Episode 13: Ju Jitsu - Part 1

Owain : Hello and welcome to another episode of the English waffle.  Today we’re here with my brother, Doug.   Hi Doug!

Doug : Hi

Owain ; As you can hear he’s very excited to be here – his first time on the English waffle… and he’s here to talk about a really typical English pastime, ju-jitsu.  Is it a typical English pastime?

Doug: No, I don’t think so, I think probably more people do Brazilian jiu-jitsu in Britain than traditional ju-jitsu, as it were, the Japanese ju-jitsu, albeit westernised Japanese ju-jitsu.

Owain: More people do Brazilian jiu-jitsu?

Doug: Yeah, I’d say so. It’s very on-trend as they say, Brazilian jiu-jitsu at the moment.

Owain: Ok, for me I don’t know the difference between Brazilian jiu-jitsu and normal ju-jitsu, may... in a moment maybe perhaps you can quickly explain but even before I get to that I’m just curious about why you would do ju-jitsu at all.  What’s the appeal?

Doug: It’s er… it tests you in every way you can think of really, It’s a physical test, as you might expect,  it’s a martial art, so you do physical training for it.  Including, at our club you do high intensity training for a portion of the warm-up & obviously the move in themselves are physically testing. You have to move your body and move other people with strength and balance and things. So the physical side is good.  Mentally, it’s very testing cos you have to get your head around different techniques;  it’s a very broad martial art so there are hundreds of  techniques when you can include different variations on a technique

Owain: So for example, I did a training session the other day, which was kind of a one-off  lesson with your sensi actually 

Doug: Was it a seminar?

Owain: Yeah, it was a seminar. And one of the things we looked at was pressure points – is that quite a big part, a technique used?

Doug: Yeah, for the first black belt of Ju-jitsu, you have to do an anatomy test. So you have to know various anatomy things,  names of bones, pressure points, organs, that’s part of the grading..

Owain: Your vasicular  …. ?   Where’s that?

Doug: (laughter) - -What’s a vasicular?  

Owain: I don’t know!!

Doug: Cos obviously these are strike points

Owain: So, have you got a favourite? If you wanted to knock me out, where would you hit me?

Doug: Your corrotids..

Owain: Corrotids?

Doug: Corrotid arteries. Provide oxygenated  blood to your brain. So, obviosuly if you stop the flow of oxygenated blood to your brain, your body shuts down, and you go unconscious, b’cos your body goes into survivial mode, it wants to retain brain function,  so it shuts down and you have to be revived.

Owain: So, if you wanted to find a Corrotid?

Doug: You’d go just there at the side of your neck

Owain:  Doug just poked me in the neck with his finger, and I felt something…

Doug: Well, those are the pressure points .. .so when you get to Black belt,  you start using weapons.  And one of the weapons is the kubatan (?) I’ve never come across  a weapon with as many names as the kubatan; we also refer to the kata that we use as the yarawa kata (?) ; but ive heard other names for the kubatan; it’s a little stick that a lot of people have on their key rings… it’s got a roundy-pointy end and it’s got comfortable grooves to grip with and it’s primarily for the activation of pressure points..

Owain: he’s gonna hit me again!!  (moans) 

Doug: You can activate the pressure point on the top of your heart,  your biceps, your corrotids, your temple..

Owain: Hold on a second, hold on.. You just said some people carry them around on their key-ring ; you’re talking about ju-jistu practictioners? 

Doug: Not just ju-jitsu practictioners , b’cos obviously pressure points ae not exclusive to ju-jitsu

Owain: So any martial artists who deal with pressure points, may carry around these things on their key-ring

Doug: Well, yeah, I suspect… some people pick them up. You can get them for about 70p from a martial art shop, and theyre a rigid item that some people might find as self-defence useful outside of dedicated martial arts training.

Owain: ok, so you don’t have to be doing a martial arts, to know about self-defence… perhaps you live in a dangerous part of the country. And I suppose this brings me to another question, do you need to learn a martial art in modern day Britain?

Doug:  No, You don’t need to (laughter) …. tho it can’t do any harm, well it literally can  (laughter)

Owain: Well that’s the whole point of it, or is it?

Doug: Not for me.  One thing, I like about it,  well something I like about the ju-jitsu club that I go to is that it’s not got the air of machismo that a lot of martial arts clubs seems to have. Some places, karate clubs, kickboxing, boxing gyms, you go and you can taste the testosterone in the air… the deap-heat..

Owain: I can imagine that’s rather unpalatable..

