Endurance

When I was practising judo at the Kodokan in 1940, Japan and Britain were moving nearer and nearer to war. There was fairly widespread belief in Japan that they were being encircled by potential enemies. I experienced hardly any hostility on the personal level. There was, however, one man at the Kodokan, a tough young…

As a young fourth Dan in Japan, I had a two-part contest, as an experiment, against a kendo man of the same grade. He knew almost nothing of judo, or I of kendo. The first contest was a judo contest. Beginners generally come forward in tiny steps, teeth clenched and arms outstretched stiffly; one just…

Going straight at a thing is a very important part of the training of the ‘Ways’. One aspect of this is to practise under unfavourable conditions deliberately. Suppose you’re a poet – one day in the middle of winter you should get up at half past three, throw open the windows and, without any heating,…

To deliver the cricket ball, the bowler has to make a long run-up. He runs towards the wicket, and then bowls the ball. With this method, he can make it fly much faster than anyone can do from a standing position. Similarly, the golfer needs a backswing for his drive, and a boxer needs some…

In our western sports, and in a good many other things too, the tigers won’t play with the rabbits. But in budo, however much of a tiger a man is – he’s in the club team, perhaps in the county team, perhaps in the national team, and practises like mad – he always gives twenty…

Through judo training, we learn our bodies have limitations. We are weak in certain respects. These have to be corrected to some extent. The Japanese say that every man has seven big faults of character. In judo we learn how to minimise our faults and how to develop beyond them. We must not try and…