By far the most common misconception associated with randori is the notion that it is just club-based or friendly competition.
The closest thing to randori, in terms of say tennis or squash is the “Hit up”, where two players are playing hard against each other, but NOT SCORING!! That is to say, the concept of winning and losing MUST be eradicated entirely from the mind, in order that technique can be polished, and knowledge can be converted to instinctive physical ability, or in order that one can see the effect of various tactics in a relatively full blooded contestual environment, DEVOID OF THE PRESSURE TO WIN. We can`t help ourselves, most of us; it is after all human nature to enjoy victory, and so we find ourselves having a bit of a pull around on the mat with a friend and we execute a nice throw.
Someone mutters “Nice throw” and we feel quite pleased with ourselves, and the other guy mutters to himself, “Dam! – how did I fall for that?” Sound familiar? Three things have to happen for this process to evolve into randori … 1.
Mutual Benefit – randori is the perfect opportunity to hone a strong sense of ethics and unselfish goodwill towards your comrades on the mat.
Whatever you “Give” in randori will be repaid many times over in good fellowship, respect, trust and perpetually improving skills.
If you are not quite sure what happened, it is quite in order and quite common in true randori to ask your partner to “Do it again” – so that you can fall for the same trick again, and again, and again, until something reveals itself to you.
The opponent will be doing everything in their power to disrupt control and clean kake, of course! Only in properly executed randori will these opportunities to learn present themselves and only in randori do you get a good opportunity to study your own ukemi and transition into ground work.
Being a good randori partner is quite an art – and applies with equal importance to both jujitsu and judo, for if done properly, presents no threat to the underlying motivators of these two closely related disciplines.
Randori, done properly, will have no dilutory effect on the need of the judo player to maintain a “Match” mentality, nor will it weaken the jujitsuka`s drivers to “Get in quickly, finish it quickly”.
With the “Win-lose” thinking entirely removed from the equation, a randori mentality will not encroach or threaten in any way the mindset necessary to succeed in the aforementioned “Contests”.
Contrary to popular belief, the concept of randori was not the invention of Dr Kano coincident with the development of judo.
Kano did further refine and define randori principles and he introduced groundwork randori and the long sleeved judogi for safety and a wider range of new throws, but true randori was the dominant training tool of Hachinosuke Fukuda, Kano`s teacher at the Tenjin-Shinyo School of Jujitsu.
Where does this place randori in the larger training regime? Let us consider five major elements of on-the-mat training and how they fundamentally differ – or more precisely how they SHOULD differ:- Technical instruction – obviously, before we know anything about anything we have to be taught the basics, the how-to of a technique.
As with randori, there is no concept of winning or losing in kata, nor is there any opposing pressure against proper execution, outside of the practitioners own internal barriers.
Randori – As with kata, there is no concept of winning or losing, yet conversely, as with Uchi Komi, it is highly physical.
BJJ players and wrestlers put great emphasis on a randori like training regimen or something that falls approximately between true randori and “Moderated” competition.
So which of the five is missing from your schedule? Chances are, its randori.
“No” you retort indignantly, “We put aside time for randori every training session!”.
Is it randori? – or is it Shiai? To an outside observer, there seems to be little difference, however those differences, whilst subtle, are critical.
Yellow and orange belts, ask yourselves, did you feel you “Won” your randori session with the green belt? If the answer is “Yes”, then you were indulging in Shiai, while the green belt was randoriing.
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