Doug: (laughter) yeah…  but b’cos it’s a traditional martial art, what sprang to mind is family orientated,  I mean there are exclusively… senior, grown-up sessions, but it’s family spirited..  So, it’s not about the size of your biceps, or whether you can kick someone through a wall,  do you know what I mean..  

It’s not like…. I think of Joe Rogan, who’s a big fan of sort of, very masculine kind of violence..

Owain: Does he kick people through walls?

Doug: I think he could, yeah, Ihe used to do Taekwondo when he was young &  I’ve seen videos of his kicking. It’s very impressive 

Owain: Ok, well, so lets just say I’ve just arrived in the UK, and Im thinking of doing self-defence or martial arts for other reasons like self-discipline etc, how can I get involved?  Give us a quick idea of where to look, how did you get involved?

Doug: Well, I like ju-jitsu, so I’d suggest you learn ju-jitsu.

Owain: no bias there!

Doug: As we mentioned earlier, it’s westernised japanese ju-jitsu as opposed to brazilian ju-jitsu which is largely ground-fighting, and was developed for competition.. So, westernised japanese ju-jitsu, I’d just look on the internet, to find where you can do it.

So let’s say you moved to leicester, or just west of leicester you could google Leicester ju jitsu instead of jiu jitsu , you’d find the club that I go

Owain: You’ve lost me a little bit there…  

Doug: Well, the latter is in the centre of Leicester and it’s slightly different

Owain: Well, a shameless plug there, but we will include the website in the notes..

Owain : With that,  thank you very much Doug for coming along

Doug: it’s my pleasure  

Owain: Welcome back to the English waffle!  We’re here again with Doug, who has already done one episode. Thanks for coming back Doug!

Doug:  That’s alright. I was just wondering about my status. Am I a special guest or just a guest?

Owain: No, not any more . This is your second time, so you know, youre part of the team.. not really.. 

Doug: Thanks!

Owain: But we had so many people we had writing in to say they loved the first part, we thought we’d bring you back!

Doug: Yeah, ive mastered lots of different types of handwriting… b’cos they’re all me!

Owain: Ah I see what you mean!  No, they don’t send letters… they send messages!

Owain: Anyway, this week were going to talk about ju-jitsu again, but some different aspects. Doug is actually a 1st dan black-belt?  And how long have you been doing it?

Doug: 8 years

Owain: 8 years! Bloody hell, that long!  And obviously you havent always been interested in ju-jitsu, you started quite late, right? 

Doug: Yeah, as you know, b’cos we did it together, I did Judo as a child .. judo comes out of ju-jitsu, but, yeah I’ve always wanted to seriously do a martial art, but it’s always been a bit down the list of financial priorities, …. I’ve always been too busy with work and things..

Owain: So why did you get into Ju-jitsu, b’cos obviosuly we live in quite a safe country in general. Do you need to learn a martial art in modern britain?

Doug: It depends. No, obviously you don’t need to . There are far more dangerous places to live.  But… no, you don’t need to do anything (laughter).. you don’t need to drink tea, but it’s nice!  And it helps you as a person, doesn’t it, tea and martial arts!

Owain: Name a few things that practising Ju-jitsu does for you?

Doug: It helps you to be physically fit, as it trains your body. It also trains your mind, as you’ve got a lot of techniques to learn. Also you have to develop an understanding of how these techniques work, so there’s a degreee of physics…  

Owain: Oh yeah?

Doug: Well, yeah bio-mechanics.  If I’m learning a lock or a throw, if I want to have a strong understanding of it, I need to know why it works or doesn’t work. It’s all about levers and fulcrums, whether I put my arm in this particular position, is that going to give me a more effective technique than if I put my arm in this position ..

Owain: Ok, this all sounds very cerebral and theoretical.  I wonder if a lot of people listening who’ve spent many years trying to improve their English skills, specifically English, can relate to that.  There’s an element that’s all about learning rules, and very often when it actually comes to putting this stuff into practice, you realise it doesn’t always work.  Does this kind of thing happen in Ju-jitsu?

Doug: Well, it’s why you do training, isn’t it?  Im sure it’s the same as learning a language. You break it down in training, you consider it in training, and you analyse it in training, so that the execution of it in reality is uninterrupted and doesn’t require any thought.  It’s that idea of when you start learning something, whether it be a language or a martial art, you are unconsciously incompetent, so you don’t know how incompetent you are..

Owain: Unconsciously incompetent?  Yeah, I feel like this a lot of the time (laughter)

……

Doug: And that’s quite a large phase, being consciously incompetent, to different degrees.  

