[stokka]

1.I am a newbie - doing judo since September.
2. Second practice I got thrown by somebody with a blue belt who did not do any judo for many years and just came back. He is twice as big as me. He went for a tai-otoshi, blocked my leg at knee level (so my knee was under his leg) and applied a lot of force trying to throw me. Even if I would want to be thrown I could not fall that way, as he was blocking my knee with his leg. He kept pulling and eventually I have managed to free my knee, and at that moment he had me thrown right on my head, so I got a headache for a week after that. That was not fun.

Now I have a fear of being trown which affects my randori not in a good way. What do I do, how I get rid of it.

Thank you

[judogido]

There will always be people who cannot perform a throw very well and sometimes even very experienced players can get hurt. Very often returning players need some time to re-learn their skills and might try something they think they know - but actually need more practice to perfect.

My advice to you is:

1. Keep practicing your breakfalls
2. Make sure you warm-up and stretch properly EVERY TIME
3. Either fight lighter and "go with the throw" OR
4. Politely ask if he would mind not fighting you and leave him to the more experienced players until he gets better.

As you get more experience you will become better at avoiding bad or rough techniques. You will also begin to trust your breakfalls more.

As for you fear - it is like a barking dog. If you stay and face it it will go away - but if you run - it will chase you and keep snapping at your heels until you DO face it.

[Jim]

jugogido, on Jan 3 2005, 06:42 PM, said:

There will always be people who cannot perform a throw very well and sometimes even very experienced players can get hurt. Very often returning players need some time to re-learn their skills and might try something they think they know - but actually need more practice to perfect.

My advice to you is:

1. Keep practicing your breakfalls
2. Make sure you warm-up and stretch properly EVERY TIME
3. Either fight lighter and "go with the throw" OR
4. Politely ask if he would mind not fighting you and leave him to the more experienced players until he gets better.

As you get more experience you will become better at avoiding bad or rough techniques. You will also begin to trust your breakfalls more.

As for you fear - it is like a barking dog. If you stay and face it it will go away - but if you run - it will chase you and keep snapping at your heels until you DO face it.

Great advice Judogido. Nothing else really needs to be said. As JG said prepare, prepare and never avoid the issue. If you confront things in life (including fear of breakfalls) they will eventually melt away.

[Casper]

Cornelius....I had the exact same fear issue recently. My problem was that I got injured taking falls/throws and began to anticipate the throw, which made it much worse. It happens...but as previously mentioned...face it now, or you will not be able to continue. Falling is part of the game.

What I did...

I asked one of our sensei's for help. He took me aside and we worked on crash pads for the whole training session. He gave me advice on where I was going wrong and doing it right.
Then, I started coming to class early and working all of my ukemi (front rolls, back, side, etc). Over, and over, and over...(you get the idea!)

From there, I started being thrown...on my own terms. If a judoka is not playing nice, I don't exchange throws with him. Simple as that. Have the higher ranks throw you....they will not let you get hurt...and it will boost your confidence back to where it needs to be for falling.

Lastly...when you're beginning to feel the confidence again (and you will), exchange throws with another friendly judoka as often as possible.

[JudoSensei]

This is a problem that you will find repeats itself even as you advance in rank. It seems like every time you get injured you begin to lose your confidence. You have probably noticed that when you lose your confidence you tend to stiffen up and actually get injured more so it turns into a repeating cycle.

Both approaches are sound -- ease off and practice with kids until you feel more confident, or face the demon and overcome it more directly. The real key is to know when you are not feeling right about practice. If you aren't ready to go at it then back off. There is no need to chase after the barking dog, just don't run away.

[judojohn]

every once in a while, one of my kids gets the fear of being thrown. i usually just have all the students line up after ukemi practice, and i throw them. nice and easy, so they can relax and learn to realize that being thrown is not a harsh thing. i occaisonally have kids who hold on to me with their left hand instead of slapping with it. the throwing practice usually works.

[JudoBJJKid]

judojohn, on Jan 4 2005, 12:58 PM, said:

every once in a while, one of my kids gets the fear of being thrown. i usually just have all the students line up after ukemi practice, and i throw them. nice and easy, so they can relax and learn to realize that being thrown is not a harsh thing. i occaisonally have kids who hold on to me with their left hand instead of slapping with it. the throwing practice usually works.

It's amazing how experienced Judokas and teachers can launch you so high and yet set you down like a baby!

[Taigyo]

It's called c-o-n-t-r-o-l and suprisingly enough it also allows you to slam the hell out of someone if you chose to (way harder than an uncontrolled throw).

[Tikvo]

Cornelius,

I have had a couple of instances where I have been dropped heavy by one of the Sempai (Assistant Instructor), funny enough out of Tai Otoshi also, and landed square on the lumbar of the spine. As Taigyo said...your Tori must have Control. We practise a commitment in Judo that is mutual respect. Basically you train with someone, the way you want them to train with you.

I'd expect that you have told your club Sempai / Sensei, and respectfully they will probably not let you train with that person [apart from talking to that person about their throwing skills]. Train with the Sensei wherever possible for a while.

My Sensei is a National Champion at Nage No Kata. So when I had to do it for my Shodan grading, I was in compelte faith with him. Honestly, these are big throws, and include some Sacrifice throws too, and I felt fine.

You'll be ok.

[Johnny_BoomBoom]

We were practicing Uki Waza once, and I had a guy shoot his legs the wrong way or grip me bad or something. He ended up doing a technique similar to No Wake in Ju-jitsu or something to that effect, where he essentially ended up making me dive head first into the mat (luckily ours is spring loaded). My sensei whos a chiropractor came over panicked and started asking me to wiggle my fingers and toes.

I was pretty much okay, but I had a nasty kink in my neck that hurt for about 10 days and was just totally afraid to be thrown by Uki Waza.

Eventually I just had a bunch of guys throw me with uki waza whether I liked it or not for about 10 minutes, and I was pretty much back on the horse.

[Scaramouch]

Similar experience. There is a brown belt guy at my club who always seems to throw you in a way which is difficult to breakfall out of - he caught me last class with harai goshi, I went with the throw and prepared to breakfall but he clung onto my arm. This resulted in me over rotating and landing on the side of my hip - ouch.

He told me once he had never had a bad injury from Judo - not surprising given no one wants to do randori with him. Its funny, the instructors even avoid him.