You Can Always Run Slower

Today, I ran a mile for the first time in over five years. I still remember the last time. I used to run eight miles every other day, from pier to pier. Since I was telecommuting back then, I spent all day sitting in front of a computer. Every other day, I would run down to the beach, run from the Santa Monica Pier to the next pier south which is through Venice and by Marina del Rey. Then, I'd run back and run the seven blocks uphill to get home from Santa Monica Beach. The last time I did it, I was running uphill to go home and my knee gave out. This had happened so many times over the years, I just tried to put it back in and keep running but I could only go about two steps. So, that was it. I ended up getting my knee replaced, which, in short, means they cut a nine-inch incision down my leg and did generally painful, awful things. No one I knew that had their knee replaced said they were back to running, they just said it didn't hurt any more. That's why I didn't bother getting my knee replaced for several years. I'm up to biking six miles a day or more but it's not the same thing.

SO... yesterday, I was at Disneyland, chasing after my granddaughter, Eva, the human pinball, running up steps to Tarzan's treehouse and down the street at Toontown and I thought, hey, I can run again.

Walking around for hours is the kind of thing that used to kill my knee but I woke up this morning and I felt fine. So, I thought I would try running to the ocean and back. I was a little nervous about it since having your knee replaced is  one of those things that lets you understand how people survive torture. If you think I'm kidding, you never had it done. I was thinking, what if I can't run that far?

Then, I remembered Coach Frances Bailey. She was my college track coach. Coach Bailey is one of those coaches who is very calm, matter-of-fact and generally positive. She was the opposite of a lot of those screaming, yelling, negative coaches you see too often in judo. Of course, if she did call someone an idiot or a loser that made it ten times worse because you knew that she had considered it and she truly meant it. One track meet, we were all watching a race and one of the runners from another team slowed down and finally started walking.

Coach Bailey said with disgust,

"Girls, if I ever see you do that, well, I don't know what I'll do but I'll come up with something and you better believe you won't like it. You never, never stop running in a race. If you get tired and you can't push yourself at the pace you were going, you can always run slower. There's no excuse for stopping, ever. "

Out of all the classes I have taken through college and graduate school, there are three pieces of advice that stuck with me the most and that was one of them.

"You can always run slower."

She told us that same thing many times in practice after that, as individuals, to one person or another when we were tired and wanted to quit before practice was over, before we had done the evil number of sprints she wanted or run far more miles than the average student with 1500 SAT scores ever dreamed about. (Washington University in St. Louis is known for its medical school and not its track team for a reason - a fact pointed out to the unsympathetic coach by more than one of my teammates.)

I remembered Coach Bailey about 50 times today as I ran a mile and a half down to the ocean and back.

... without stopping.

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Off to Las Vegas right now. If you aren't coming to watch Ronda fight, you can watch it live here for $10

http://www.gofightlive.tv/Events/Fight/MMA/TuffNUff_Future_Champions_of_MMA_1112_show/888

It starts at 7 pm Pacific Time and no, I don't know where she is in the line up.

Essence of Budo: A book that didn't suck

People send me books all of the time for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes the author is a friend and is just keeping in touch, kind of a "Here's what I've been up to lately."

What I've been up to lately is writing five papers. One was on moving from Windows to high-performance computing, a second is on data visualization, and the other three are part of a series on design choices in programming. Actually, I did send those to some friends to read them. Obviously, none of you people reading this were those friends!

Sometimes people think I will be interested in reading the book. I now have several copies of The Art of War - in paperback, hardback and on my Kindle. Sometimes they are hoping to "improve me". These books range from religious tracts to books on the 'true meaning' of martial arts.  Hey y'all - I have a religion and a Bible. If fifty-two years of the Catholic church hasn't improved me, your book doesn't have a chance!

Sometimes the publishers are hoping I will write about the book. Most of these books suck so I never mention them. Not very friendly if someone sends you something for free and you trash it. That's like going to someone's house for a nice dinner of sushi and complaining that they fed you bait. Some people (including me) like sushi. If it's not for you, just politely shut the hell up.

I did receive an interesting book a while back called The Essence of Budo by Dave Lowry(who, coincidentally, has also written an, unrelated, I think, book about sushi). It's neither a book on how to be a die-hard competitor nor is it one of those new age-y books on finding your bliss through martial arts. If I ever decide to find my bliss, I'll look under the bed, where I find most things I'm missing.

