A healthy training environment should build you up, not break you down.
The first of the two core principles of Judo, I frequently remind students in my classes that taking care of the safety of our training partners is priority #1 in our classes.
You cannot truly learn martial arts without training hard against full resistance. But if you do not take care of your training partners, and they don't care of you, then your gain in knowledge and strength will limited by your injuries and time away from training. Empathy and kindness is itself a reason to care for each other, but even when optimizing for progress, it is essential that we care for our bodies and the bodies of those we train with.
In our physical training, this is how "mutual welfare" is typically manifested. It is worth noting, however, that Judo is a philosophy, not just a sport. It is a tool for development and growth. Mutual welfare as a core tenet, therefore, extends beyond the caring for our bodies, and to our whole selves and to the whole selves of those we train with. To learn Ju Do, "The Way of Yielding", the philosophy, is to study the methods of fighting and to extract greater lessons from them.
To develop skill in martial arts, one cannot train alone; we rely on skilled training partners. While we aspire to develop our own knowledge, we should equally aspire to develop the skills of those we train with. We share our bodies and our time, we give constructive feedback and guidance, we are helpful and cooperative.
In the beginning, you are a student, learning, accepting the generosity of others. Later, as you gain in skill, you spend more time teaching and sharing.
Through these acts, we develop the skill of the room we are in--and we keep in mind that the more skilled our training partners are, the easier facing others outside of our training room will be.
We also, through this training, learn how to be good members of our communities--not as a theory, but in practice, as a real lesson learned through experience.
The second core principle of Judo is sometimes translated as "best use of effort", sometimes as "maximum efficiency, minimum force", etc.
Judo was, arguably, a response to a training culture that focused more on physicality. In competition and in self defense, physicality matters. Your speed and strength and reach and height will impact your outcomes.
This principle does not neglect physicality--if the best use of your effort is to gain strength, then you should. But in general, that is not the case. A man who has spent 2 years learning jiu jitsu can, generally, easily defeat a man who has spent many more years developing his strength.
In training, we specifically realize that our goal is to develop our techniques, not to 'win at all costs'. Something you will hear repeated in my classes is: If you won by using more strength, more speed, more force than your opponent, you didn't win. Match them or use less than them. Win on technique, because you are in this room to study technique. A focus on just winning, paradoxically, can cause you to get stuck and plateu.
You should aspire to rarely push beyond 80% of your maximum pace during training. This is for several reasons, but the most important is that the closer you get to 100% effort, the less control you have to protect yourself and your partner from injury. Also, training at 100% leads to more intense emotional states; it's harder to accept a 'loss' when giving your all, for many. It is also harder to reflect and learn and study, to develop breadth to your game, when training at high intensity. Slowing down allows study, reflection, observation--we gain the bandwidth for a more present and aware mental state.
With submissions in practice, we should be willing to release a submission to protect our training partner from themselves if they lack the emotional maturity to admit their own defeat in the moment.
When thrown in practice, we should accept the throw gracefully--fighting midair to resist a throw, creating awkward throw dynamics, is far more likely to lead to injury. Accept the loss, and focus your effort on landing safely, not on avoiding the 'loss' of landing on your back.
Foundationally, one of the great innovations of Judo is to realize that training should be primarily centered around sparring with a resisting opponent, but only to the extent that it can be done safely. This principle underlies my teaching methedology.
There is a fixation in the west on lecturing. This appeals to the ego of the instructor, who gets the pleasure of sharing at length all of the inights he has accumulated. While there is a place for exposition, humans learn best through doing above all else.
When teaching, I aspire to not merely teach as I was taught, but to take what worked, let go of what I see as less helpful, and to be sensitive and observe opportunities to improve as a teacher. I avoid so-called 'warm-ups' and low quality calisthenic exercises, but instead use valuable class time for higher impact learning. We don't do shrimps at the beginning of every class. We don't spend ten minutes running in circles. We don't do pushups and jumping jacks.
Teaching is focused on doing, not lecturing, to the extent reasonable. You will almost never do "dead drills" with a non-resisting opponent in my classes. Techniques take time to sink in, so you will see the principle of spaced reptition employed, as we review, and review, and review, class after class; too many schools are focused on a constant barage of new techniques, instead of the reptitions over time needed to establish new skills.
While I encourage following your passion and interest and developing your own game in your spare time at all levels, Jiu Jitsu's white belt and blue belt are primarily about building broad and cohesive competence with all of the fundamentals of the game. Honing your pins, the quality of your transitions, your defense, and you submissions are what build the solid foundation the rest of your game is built in. In foundational classes, you will spend a lot of time working on a relatively small curriculum, spiraling and reviewing, going deeper and deeper, playing, experimenting, polishing, and testing your basic tools.
Likewise, in Judo training, you will learn to execute techniques first in isolation. Then, when their fundamental mechanics are absorbed, you will learn how to connect them to real world moments of opportunity, including in combination. Then you will learn strategy, creating and identifying opportunities. But as soon as possible, you should engage in randori, sparring, and learn all of the deeper lessons available through the constant feedback of a resisting opponent and your body's intuition, that words can never fully capture or communicate.
Playing with techniques we learn is important. Having fun is important--we learn better when we're having fun, and we do enough 'work' in society as it is.
If a student wants to train specifically for competition, I am happy to guide them on the path of nutrition, exercise, rules, strategy, mental preparation, and the more intense training needed for that purpose. But we do not treat every class like a competition class; schools like this burn through the bodies of their students, and it is not sustainable. I train for a lifetime of pleasure and wellbeing, and I teach likewise.
We do not cosplay the military, and we do not pretend we are in Japan. As Judo is an international sport with a cohesive culture, we do honor the traditions and norms of Judo, the basics of bowing to each other, and starting and ending the class with a minimal amount of formality in that context.
Otherwise, you are free to get water whenever you need it, and I will encourage it regularly. I will not punish you for being late; come when you can, we have busy lives. You do not need to ask permission to step off the mats for personal matters. I don't ask to be identified by any title, you can call me by my name. I am someone who can teach you some things, but we are still equals.
You are free to ask anyone to roll (or spar), there are no weird requirements around not being allowed to ask a higher belt to roll. You are also always free to say no to a roll at any time, for any reason.
Do not assume that just because someone is a higher rank than you, that you have permission to throw everything you have at them with full force. Even if they can handle it, that can take a lot from them; especially as we age, we have fewer and fewer rounds like that in us. Respect our bodies and care for us just as you would anyone else. If you want a hard round, ask, but otherwise always honor the pace of your opponent.
For everyone, but especially in regards to women or those who are getting on in years, be inviting, but take care not to pressure them to a round. When rolling with someone else, let the weaker or smaller person set the pace.
I'm not big on group-think. I don't ask everyone to clap in unison, on command. I am not fostering a culture of obedience, I'm fostering a culture of empowered individuals. Likewise, wear what you want. You don't have to wear our club patch. For the most part, you can wear whatever gi you want, and whatever rashguard you want--just respect others in the space.
Respect the learning environment of others by taking care to not interrupt with noise or distraction.
Open mats are true open mats. Visitors are encouraged and welcome, both local and from afar. There is no charge for open mats.
Please, train and cross train wherever you want. I don't own you. If you're happy here, you'll stick around.
Hygeine is critical; come to class clean, without unpleasant smells. Stay off the mats if you are sick or have a contagious skin condition. Clean your training clothes after every class. Avoid strong perfumes or especially intense detergents, as some people are sensitive to these. Avoid eating right before class. Come to class well hydrated; this will not only aid your training, but also prevent your mouth from smelling unpleasant.