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(TERMINOLOGY NOTE: Ever since the first attempts to translate it from the Japanese kanji were made, the word "Jujutsu" has undertaken many spellings, and for practical purposes they are all correct, since there is no difference in their basic meaning. The purest, most "correct" translation is "Jujutsu"( Japanese "ju"=gentle, yielding, "Jutsu"=art/skill/dexterity, therefore "Gentle Art"), which is rather misleading to anyone not familiar with the Japanese tendency towards poetic, axiomatic names=the style's painful throws, chokes, strikes and joint locks/breaks are anything but "gentle", and yet the art never directly pits size and strength against size and strength, preferring instead to use leverage and momentum supplied by the incoming attack against the attacker.
The most accurate translation from Japanese is "Jujutsu", most modern American descendant forms of the art use "Jujitsu", and the Brazilian variant still uses the Victorian British spelling of "Jiu-jitsu". Since Professor Castoldi uses the term "Jujitsu" to refer to his particular style, and since the parent art of his style is Small Circle Jujitsu, for the sake of clarity and ease of understanding, "Jujitsu" is the spelling I will use for the rest of this entry.
I recently had an invitation to attend this seminar that my work obligations chanced not to interfere with, and for the cost and the people involved, considered it a very worthwhile opportunity, and I was not left in any way disappointed.
It was held at Defensive Edge Martial Arts in Wakefield, MA, and so I'd get to see Sensei Rick Alford again, who I'd not seen in awhile since the seminar he held at MARI where I'd inadvertently ended up helping him explain the gun disarms he was showing from a mechanical standpoint( And there are those who are so ignorant as to say that being a firearms instructor doesn't help one's unarmed defenses).
Prior to this event, I hadn't known much of Professor Dave Castoldi, other than that he was a rather important figure in the US Jujitsu community ( I had a vague understanding that he, Gene LeBell and Willy Cahill were all at least on ONE board of directors together), and it wasn't until after meeting him and talking with him and the other gathered participants that I learned he had also been a professional wrestler for awhile who had trained under the late Walter "Killer" Kowalski, or that his credentials included, apart from his 10th degree in his own system(which is standard these days for everyone who starts their own system who uses belt rankings), he holds an 8th degree from Jujitsu America, a 7th in Small Circle Jujitsu, a 3rd in Judo, and a 1st in Karate. The man has kept busy in his life. "I'm about to get my *** kicked by a 66 year old man", I remember thinking to myself comically.
What can anyone say of meeting the man himself in person? There is no mistaking him when he enters a room.Very six foot plus, very two-fifty plus, and yet, like all of the old timey "tough guys" I've met he has a soft heart for the small kids, taking time to pose with an effected grimace while hefting one up in each arm for Mom to take a picture with, and a killer sense of humor, and he knew just when to break up the seriousness throughout the day with some quip or anecdote that had us all cracking up.
I had the pleasure during the seminar of meeting Mr. Joe Gore, who was my partner through the seminar, and who, being a Small Circle black belt himself, very ably assisted me through the maneuvers Professor Castoldi showed us, for which I was very grateful.( At the time of the seminar I'd been out of regular classroom training in ANY art for about 8 months due to time and financial constraints, all funds beyond meeting my bills having to go towards the funds for my move).
As to the material itself, I was pleasantly surprised on many fronts: a common criticism of joint lock based arts is that they "Don't work for real", or that it takes"too much time" to get a lock that does. I can confidently state otherwise, having been physically convinced otherwise: Prof. Castoldi's son, Mike, who was assisting, led me through one sequence which began as I simulated a knife mugger with the knife against his throat. I remember thinking, "I'm very skeptical about this, I'm pretty sure someone could defeat this before he gets any steam goi"--and that was about as far as my thought processes got before I got a quick palm in my face, not particularly very hard, but enough to give my nervous system a job while he gave me the business.
At the same instant I felt my face hit, I remember my knife wrist being turned and that was about the time a brief, but pronounced, wave of pain shot through my nerves hard enough to make my eyes slam shut and my jaw slam open, and knife or not, I was up, I was down, I was over. I found myself very glad throughout the day that my Judo breakfall skills had not left me.
