[SODO]

Hi James,

Quote

Heh, I can see how it might sound that way.

I come from a grappling background before judo. My point was that I am at what I would call an "intermediate" stage in grappling. I can see something once and usually perform it. That is due mostly to 3 years or so of prior submission work.

But, as far as anything else in judo goes, I am still a total noob. I have a LOT to learn before I can even begin to catch on to a technique that is demonstrated for me. I feel like I need to prioritize my training(if you consider reading a type of training. I do.) focus until it balances out a bit. Does that make sense?

atb

sodo

[Tani Otoshi]

judogido, on Nov 2 2009, 11:01 PM, said:

Actually, I thought the Pajama Game was a great read!

Very amusing, with a lot of great non-technical judo stuff, including history etc.

Would definitely recommend it for a recreational read.

The Pyjama Game: A Journey into Judo is a quite extraordinary book and absolutely hilarious in parts. I was casually reading it on London's underground and got caught by Law's "southbound flight over Chelsea" bit, immediately bursting into laughter and then realising everybody was looking at me like a madman. I just couldn't stop myself.

Below, London's Mayor Boris Johnson, one of the most recognisable politicians in the UK, holds up a copy of The Pyjama Game and interestingly, Mark Law used to work as Johnson's editor at The Daily Telegraph.



Another book which is very funny and will interest those that enjoyed The Pyjama Game, is Fight the Good Fight: From vicar's wife to killing machine.

It is judo from a woman's perspective and a vicar's wife at that including very funny bits, quite a bit of swearing and described on the back as "... the funniest take on spiritual struggle since the last Lions vs. Christians fixture".

It is definitely a book worth reading.

[Jascooper]

So much to read, so little time. I was surprised at the number of books I haven't read; I am going to get right to work on:

1) Judo Heart and Soul, by Nishioka
2) Judo Memoirs of Jigoro Kano, by Watson
3) History of Judo, by Hoare
4) The Fighting Spirit of Japan, by EJ Harrison
(If this is the book I think it is, I read it years ago and it is a fun time full of legends and tall tales of historic figures.)
5) Miyamoto Musashi: His Life and Writings, by Tokitsu

Another couple of books about Musashi are:
6) The Lone Samurai, by Wilson
(A little dry, but with good documentation of the legend, along with a couple of things that I question. You can't know enough about the man they named two battleships after.)
7) Vagabond, by Inoue
(This is an award winning Japanese manga series for ages 16+ [extreme violence, sexual situations, nudity.] While not about Judo, it covers the Bushido spirit and the striving to be "invincible." The first few volumns are slower [with all the fighting, you can't really say slow,] but from vol. 20 up, the action and the story are wonderful, thrilling, and enlightening in its discussion of the martial spirit. Viz has begun to release the series in a collected form, lowering the price and improving the quality. One of the best Martial Arts reads around.)

Here are some of the books I have read:
8) Martial Musings, by Robert W. Smith
(No one mentioned this one, but it is a fun read--especially if you were involved in Chicago Judo in the last 40 years. This first third of the book talks about Judo and some famous players, many from Chicago [there is also a funny typo on the caption of one of the photos that reverses the names of two well known judoka.] The book is often rambling, as if Smith is just talking into a tape recorder, but the stories are fun and well worth the read.)
9) Falling Hard: A Journey into the World of Judo, by Mark Law
(I just finished this book and it was okay. It was less of a book and more of a collection of essays divided into chapters; many of the chapters were just a collection of essays on similiar topics. While it was interesting, and I learned a lot from it, it was a difficult read; the author wrote as if he was trying too hard to impress me with his writing and his humor--he often got off a clever joke or an interesting passage, but most of the time it seemed that I was just having to wade through his writing to get to where we were going.)
10) Judo in the US: A Century of Dedication, by Brousse and Matsumoto
(What a great book! Definitely for people who have been in US Judo for a while, but a good collection of fun stories and facts and photos. I must say that I am biased because I knew, or knew of, many of the people in the book and it was bit like going home to the past.)
11) Angry White Pajamas, by Twigger
(The best martial arts story I have ever read. Even though it is not about judo, I could appreciate and envy everything that the author was going through. Along with the great Aikido scenes, it discussed the feelings of training hard and wondering what it was all for, and still showing up at the next class. BTW, if you want to develop an inferiority complex, check out what Twigger has done since he finished that book--he's done more before age 30 than most people do their entire lives.)

I really think that it is important for Judo to get these stories out to the public. We should learn from and emulate the other popular sports and get the human side of Judo into the public consciousness. Just as baseball and football became popular in the US by grabbing the publics imagination with newspaper stories about the players, short stories and novels about the game, and movies using the sport as a theme, Judo needs to get in front of the public, get our story told, to be appreciated.

In the '60s, just when people were getting excited about Judo and it was getting a popular attention, there was a feeling (especially coming from the Japanese community) that too much attention was disrespectful of Judo--that we couldn't be "too popular" or we would be selling out our sport. I remember that feeling, and supported it, and sometimes Judo shot itself in the foot by being too political, to sensitive, and setting too high a standard for itself. Just as we were involved in a giant "family squabble," karate stepped in and stole the spotlight.

I think that we can be both popular and high-minded; we can protect the reputation of Judo and be popular. One of the first things we can do to get popular, again, is to start collecting all the Judo stories and publishing them. I remember hanging around the dojo after practice and listening to stories of the famous and infamous things that judoka do. Judoka seem to be the kind of people that insert themselves into interesting situations, both good and bad; whether it is helping stop hijackers on Flight 93 or roughing up Bernie Madoff, Judo people seem to get involved. We need to tell those stories.

So...what is your story?