How is Newaza taught in your Judo Club

[BKR]

The importance is to differentiate your goals for that training session. Sadly not many coaches understand this and expect people to just go along. Most of the time they are just regurgitating something taught to them in that specific manner and just took it at face value.

There are instances were you need to just start from a certain position and there are others where you shouldn't. In learning a specific maneuver for a specific situation you should just focus on that ie. learning, drilling and technique.

If you are just looking it improve overall performance than free roll starting from the knees, back to back or whatever, conditioning and agility.

If you are looking to improve for competition than you should work from standing to the submission and vary the amount of resistance from uke, contest specific training.

Generally I don't restrict the amount of time that they spend on the ground because as long as they are moving the match will continue according to the rules. I tell them to stand up when they get to a stalling position or nothing is happening for a few seconds.


There are certainly plenty of wrong ways to do things and many right ways to do them also. Most importantly its what you need to get out of the session that is the important factor. Many times I restrict players to doing just one choke or armbar. That is the only way that they can finish the session. Now the test for them is to find the submission or gain the position in order to finish and to develop critical thinking or problem solving skills. Instead of just going through the motions like when you drill.

Many of these things coaches do things and do not know why they do them. They saw something somewhere and just do it. Instead of learning the why they just learn the do and think that they are coaching. So much of it goes far beyond the doing and instead is in the knowing. The more important aspect of this is to be able to convey this to your students so they also understand the goals you are setting and making them part of the learning process. We need to get past the "because I said so style of coaching" and the students need to become more educated about what they are learning as martial artists.

Good post, Josh. I am constantly explaining to my students the process we are going through and why, and how the process is linked to understanding the principles/concepts involved instead of just "how do armbar". It is also critical so they can learn how to train themselves and to recognize when they are being trained incorrectly when/if they leave their home dojo.

I think that as you suggest, most people just learn "how do armbar" and end up coaching the same way.

Ben

[judoka_uk]

Some good posts, especially Coach Josh.

My take here:
http://www.bullshido.net/forums/showthread.php?t=106407

[bigstu31s]

The transition from throw to ne waza is what he refers to. Many people do not practice transitions, say, from Kouchi Gari to a pin or armbar, they just practice the throw, and pin/armbar separately. That's OK to start, but you have to put them together in order to be truly effective.

.

Ben

Ok I understand now and yes we have done drills like this in the past, usually with Uke not resisting the throw but then resisiting the ensuing groundwork.
Some very interesting responses from all, especailly from yourself, Coach Josh and Judoka_uk and also an excellent post on Judoka_uk's blog on transitioning.

Going back to my original post and my concerns that Newaza may be taught at my club indefinately with a 15 second limit on getting a pin/submission, I'm glad i'm not alone in thinking this is a bad idea and with me pushing the big 40, in regards to age, and having a wealth of other MA experiance i'm not shy about questioning the teaching methods of my instructors, althought being a lowly 5th kyu I will chose my words carefully.

[JudOWNED]

Roughly speaking, every class goes warmup (including Ukemi), newaza technique, newaza randori, tachiwaza technique, randori. We do lots of rolling, usually 3-6 min rounds. And sometimes we just roll to warm-up, skipping our normal warm-up routine. If anything, we spend too much time doing newaza! lol ...For a Judo club, anyway.