A common term used in the Japanese martial arts community for the defender is called a “tori,” while the attacker is called a “uke.” As I was coming up through the ranks, my fellow classmates and I rephrased the Japanese word “uke” to mean dummy, instead of attacker. We did this because anyone foolish enough to be the “uke” for one of our instructors during a demonstration was definitely a few cans short of a six-pack. This particular bit of philosophy would follow me throughout my entire journey as a student and as a student/teacher, which is what I still am today. That is a student first, and a teacher second.

Now as much as I hated being the “uke” for one of my instructors, I must admit that I did enjoy being the “tori” to my students. A fact I am sure that my instructors would reluctantly admit to. My all time favorite “uke” was the naysayer student in the class. Now anyone who has taught for any length of time knows just who I am talking about. We have all had that one student who never quite believes you when you teach them something or constantly lives in the land of, “What if…” I have had several such students over the years and one of my favorites was also a friend of mine for a time that we called Big Bob.

Now Bob was called Big Bob for obvious reasons. He stood about 6 foot 4 inches tall and weighed in at a little over 250 lbs. He was literally big, and yes his name was Bob, hence the nickname Big Bob. At the same time, I also had another student who was also named Bob, and he was called Little Bob. However, his stories will be saved for another time.

Because Bob was so big and due to the fact that he was already a fairly proficient fighter, he had a tendency not to believe that a particular technique or techniques would actually work on a larger more experienced person in an actual self-defense situation. Bob was also constantly living in the land of “What If…” Needless to say, he was always putting himself in the position of being my “uke” whether he really wanted to or not. This ended up backfiring on Big Bob in a really dramatic way one night during a class on judo throwing techniques.

As I was demonstrating the throwing techniques on one of my other senior students who happened to be about the same size as me, I could see this look of disbelieve on Bob’s face. I knew that this was going to be one of those times where he didn’t believe that the technique that I was demonstrating would work on him. Knowing this, I decided to hasten the course of events that I knew would transpire by asking if anyone had any questions. Not to my surprise, guess who was the first one to raise his hand? That’s right, Bob.

Bob was very respectful, yet didn’t believe that the throw I was demonstrating would work on a larger opponent. Trying to keep the smile off of my face, I asked Bob to step up and be my “uke” while I demonstrated the effectiveness of the throw. Apparently I wasn’t too successful in hiding my glee as Bob suddenly got a case of the, “Oops, I think I’m in trouble” look on his face, and tried to back out of being the “uke” by stating that he really did believe me now. Of course I would have none of that and insisted that Bob step up onto the mat so that I could answer his question by showing him that the technique did in fact work.

Bob reluctantly got onto the mat and proceeded to stand facing directly towards me. Now if have ever practiced Judo before, you know that your basic starting position is with both persons facing each other, with their right hand grasping their partners left lapel and the left hand grabbing their partners right sleeve. This is the position that Bob and I took as I continued explaining the intricacies of this move to the class. I told Bob exactly what I was going to do and asked him to do whatever he could think of to avoid being thrown. I moved into position slower than normal and allowed Bob the opportunity to avoid being thrown, which he did do. I then proceeded to throw Bob several times, with him avoiding being thrown each time. Needless to say, Bob’s confidence about me not being able to throw him so far was growing exponentially and he was exuding that cockiness that comes when you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are right. Only in this case, nothing could have been further from the truth.

As any good instructor will tell you, it is easy to defend against that which is known to you. Yet not so easy to defend against that which is unknown. You see so far during this demonstration Bob knew what I was going to do because I had not only told him, but I had actually performed the moves slower than normal to allow him the opportunity to avoid them. Although this particular portion of the exercise was not consciously known to him at the time. You see what I was doing was setting Bob up, literally, for the fall. While it appeared that Bob had been winning the battles, I was preparing to win the war.

I tried one more time unsuccessfully to throw Bob and then conceded to the class that it appeared that Bob was right, that this particular judo throw wouldn’t work on a larger opponent. I then proceeded to start teaching another lesson and once again used Bob as my “uke.” Suddenly and obviously unexpectedly, instead of kicking at Bob I rushed in grabbed a hold of him and executed a beautiful picture perfect hip throw that had Bob’s feet scraping the ten foot high ceiling in our dojo as he flew over my head and landed with a resounding thud onto the mat. Bob continued to lie on the mat for several moments in utter disbelief that I had just thrown him. Finally Bob got up and I could tell that he was a bit upset. I asked Bob what was wrong and he said, “You were supposed to kick me, not throw me. I didn’t even know it was coming.”

“Exactly my point” I replied, “So what did you learn?” Bob thought about it for a minute and then responded by telling me that he needed to be sneaky. Not quite the answer I was looking for, but not a bad one either. I proceeded to tell Bob, and the entire class, that if you tell your opponent what you are going to do, then he will expect it and find a way to avoid it or turn it against you. That is why it is so important not to telegraph your intentions to your opponent. This can be done in a verbal manner like I had just demonstrated or by some subconscious action such as bending of the knees, clenching of the fists, moving slower than normal, etc.

I also reminded the entire class that Judo was founded by Dr. Jigoro Kano, a man of slight stature for the express purpose of working against a larger stronger opponent. In addition to that, Judo, as with all martial arts, relies on the proper use of scientific principles and the correct execution of technique in order to achieve its maximum effectiveness.

Remember, ignorance may be bliss, but knowledge truly is power!

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