Owain: That’s a relief

Doug: And once you practise and practise, you become consciously competent. And at that point you are still analysing, still questioning, deciding about how to do something, and you’re still deciding on how to do something, or what’s right or wrong, and you’re still taking coaching and such… but you’ve yet to reach the pinnacle, which is unconscuious competence and you do something without thinking.. so it’s second nature, as people like to say.  And there’s a good parellel  between language learning and martial arts, where… we speak English most of the time, without being conscious of it, b’cos it’s our native language. But if I tried to speak any other language, I’d be consciously incompetent, perhaps intitially unconsciously incompetent!

Owain: Well, I think maybe that’s the difference with language learning. You’re pretty much always consciously incompetent, b’cos you’re aware of what you’re trying to do and most of the time it makes you feel terrible, b’cos you’re trying to string a sentence together, and you feel like an idiot…

Doug: At least you finally realise! (laughter)

Owain: So, if I wantred to get into martial arts, what would I do?  Maybe I’ve just arrived in the UK, or Im thinking of coming to the uK to study martial arts, tho that would be a bit strange… you’d probably go somewhere else

Doug: Depends on what martial arts you want to study. I read a great book called Shu gong, about a man from Great britain who went t o study Kung-fu with a master from the Far East.  Very interesting book, I’d recommend.

Doug: But if you were coming to Britain, to learn a martial art, you’d just find your local club, wouldn’t you. Google it!!

Owain: Thanks Doug, really helpful (laughter)

Doug: Sorry, what I meant to say was.. you have to go to the ancient temple, find the lost scrolls and then follow the directions… to find the secret way..

Doug: Well, if you want to be a practitioner of ju-jitsu, youre a jujitsuka; I’m sure there’s a proper word for a student but im not sure what it is; the instructor is the sensay; where I train we do use some Japanese words, but we’re not heavily into.. we just don’t have time!   Which is a terrible thing to say for a traditional martial arts club, and I’m sure there are ju-jitsu masters who are turning in their graves  

Owain: They don’t have time to do things properly!

Doug: But this is why I refer to it as westernised Japanese ju-jitsu.  

Owain: Well, that would be a big ask, to combine leraning the martial art and the language at the same time?

Doug: Well, we do say Japanese phrases, incorrectly…  But, a lot of the time people haven’t come to learn Japanese, they’ve come to develop personally, learn self-defence, get out of the house…

Owain: Get out of the house?! (laughter)  On that note, it’s almost time for you to get out of my house.. so if you are interested in reading more about ju-jitsu, where can we find more information?

Doug: Just google it?

Owain: Oh, right, just google it!  The definitive word from Doug..  

Transcript 

Owain: Crackers, the Christmas tree, opening presents on Xmas day and things like mince pies, Xmas pudding. We can’t talk about all of them, whats the most important one for you? 

Mike: Lets talk about crackers!   

Owain:  Ok! (laughter) What is it about crackers that does it for you?

Mike: The terrible jokes. Terrible , terrible jokes inside crackers…

Owain: They’re briliant aren’t they? Is that a universal thing? Do people have crackers and terrible cracker jokes in other countries around the world?

Mike: Dunno, we’d love to hear from people ….  It was explained to me once why the jokes are so bad.. 

Owain: right, why?

Mike: B’cos they have to appeal to as wide an audience as possible..  to your grandma, as well as your nephew, so they have to be clean, they have to make sense… and basically that’s why they’re so bad.. b’cos they have to appeal to so many different people

Owain: And they end up appealing to nobody… except everybody loves a rubbish joke

Mike : But then there’s a certain appeal in the fact they are so bad.. they’re cringely bad. 

Owain: I was thinking of that exact word, they’re cringeworthy – makes you cringe.

Mike : I do like… you get different components of the cracker, you get your joke, your hat that you wear and you get a small little toy inside, which is generally useless, but sometimes quite useful, you get things like pocket screwdrivers … 

Owain: They sound like quite expensive crackers!

Mike:Yeah, actually, maybe im revealing my middle-class cracker…  (laughter)

Owain: Like nail clippers, things like that.. things you can actually use for something…

Mike : Yeah we get some er..  caviar…. and all that stuff (laughter).. no we don’t, generally we don’t!

Mike: But we do get a riddle… I’ve always enjoyed a riddle.  

Owain: You got an example? What’s a riddle?

Mike: Erm..

Owain: I’ve got one. What gets wetter the more it dries?

Mike: A towel

Owain: Yes. Well done!

Mike: So, it’s a puzzle that you need to work out with words..

