Apropos of this thread...
Tonight I went in early to train with the Jujutsu guys.
Jujutsu is a grappling system. That means it's within arms reach, both people are usually gripping each other in some way, and it can be either standing or on the ground. And the emphasis is always on unbalancing the other guy in some way, performing some type of throw to ballistically introduce him to the ground, and a joint control when he hits the deck. This stuff is inherently more complicated than striking. Obviously I'm not opposed to this kind of training because I do it...but I also pass it through my sniff test.
Essentially my sniff test is "will this work on me?" Perhaps that's a little unfair because I've seen a few things, but I figure if it will work on me it should work on most people (at least those not built like Eric Tull).
For example...we worked on a few variations of hip throws. For those that don't know what it is, here's the first clip that comes up when I search for "ippon seoi nage" (they call it a shoulder throw, but the mechanics of your core are just like any other hip throw, so I classify it as a hip throw). The guy demonstrating has pretty solid mechanics and I have no criticism of his performance or presentation. Keep in mind that he's demonstrating this for Judo competition.
The technique is mechanically sound. There is value in learning how to move like this, controlling your body as it moves through space, placing your feet, feeling and disrupting the other guys balance, and completing the mechanics of this throw.
But is it tactically sound outside of the Judo ring?
Look at this moment, and imagine this out on the sidewalk. What is White doing that might not be advisable? What is in Blue's favor at this moment? Even if White successfully throws Blue...might there be some things Blue can do on the way to that throw...and for that matter DURING the throw? (And by the way, if Blue know's something about falling he's not out of the picture yet.)
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I am NOT saying that this throw won't work. I'm not saying it's not a viable technique in shitty circumstances, or that it's not something worthwhile to train and be familiar with. After all there are times we get forced into less than ideal circumstances and we may have to make choices that are less than ideal. I AM saying that this particular throw, done this particular way, is not as tactically sound as other choices that could be made.
If you have a lot of time to train, by all means, there's value to being able to do it. More importantly there's value to recognizing when you're being set up for it and knowing how to deal with it. But...we have limited training time. I would not prioritize this one.
That said, I don't care where you train, there's going to be things you learn that are not high priority. Even in my own dojo where I strive to make everything as high value as I can, there are times when we train lower priority stuff. That just happens. But that's ok.
Don't think of it as another tool in your box. Analyze it and make a judgement whether or not it's useful to you. If it's not something you're going to do "on the street", well that's ok. You just did another movement exercise and learned something of limited value. Don't let it clutter your brain. Throw it away and don't cling to it. You still got to move around, you still got a work out, you still got to get in contact with another body and learned something about how people move, what they do, etc. Maybe mostly all you got out of it was "don't fucking do anything like that, ever".
As long as the balance of good stuff outweighs the balance of bad stuff, it's not wasted time. I can't be there so you have to make your own call.
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