This "sacred cow" about joint locks thus swiftly and summarily burgerized, I then found myself wondering what additional strategies apart from the distracting strike were contained within this so named "street" application system. And so the day provided.
* The concept of coming in off their "blind side"( i.e. the arm holding the weapon or grabbing you partially obstructs their vision of the arm underneath it--use that one to come up and initiate the lock while the other arm distracts). I had this spelled out to me by the Big Guy himself after I roleplayed the muggee in one scenario. For the record: most defense sequences in this seminar were UNSCRIPTED--you were shown the basic locks, and then were expected to pick up the flow and transition where you felt the opponent's energy going. I came up off the opposite side and got part of a wrist turn on Joe.It doesn't take. I meet resistance, Joe's keeping me honest, he's fighting me, I gradually get him in tighter and get off a sloppy, jackass hip throw that nonetheless finishes the defense with my hands holding his hand/knife at his throat. Effective enough, but it was at this point Prof. Castoldi showed me what could have gone very wrong with my choice of grip( I was the only non Small Circle student in the room, so the fact I'd limped along even THAT far that early in I was happy with). I'm against cutting my own throat or assisting others to do so, and so that lesson remains with me even now.
* As the first scenario points out, it does not matter if your technique flow doesn't end up resembling what you intended. If it's stupid but it works, it isn't stupid--they'd much rather have you improvise than freeze.
* As the first scenario also helps point out, don't get stuck on trying for one lock, and don't go directly against resistance-- one doesn't work, transition into the next until your job is done.
*Keep control of the weapon hand first, then once you have them under control., *THEN* take the weapon/finish them if/as required. --there's no point having to defend against it a second time, with someone who , now,knows what you can do and is READY for you.( Ditto unarmed attacks).
Don't waste time moving the arm/wrist up or away from you to try and make this big movement for the lock--keep the circle small, keep it tight to you, take away the space and do it BOOM right from where you are.
*When giving the illusion of compliance by putting your hands up, put them up at the level of the weapon, and keep them close by it. Mask it as a "startle reflex" that will cut down your response time that much faster, in addition to all the other time savers.
I must've done a few things right because more than one person told me I did very well for a beginner,and I learned enough so that, when the next day, I met with my friend who couldn't come, and taught him what few things I DID remember and COULD reproduce, he said to me This was the first time, and I was the first person, to ever apply joint locks to him that he couldn't escape and that actually made him tap.
I will absolutely be attending further seminars to do with this art.
The most accurate translation from Japanese is "Jujutsu", most modern American descendant forms of the art use "Jujitsu", and the Brazilian variant still uses the Victorian British spelling of "Jiu-jitsu". Since Professor Castoldi uses the term "Jujitsu" to refer to his particular style, and since the parent art of his style is Small Circle Jujitsu, for the sake of clarity and ease of understanding, "Jujitsu" is the spelling I will use for the rest of this entry.
I recently had an invitation to attend this seminar that my work obligations chanced not to interfere with, and for the cost and the people involved, considered it a very worthwhile opportunity, and I was not left in any way disappointed.
It was held at Defensive Edge Martial Arts in Wakefield, MA, and so I'd get to see Sensei Rick Alford again, who I'd not seen in awhile since the seminar he held at MARI where I'd inadvertently ended up helping him explain the gun disarms he was showing from a mechanical standpoint( And there are those who are so ignorant as to say that being a firearms instructor doesn't help one's unarmed defenses).
Prior to this event, I hadn't known much of Professor Dave Castoldi, other than that he was a rather important figure in the US Jujitsu community ( I had a vague understanding that he, Gene LeBell and Willy Cahill were all at least on ONE board of directors together), and it wasn't until after meeting him and talking with him and the other gathered participants that I learned he had also been a professional wrestler for awhile who had trained under the late Walter "Killer" Kowalski, or that his credentials included, apart from his 10th degree in his own system(which is standard these days for everyone who starts their own system who uses belt rankings), he holds an 8th degree from Jujitsu America, a 7th in Small Circle Jujitsu, a 3rd in Judo, and a 1st in Karate. The man has kept busy in his life. "I'm about to get my *** kicked by a 66 year old man", I remember thinking to myself comically.