The book was - interesting, really is the best word. For example, he talks about being a young teenager and matched up, for once, with a player who was smaller and limping. Do you take it easy? Do you slam him and show off (always the temptation for teenage boys)?

He has an interesting take on kohaku tournaments. As he sees it, the emphasis on the process - who won most instead of who won at the end - is a benefit of these tournaments. True. I think his comments overall though are more relevant to the way these tournaments used to be than to now when, with fewer players, there are a whole lot of mismatches with players fighting someone much older, bigger and more experienced, probably why this type of tournament is out of fashion.

The best part of the book is the last few chapters. The chapter on choosing a sensei is the best.
"I do not want a daddy. I have had one. I do not need someone to love me ...I do not want a sensei who is a budo teacher only because he isn't qualified - in terms of his formal education, his skills or his ambition - to be anything else."

This isn't the book I would pick to learn about judo - Steve Scott, Hayward Nishioka, Hal Sharp and Ron Angus are my favorite authors for coaching and technical information. ( Speaking of which, Hayward has a new judo book coming out soon. It would be a good Christmas present for anyone you know in judo who is hard to buy stuff for.)

If, like me, you are always looking for something new to read, and you are interested in martial arts in general, this book is an interesting way to pass an evening, and more intellectually stimulating than watching The Simpsons. (Yes, Dennis, I added that last clause just for you. Imagine me frowning disapprovingly. There! )

DISCLAIMER: I have nothing to disclaim. As much shit as I talk about everyone here you'd have to be out of your mind to pay me to write about you. Being mentioned by me probably brings your sales down. (Sorry about that, Hayward.)

All the people who matter

I was reading Steve Scott's blog today and he mentioned Ken Regennitter. He's a person I don't remember and I misspent a good deal of my youth not far from Kansas City. I gather he is one of the people who taught Steve growing up and now Steve has taught judo, jiu-jitsu, sambo and wrestling for over 40 years. He's had over a dozen of his players go out and start their own judo clubs.

It reminded me of my own first judo instructor, Bill Shelton, who I haven't seen in over thirty years, since he graduated from college, married and moved away to teach physical education in Iowa, I think.

As I read Steve's post, of course he mentioned a lot of other people who crossed his path, like Maurice Allan and John Saylor, who were international competitors and coaches. I remember asking both Jim Pedro, Sr. who grew up in Boston and Olympic silver medalist Lynn Roethke, from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, the names of the people who had started them in judo, and, years apart, both of them gave me the same answer word for word,

"You wouldn't know him."

It amused me one day to hear someone bragging about his position in a judo organization, proudly announcing,

"People know me, even if they know I'm an asshole. Do you know how many people know my name now? I matter!"


Two things struck me, this morning, as I was browsing the Internet and reading judo books when I really should be finishing up on my last conference paper ...

1. We never would have been in the position to meet those people you've heard about if not for the people whose names you wouldn't recognize. This is as true for millions of people as it is for me, Steve, Lynn and Jim, and just as true of Chemistry, mathematics, poetry and computer science as it is of judo. [That isn't always the case, though. I was asking Sensei Richard (Blinky) Elizalde this morning who was his first judo teacher and he answered, 'Hayward Nishioka, when I was a little kid, back in 1962.]
2. I suspect my first judo coach quit teaching judo, had a few kids and never thought about me again. He was also Tim Schultheis's first coach, now from Gurnee Judo who you can hear coaching his son in this video. The people who set our lives on a different, and better, path, often, without even knowing it - these are the people who matter.

Coaching Your Own Kid: The Questions to Ask Again and Again

I've always questioned the assumption that all parents of children who are active in sports are some kind of deranged "Little League parent" living vicariously through their children. Of course, there are some of those, but there are a great many more I've seen who are trying to figure out the best for their child, day after day.

What makes it even harder is that the answers to the questions change, so you have to ask yourself some of the same questions over and over again.

Let me give just one example:

Do I really have what it takes to coach my child? When your child is a beginner, if you know the basics of your sport, have patience, can get to practice once or twice a week and enjoy working with children, the answer is probably yes.