Mike: I’ve got one. What flies around the world but stays in a corner?

Owain: But stays in a corner?  Erm….

Mike: A stamp

Owain:  Ah, nice one!

Mike: What’s your best thing about Xmas?  Your favourite part ? 

Owain: I think it’s the whole ritual, it’s getting to Xmas eve, always a nice cosy day at home, with the family, maybe a Xmas film on TV. Gets to the time when you get ready for bed, getting things ready for Santa, get the mince pie, the shot glass of sherry, the carrot for Rudolph, put your pyjamas on… maybe some years you go to Midnight mass at the local church, sing some carols and come home late.. but then you get into bed, and you put your stocking up, hang your stocking up… go to sleep which is quite difficult b’cos your really excited

Mike: Feverishly excited yeah..

Owain: And then you wake up in the morning really early… cos you just can’t .. your body wants you to wake up. You put your hand down and your stocking is full of presents. It’s gone from being empty to just bulging full of stuff.. and that’s the beginning of Xmas.. and then obviously you get up, go downstairs, under the tree, lots of presents,  and you realise Santa has been and your imagination runs wild..  it’s brilliant!

Mike: And what do you with the Xmas meal? Do you cook that on the 24th or do you do that on Xmas day?

Owain: Well, this year we’re going to break from tradition a little bit; we’re going to go around ot my family for roast dinner on Xmas day, but as a special experiment, we’re gonna do a roast dinner on Xmas eve as well, me and my wife and son. What about you?  What’s your typical routine?

Mike: We do it on Xmas day. My sisters kids are .. they’re right in the sweet spot of Xmas, they love the… they’re 5 or 6 yrs old, they love the… gettting presents and wrapping and stuff… getting very excited..  But we’d start preparation for the meal about midday on Xmas day, and each of us would get a task, so we’d be tasked with peeling the potatoes or chopping the brussell sprouts or basting the turkey, or whatever it is.. and drinking… early drinking… we’d have a glass of wine or glass of champagne..

Owain: What time is early mike?  What time do you start drinking?

Mike: Er… yeah 11 o clock.. something like that, 11.30

Owain: 11 in the morning?!

Mike: Yeah, it’s pretty early… it’s the one day of the year when it’s acceptable. I’m not an alcoholic… im just gonna enjoy a drink.. no-one’s gonna judge me…

Owain: I think you’ve said it mike. You’ve summed it up pretty much..  Enjoy!  That’s for me what Xmas is all about just enjoying being with the family, food and drink, presents as well, b’cos its an important part of Xmas.

Owain: And that’s it, enjoy your Xmas wherever you are, however you celebrate it!

Mike:  So, hello and welcome to the English waffle. This morning I am joined by Sam and Una. Welcome guys!

Sam/Una; Hello!

Mike:  We’re going to talk about football today with Sam, b’cos Sam you’re very into football aren’t you?

Sam: I love Crystal palace!

Mike: Do you? So, is Crystal palace your favourite football team?

Sam: But I also play for a team called Dulwich United; we’re not doing that well though, although we’re still in the tournament

Mike: So where is Dulwich United, for our listeners who are not from England?

Sam: Well, we play in London. In Dulwich park.  And in away matches we just go wherever the home team plays

Mike: And why do you think you’re not doing so well this year?

Sam:  Well, we’ve got a lot more players, so we have to kind of keep doing substitutes, so not all of us can play. So that’s why we’re not doing that well.

Mike: We’ve had a lot of rain in England recently, with lots of flooding and waterlogged pitches. Have you had a lot of matches cancelled?

Sam: Yes we have. But we’ve still played about 5 or 6 matches. We’ve lost 4, drawn 1 and won 2, I mean won 1. 

Mike : That’s not bad! Theres always hope!

Sam: But we did lose a match 8 nil! 

Mike: 8 nil?!  And did your heads go down?

Sam: I wasn’t .. I dodnt’ go to that match b’cos I was in Salisbury.

Mike: But you’re friends told you about it?

Sam: Yes, they said we did really badly

Mike: And in half-time, do you get Oranges? 

Sam: No, its just the water break… we just get drinks..

Mike : And Una, you are Sam’s sister!  Do you go and support Sam, do you cheer him on from the sidelines?

Una: Yeah! But he usaully does it on Saturday. And Saturday I have swimming. And Sunday I have gymnastics. But whenever I can I go to watch him…

Mike :  like a good supportive sister! Very good…. Sam, tell us about your love affair, your passion, your support for Crystal palace?  How long have you been supporting them for ?

