Judoist: Judo and IMA NOT the same

Over at The Best Judo Blog is a really interesting read about a recent controversy. The writer, Ben Holmes, doesn’t mention the forum that the discussion he’s talking about is taking place at nor the name of the person who he says is asserting that judo has the same type of internal strength (IS) elements as IMA. At the risk of sticking my foot in my mouth, I’m going to guess that I know who he’s talking about. A certain VERY controversial figure in the American IMA community that used to study with Chen Xiao Wang has recently moved into JMA, specifically aikido. The move has brought a certain amount of discomfort. Apparently his remarks now are also aimed at judo as well, and that’s what has gottem Holmes riled up.

If I’m correct, then at least part of the debate is represented here. This is a long thread about how the “jo trick” in aikido is very similar to CIMA in that students of aikido founder Ueshiba could not move the jo stick in his hand. He apparently had such peng jin that they couldn’t move it and the presence of that peng jin is what is being discussed. Of course, the very existence of peng jin in JMA is controversial, there’s no name per se for it. It all falls under the umbrella of ki. That’s where the argument begins.

Here’s a quote from the blog summing up Holmes’ problems with what’s being asserted:

What makes this topic really amusing, is that those who assert that “internal” skills are present in Judo, believe that they are present in Kuzushi – one of the best documented foundational differences between traditional Japanese Jujutsu, and the art Kano created, known as Judo.

We have an interesting conundrum here… we must either believe that Jigoro Kano was too stupid to understand the Japanese terms traditionally used (for example, in Aikido) to reference “internal” skills, or that Jigoro Kano was trying to reserve this as a secret teaching of Judo.

That Jigoro Kano was an educator all of his life would tend to throw doubt on the idea that he had no concept of “Ki” or “Aiki”, to mention two examples… so this idea is silly on the face of it.

However, the concept that he might have been reserving these teachings on “internal” skills as a secret for only higher level students deserves a quick thrashing… Jigoro Kano always viewed Judo in a wider context of benefit for society – he didn’t have any “elitist” thoughts on martial training. While it might be understandable to presuppose that he had reservations about ‘killing’ techniques, to imagine that he withheld secret teachings on something as fundamental to Judo as Kuzushi seems just a tad incredible.

One proponent has even gone to the extent of asserting translation problems from Japanese to English – but didn’t seem fazed when I pointed out that only Judo texts had this “translation” problem, as Aikido texts don’t seem to have any problem getting across key concepts… or Ki concepts…

Holmes is right in that the person saying this stuff is asserting that these skills are there in JMA but not commonly taught. In other words, he’s saying that most people’s JMA skills are incomplete and that the arts being taught aren’t the “full” arts. The full arts would contain teachings about how to actually use ki/qi/peng to do the kind of things that Ueshiba and Jigoro Kano did.

Looking at the parts that Holmes takes offense at, I can see why he feels the way he does. Two parts of the argument “for” IS in judo seem particularly troubling. First, the assertion that the IS training is there but isn’t taught openly, but kept as a secret, is solely based on opinion. I don’t see any persuasive argument being made to support that OTHER than the idea that “it has to be there.” I don’t really think that it exists in the way that is being asserted. Second, the idea that any IMA practicioner (myself included) telling a high-level judo black belt what is and isn’t in judo strikes me as arrogant. Through cross-training, I have learned many, many times that you leave your assumptions at the door and listen to what the teacher of the style that you’re cross-training in has to say. If they say that something isn’t there, then you’d better listen to that because THEY are the experts in that style, regardless of how well you know your own style.

So I can perfectly understand why Holmes is angry at this treatment of judo. He should be.   

On the other hand, judo obviously shares SOME similarity with IMA in terms of IS mechanics. There are, after all, only so many ways that the human body can move. The fact the kuzushi (the art of unbalancing the opponent) was picked out of judo as representing an IS skill doesn’t surprise me. That aspect does share some of the same components of movement found in good IMA, especially throwing (obviously). But the argument only goes so far.

I can understand that an IMA guy can look at judo and see lots of similarities. I see them and Tim Cartmell has mentioned many times that you can’t find anything in the taiji classics that you can’t find in judo. So the fact that other highly trained IMA people see similarities doesn’t surprise me. If we look at judo through an IMA lense, I can see many benefits to the practice and I think judo would be an IDEAL way to explore IMA concepts. Holmes actually agrees to that part in his conclusion:

Just to make my position clear, there is nothing intrinsic to Judo that forbids any use of these internal skills (Commonly referred to as ‘Ki’ in Japanese martial arts).  So should you learn these skills, perhaps by studying Aikido, there is no reason to suppose that you can’t apply it to your Judo.  But these internal skills are neither taught nor required in Judo.  The burden of proof lies on those who claim otherwise.

The main problem with the assertion that IS is a big part of judo and that it’s being held secret is that that assumption comes from a Chinese IMA mindset and may have nothing to do with the reality of judo. You can’t just assume that what is happening in a lot of CIMA is also happening in a lot of JMA nor can you look at similarities of two arts and then say they have common causes. It just doesn’t work that way.

As much as I trumpet there similarities, the two arts ARE DIFFERENT in many aspects. If they weren’t different, then they probably wouldn’t be worth cross-training in. The mindset in judo is DIFFERENT from that of the CIMA that I’ve practiced. Beyond keeping competition strategies and training within certain camps, I’ve never really come across judo people keeping secrets. Holmes says that Kano wanted judo to be public and that totally fits with what he wrote and everything we know about him. To assert otherwise requires a lot of proof that I don’t see.

So I agree with Holmes on this one.