown belt to whack me when I don't attack!!!

@Dr.AnnMarie - good luck with waiting for the book to come out - my one experience was maddening (especially after all the formatting pain) so that by the time the book came out, it really didn't seem like my work anymore (but that was an academic press). Regardless - it's on my Xmas wish list!