By the Director team, Jokokan Honbu
Then it was once again time for a Ju-jutsu 1 course under Shindenkan. The Ju-jutsu 1 course is a course that covers fall technique. The purpose of the course is to create safety and familiarity for the student with fall technique. Falling is something everyone can do. But falling without hitting is reserved for the few. Falling correctly is about technique, not about chance and hoping you don't hit yourself.
There were 21 participants registered for this course. In addition to fall technique, the course also gives the participants an introduction to what you, as a student, are built up for when freestyle is discussed. That is freestyle where you cannot win medals and prizes.
One half of the instructor team, which consisted of Søren Renshi-dai and Kjeld Renshi-dai, are former competition fighters at elite level. He has participated in many hundreds of matches both at home and abroad, which has also resulted in WC bronze in Japan.
Kjeld Renshi-dai, who is the half in question here, talked about his experience with the difference between competitive matches and matches that took place without rules. At the same time, he shared his experience regarding intensity with fighters from 3 kyu to 5 Dan. Something that he had felt on his own body.
After the review of the theory and why we must learn to fall in Shindenkan, it was time for the practical part.
Forward roll fall, backward roll fall, side fall, forward fall, backward fall were all reviewed and tested with an intensity and focus that made most of the participants sweat.
Many of the participants had tried to do fall technique before, but few were aware that you can actually do fall technique slowly and through that find your own mistakes and shortcomings. Much emphasis was placed on performing the techniques slowly. This is done so that the participants do not get dizzy, but also to give them an opportunity to sense what happens when you do the fall technique.
The slower you can do the technique, the more difficult it becomes and the more you learn.
As the course progressed, more and more people found out that it is actually oneself who must control the fall technique and not the fall technique who must control oneself.
This was concretely expressed when Kjeld Renshi-dai performed backwards roll falls at a pace reserved for the killer snails from the surrounding gardens. In fact, he had to perform this a few times, as the participants did not believe that it could be right that it could perform so slowly. But as they gradually managed to do it themselves at a suitable pace, more and more also began to accept that it was about technique and not about chance.
The participants at Shindenkan courses are all of different sizes and genders. There are big men with great rolling resistance and there are little girls who can curl up like a bench-biter. But they all have one thing in common and that is that they want to learn something.
The participants of this ju-jutsu 1 course were no exception. A big thank you goes out to all the participants for their focus and hard work. The jokokidz in particular can be proud of themselves. Despite the fact that the course was held on Friday evening, they persevered until the end.
Who can - I can.