Now your child is a 14-year-old who wants to win the junior nationals. Can you make it to practice four or five times a week? Can you get to the tournaments several weekends a year? Can you help your child analyze her strengths and weaknesses beyond the basics? Is your own knowledge of the sport at an advanced level? Can you teach your child to win with grace and lose with dignity? No one is perfect but if you are pretty good on all of those dimensions, you'll probably be fine.


Now your child has a shot at the Olympics. All of the sacrifices your child has made, the hard work - and your sacrifices and work, too, have paid off. Can you make it to practice every day? Do you have other coaches, including strength coaches, technical experts, to help in areas where you aren't the best coach? How are you at video analysis? Setting up a training schedule that accounts for the season, pre-season and post-season? Can you take the time away from your other children, your job? Are you one of the best coaches in the country in your sport?

and those are just the questions you need to ask over and over of yourself, about one decision. We haven't even mentioned the questions you need to ask about your child yet.

This parenting stuff is hard.

I remember one day driving to practice and Ronda was at that age where she was always arguing with me about training, judo, partners and the universe. I finally turned to her and yelled,

"I'm doing the best I can! There's not a book for this, you know!"

Maybe there should be.

Old Grandmas, Middle School Kids and ###ing Morons (not really related)

First class at Gompers Middle School was on Friday and what an awesome bunch of kids! At the end of the class they were clamoring to stay later, try randori and have practice three days a week instead of one. They also wanted to know when they would be ready to enter a tournament. They were far more attentive and appreciative than any group I have taught anywhere. Of course, this is a very large school and the first 16 kids to sign up got into the class so they were pretty motivated to be there, I guess. It was such a nice experience.  One of my former club members had sent bottles of water and power bars for the kids to have during and after practice and they must have thanked me five times each for coming, for a bottle of water, for a power bar and then a couple times more for teaching them judo.

I know with the latest movie out, Waiting for Superman, it's become even more popular to bash public schools. All I can say is that every person I have met at Gompers (which is about 16 kids, one teacher, one counselor and the principal) has been incredibly top notch and motivated. These folks are working their hardest in a very resource poor environment. When my husband was talking about how much the public schools needed last night, I said,
"Well, I went and taught a class at one of those schools today. What exactly did you do to help?"

He did not have an answer. It was worth teaching for that alone!

Next week is Ronda's turn to teach. They are really looking forward to it. Partly because of all of the embarrassing stories about her that I told them. She'll be as red as the mats!

[Oh, yeah, speaking of Ronda, Gary Butts told me to mention that she is available to do clinics. Someone mentioned flying in a clinician from thousands of miles away and when he asked why they didn't just ask Ronda,who lived much closer to them, the person said he didn't know she was available. So, yes, just post a note to her on Facebook, which seems to be where all of the young people practically live.]

Speaking of Gompers and young people, I was teaching and I said,
"I know all of you kids can do this. I used to say that I can do it and I am as old as your mother but then a student about your age very politely informed me one day that I was as old as his grandmother."

One of the students helpfully called out,
"My grandma is 49."

Of course, I am OLDER than his grandma.

Speaking of grandmas - I was out riding a bike today, from Santa Monica up to Malibu, which I do fairly often, now that I had my knee replaced. A few blocks from home, the 15th idiot of  the day walked out in front of me on the bike path (apparently, no one believes those NO PEDESTRIAN signs apply to them). Usually I can swerve around them but this particular idiot as I swerved to the left decided to keep walking. This left me two choices

1. Slam into her going 15 miles an hour on a  bike
2. Slam on the brakes and wipe out on the bike path

I did the latter. She apologized about 1,000 times, which made me feel SLIGHTLY less like slapping her. As I told me husband, my cuts and bruises will heal shortly and she'll probably always be stupid.

So, today, I walked a mile, biked about 16 miles and crashed on the pavement. Thanks to judo reflexes after 139,567 breakfalls, I picked myself up off the concrete with nothing but a bruised hand from jamming the breaks and a scraped elbow, and went on my merry way. This was after having taught judo yesterday.

It occurred to me that I am the exact age my grandmother was when I used to spend the night at her house. It was a big treat, spending the night at Grandma's house. My grandmother had the typical Catholic family back in the day - a Volkswagen family: a new baby every year and they all looked alike. So, there were a boatload of grandkids and every weekend one of them would stay overnight. My grandmother was about 40 pounds overweight, wore house dresses and panty hose. The most exercise she ever got was cooking lunch and dinner and then watching game shows on TV. I was very happy to visit. She had an attic to explore, a tire swing out back and a bunch of books. There was also an ice cream shop across the street where I could run over and get an ice cream cone.