Sam: Well, I ve been a member for 5 years. I’ve been supporting them for about  6 years tho; we go to about 5 or 6 matches a year..

Mike: What’s the best thing about going to a football match?

Sam:  We just have fun watching the players…. Last time I went to the match, lots of the players waved at me and gave me thumbs up!

Mike: That sounds fun. And does it make you want to become a professional footballer?

Sam:  Yes…. But I do have…. I don’t have training to do….. (uninteliigible..) 

Mike:  And do you think watching them play professional football help you improve your own football skills?

Sam: Yes it does!  Like when they’re running down the wing and they do a quick skill.. it kind of helps me out figure out what I can do when I play football for Dulwich united

Mike: You try it out?

Sam: Yeah, I do try it out. I do some of their skills, I practise my speed as well

Mike: And have you met any of the players?

Sam: Yes!  I went to a CP xmas party the other day.  And I got 3 of their signatures!

Mike: Cool, we call these autographs

…….

Mike And where did they sign?

Sam: They signed on my autograph book, and also a picture of them, they signed that

Mike: So you’re not gonna lose that?  

Sam: No!  It’s safe and sound in my bedroom

Mike: Very good!  And… moving onto your sister. Una, what’s your favourite hobby?

Una:  My favourite hobby is acting. But I also like Gymnastics as well.

Mike: And where do you do gymnastics?

Una: I do it on Sunday, in Southwark gymnastics.

Mike; Is that a club?

Una: Yes, club. I do it on Sundays but sometimes the holiday club

Mike: And what’s your favourite thing?

Una: Going on the trampolines. And doing seat-drops …. And I like doing kickovers…

Mike: Can you describe what a ‘sleakdrop’ is?  

Una: A slipped…drop is a … what’s it called again??!   Whatever it’s called!

Mike: Una’s shaking her head in confusion… She can’t remember what it is.. Can you describe to the audience what it is?

Una: So you have to jump up… wait, it’s called a seat-drop!  So you have to jump up, land on your bum, then without jumping back up, you only use one bounce… so you go UP, DOWN, UP!   But you don’t go down and jump back up, your bum just bounces back up! 

….

Mike:  Ok, that sounds active, and maybe a bit dangerous?!! 

Una: Not so much. The trampolines are really big!

Mike:  And you mention acting… is something you enjoy a lot. What plays have you been to this year?

Una: I've been to Peter Pan Matilda and now on the 29th to see Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe 

Mike: Alright ok some very well-known plays, Roald dalh and CS lewis in there

Mike: Have you ever acted in something?

Una : yeah I did a play at my school for my Christmas play.  I did Peggy the pint-sized pirate and I was Peggy 2 so one of the main actors 

Mike : And what did you most enjoy about having such a big part?

Una: I like doing the dances because I got to dance in 2 dances .

Mike: great!  And that was dancing with all your fellow cast members was it?

Una: No, just a few just those who had a part -  I was dancing with my friends Polly, Leo, Jadine Hannah and Naomi Rose

Mike: I saw that play and it looked very well put together, did you have to do a lot of rehearsing?

Una: Yeah I had to go out of lessons and practice and I had to miss a bit of lunch to do my dancing and stuff... but it was fun!

Mike:. And what lessons did you learn from it for the future for your future acting?

Una: To be loud and first clear and face the audience when you're speaking,  cos if you don't face the audience the sound goes behind you and they don't get to hear it as loud and they don't know what you're saying because it's not as clear

Mike : Yeah, valuable lessons. And Sam you were in the audience? you watched your sister or not?

Sam: No actually, I couldn't because I was on a school trip that day.

Una: On the rehearsals he was on a school trip and then he couldn't come out of lesson to the play that you came to watch

Mike: but you saw your sister rehearse quite a lot didn’t you? 

Sam: yeah I heard her speaking but she didn't really do dancing or anything she did at school

Mike: Ok guys favourite actor before we draw this episode to a close?

Una: Emma watson!  

Mike:  And what did you see Emma Watson in?

Una: Beauty and the Beast she was Belle and in Harry Potter she was Hermione

Mike: And sam, favourite actor?

Sam: I m not like Una - i don;t know many actors … I'd say The Rock – 

Mike: Ok, i think i've heard of him. Does he do wrestling? 

Sam:  Yeah, but he also acts in films

Mike : And what's a film that you want to go see in the cinema or on DVD, you've been dying to see?? 

No?? Drawing a blank here…

Sam: Well, there is one that i can't wait to watch when im a bit older

Una: Is it the chucky one?  Chuck and Annabella?

Sam: Call of duty. Game of thrones..