Dr. Jake teaches counters (and is the Manolavich)

Jake is the Manolavich - I have no idea what that means by the way, but Ronda says it all the time.

I am going with it means he does a great job teaching judo and is also a great guy. He definitely did a great job teaching at the West Coast Training Center last Sunday and we were so lucky to have him. He started out teaching counters, by request.

Before anything else, Jake emphasized gripping and posture. He focused on having the grip to control your opponent, to prevent him/ her from effectively entering the technique.


(Thanks to jiu jitsu instructor Sam Garcia, who is also a judo orange belt, for coming to the clinic and serving as Jake's uke.)

Next, Jake talked about body positioning, about using your hips and body movement to block out the opponent. He really emphasized stopping the other player's technique BEFORE the counter. His method of teaching was very methodical. It was a great clinic. You can see from the photos of Yazmin and Rachel below how quickly our players picked it up.


In our family, we were lucky to see Jake two days in a row, as he came by on Saturday for Ronda's impromptu birthday dinner party at Lago. This reminded me of another very important fact about judo. It is too easy to focus on all of the self-serving people, the woo-hoo-shidans - eighth degree black belts who have very little judo knowledge and a hundred other flaws in judo. We forget the people like Dr. Jake Flores, Dr. Martin Bregman, Paul Nogaki, Neil Ohlenkamp, Hayward Nishioka, Roy Hash and a thousand others who are successful professionally, intelligent, articulate and have substantial judo knowledge. These are also people who give unstintingly of themselves. Each one of them enriches our lives intellectually, athletically and ethically and we are privileged to know them.

Thanks, Jake.

==== RANDOM JUDO TIPS =============
Don't miss the chance to learn foot techniques from the best

Hayward Nishioka & Kenji Osugi will be teaching foot techniques (ashi waza) at the West Coast Training Center on Sunday, March 8, from 10 -1

123 South First St., La Puente , CA

Don't miss it !


Interesting blog on cutting weight here --http://drexeljudo.org/blog/