The thought of my grandmother doing judo, riding a bike to another city or wiping out on the pavement would have struck me as insane. I am sure my grandma would have agreed with me.

So, what has changed? Is it all of those years of judo that kept me in shape?
Is it our society's view of aging?

What do you think?

For now, I am going to turn in because I scored a ticket to the TED talk in Santa Barbara tomorrow - which is yet another thing I can't see my grandmother doing.

An Honest Answer to How to Improve U.S. Judo

My answer to the question, "How can we improve the international competitiveness of U.S. judo?" is given in my latest attempt at a podcast.

"What is wrong with judo in the U.S. and what needs to be done about it?"

This is part one of however many I find time to do. In short, I think we need to start with an honest assessment, from top to bottom, of what our weaknesses are, and then we need to address those through major changes in our training and coaching. But hey, I took the time to record this, so you may as well listen to it.

In fact, I recorded it twice, because it was hard to hear the first time and I did it louder the second time. The amusing fact is, I am a small person with a soft voice. People just claim I am yelling at them because they don't want to hear what I have to say.

Back to Judo (It's All Will's Fault)

I received this email from Dr. Will Dampier today

I noticed you haven't posted to your judo blog in a while ... although I do enjoy your programming/stats blog as well.

If you're looking for an idea I have one for ya:

I remember you posted a while about teaching foot-sweep and remarking that nobody ever kicks hard enough ... especially for beginners.  I thought about the problem and came up with a fun idea.  I had all of the students bring in a pair of large bath towels which we wrapped around are ankles/shins.  Then we did all of the common foot-sweep drills but concentrated on kicking hard.

The last time we did this I had a few brand-new students who had no preconceptions about how foot-sweeps are "supposed" to work.  After only a few practices they've become some of the best ashi-waza players in the class.

You can see a video of it here: http://animoto.com/play/P0fz7RqsqUfsoneTQ1Ao1Q

So, now that I am back to posting and back to judo, you can all blame Will!

Actually, I have been extremely busy at my real job. Today was the second of two national conference calls on the Ticket to Work evaluation for social security. If you live in California, and get a survey in the mail - send it back!

I just finished the FIFTH paper for the Western Users of SAS Software conference. In case you are interested, they are on super-computing, data visualization, programming and functions, procedures and graphics application. Okay, I knew you weren't interested, who am I kidding. Fine! Then I won't tell you about the paper for the other conference on evaluation of ethics. Some of these judo people made for great case studies. Really, I'm kidding about that part - so far anyway, but I may work some examples in there.

SO-O-O  all that being done for now I have a chance to get back to judo. Remember that program that Ronda started up at Gompers Middle School? Well, it's starting up again on Friday, with me teaching the first session. She and I are going to trade off teaching, since both of us have pretty limited time. Urban schools face a lot of challenges and a lack of resources. It's been an education so far working with the teacher and principal to see how they overcome everything from (literal) fires at the school to (very real) concerns about the kids' safety walking home. I'm looking forward to this school year. I've been turned off by the true motivations of a lot of people in judo who want to work in the public schools. Despite the lip service you get, most of them just want more money in membership fees in their organizations or to run 100,000 kids through the mill so they can come up with a dozen who might have shots at an Olympic medal.

Christopher Jencks, who wrote the book Inequality, ended it with the statement that the reason he was for having playgrounds for eight-year-olds wasn't that it increased the probability of them earning a higher income as adults. It was because it increased the probability of them having a good time when they were eight. So, yeah, it's like that. These kids face an uphill climb in their lives and if they can be just a tiny bit healthier and happier because they have judo class on Friday afternoons, then we're down.

Whenever I say things like that, Jim Pedro, Sr. rolls his eyes and groans,
"There you go, being a yuppie liberal again!"

By the way, thanks a lot to the person from my old judo club who sent the bottles of water and power bars. As Ronda noted, these kids seem to overdose on the junk food, and there is no water fountain close to the practice room, so it was very appreciated. You can join my Yuppie Liberal Club.