What can anyone say of meeting the man himself in person? There is no mistaking him when he enters a room.Very six foot plus, very two-fifty plus, and yet, like all of the old timey "tough guys" I've met he has a soft heart for the small kids, taking time to pose with an effected grimace while hefting one up in each arm for Mom to take a picture with, and a killer sense of humor, and he knew just when to break up the seriousness throughout the day with some quip or anecdote that had us all cracking up.
I had the pleasure during the seminar of meeting Mr. Joe Gore, who was my partner through the seminar, and who, being a Small Circle black belt himself, very ably assisted me through the maneuvers Professor Castoldi showed us, for which I was very grateful.( At the time of the seminar I'd been out of regular classroom training in ANY art for about 8 months due to time and financial constraints, all funds beyond meeting my bills having to go towards the funds for my move).
As to the material itself, I was pleasantly surprised on many fronts: a common criticism of joint lock based arts is that they "Don't work for real", or that it takes"too much time" to get a lock that does. I can confidently state otherwise, having been physically convinced otherwise: Prof. Castoldi's son, Mike, who was assisting, led me through one sequence which began as I simulated a knife mugger with the knife against his throat. I remember thinking, "I'm very skeptical about this, I'm pretty sure someone could defeat this before he gets any steam goi"--and that was about as far as my thought processes got before I got a quick palm in my face, not particularly very hard, but enough to give my nervous system a job while he gave me the business.
At the same instant I felt my face hit, I remember my knife wrist being turned and that was about the time a brief, but pronounced, wave of pain shot through my nerves hard enough to make my eyes slam shut and my jaw slam open, and knife or not, I was up, I was down, I was over. I found myself very glad throughout the day that my Judo breakfall skills had not left me.
This "sacred cow" about joint locks thus swiftly and summarily burgerized, I then found myself wondering what additional strategies apart from the distracting strike were contained within this so named "street" application system. And so the day provided.
* The concept of coming in off their "blind side"( i.e. the arm holding the weapon or grabbing you partially obstructs their vision of the arm underneath it--use that one to come up and initiate the lock while the other arm distracts). I had this spelled out to me by the Big Guy himself after I roleplayed the muggee in one scenario. For the record: most defense sequences in this seminar were UNSCRIPTED--you were shown the basic locks, and then were expected to pick up the flow and transition where you felt the opponent's energy going. I came up off the opposite side and got part of a wrist turn on Joe.It doesn't take. I meet resistance, Joe's keeping me honest, he's fighting me, I gradually get him in tighter and get off a sloppy, jackass hip throw that nonetheless finishes the defense with my hands holding his hand/knife at his throat. Effective enough, but it was at this point Prof. Castoldi showed me what could have gone very wrong with my choice of grip( I was the only non Small Circle student in the room, so the fact I'd limped along even THAT far that early in I was happy with). I'm against cutting my own throat or assisting others to do so, and so that lesson remains with me even now.
* As the first scenario points out, it does not matter if your technique flow doesn't end up resembling what you intended. If it's stupid but it works, it isn't stupid--they'd much rather have you improvise than freeze.
* As the first scenario also helps point out, don't get stuck on trying for one lock, and don't go directly against resistance-- one doesn't work, transition into the next until your job is done.
*Keep control of the weapon hand first, then once you have them under control., *THEN* take the weapon/finish them if/as required. --there's no point having to defend against it a second time, with someone who , now,knows what you can do and is READY for you.( Ditto unarmed attacks).
Don't waste time moving the arm/wrist up or away from you to try and make this big movement for the lock--keep the circle small, keep it tight to you, take away the space and do it BOOM right from where you are.
*When giving the illusion of compliance by putting your hands up, put them up at the level of the weapon, and keep them close by it. Mask it as a "startle reflex" that will cut down your response time that much faster, in addition to all the other time savers.
I must've done a few things right because more than one person told me I did very well for a beginner,and I learned enough so that, when the next day, I met with my friend who couldn't come, and taught him what few things I DID remember and COULD reproduce, he said to me This was the first time, and I was the first person, to ever apply joint locks to him that he couldn't escape and that actually made him tap.
I will absolutely be attending further seminars to do with this art.
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Thank you again Andy