MarkF
30th May 2003, 00:09
From the Official Judo Bulletin 1954 July: A letter to the editor (Yosh Uchida) from RW (Bob) Smith:
Well, another successful step up the ladder has been taken. The quality of judo seen and experienced in San Francisco was so superior to that of last year in San Jose, it leads me to wonder happily what is in store for the next.
At 130 lb. Hatae, so predominant last year, was happy enough to grab third place. Sakaki, a wily old-timer, possesses fine tachi and should be in the running next year. Seattle's Charlie Woo proved stamina and one Te (seoinage) can take one to the heights. He secured a second in this, the second shiai of his life.
The 150 pounders were pound for pound the artists of the tournament. Yamada, Nakashima, Uchida -- all were splendid competitors capable of diversified techniques, either side, right or left. Yamada's uchi mata, Nakashima's seoinage, and Uchida's okuriashi, were finished products.
Vince Tamura, yodan of Chicago, was probably the outstanding stylist of the shiai. Tamura used an occasional ashibarai but chiefly a deep migi and/or hidari uchi mata to sweep the 180 pound division. His approach is so low, his tai-sabaki so tight, he had no trouble with the others of his division, Hirata, Konomi, Edmiston, and others were considerably outdistanced by his ability.
Like Hitae and Nakashima, Lyle Hunt found the going considerably rougher than last year. John Osako, yodan of Chicago, a favorite before the shiai began, lacked endurance and only uchi mata worked. This was not enough in the rugged fusegi of Gene LeBell. Lebell took first with a smashing kaeshi style, incorporating a powerful kesagatame to good effect. Lebell's only weakness is that he seems not to have any leading throws of any quality, save for a stabbing ashibarai. He has a semblance of seoinage, taiotoshi, and hidari-hanegoshi and if he can smooth these out he will be one, fine representative for us in international competition. Seattle's Shuzo Kato, shodan, held LeBell to a decision, dropped Hunt with a fierce osotokaeshi, pinned Vince LaRot with a tate-shihogatame and otherwise showed himself to be a real comer and a force to be reckoned with in future shiai.
In the finals LeBell won a decision over the 50 lb. lighter Yamada of Seattle. In the thirteen minutes of the bout Yamada attempted 11 throws, LeBell 7, including kaeshi attempts. Yet Yamada lost, probably because his posture was not upright, and he skirted the edges of the tatami overly much. We respect the decision, of course, but it is my feeling we indirectly insulted Kotani Sensei by not allowing him full jurisdiction over the decision. The rules provide that the referee may be the sole judge.
Also, perhaps we should amend the rules so that where there is no conclusive point scored in the overall finals we may have co-champions. The Kodokan did that in 1949 when Ishikawa and Kimura locked horns. I agree that a winner must be declared in the eliminations but I submit that it may be manifestly unfair to a man who manifestly battles his way into the finals to lose by judges' decision. This final bout ought to be conclusive and the LeBell-Yamada go certainly was not.
Another criticism. At one juncture a sandan refereed a match between two yodans. This is almost ludicrous. If the sandan doesn't have the propriety to bow off temporarily, other authorities should intervene to remedy the situation. This custom should extend to the judge.
The conferences brought nothing tangible but they were a start. My impression while sitting there were that men who had devoted their lives to judo (e.g. Tamura, godan, Chicago, and Miyazawa, rokudan, Seattle) could not get an edge-wise word in because of politicos yakking away on incidentals. One individual spoke almost constantly and only these three things came forth: protection, dominate, and control. I reiterate my vocal point made at the conferences. We are not a political organization. We should not be. We must have faith and trust in out colleagues. No one Yudanshakai is going to dominate the national organization. This individual likened us to congress vis-à-vis representation. The parallel is by no means satisfactory to me.
These are my views. Let us keep judo healthy and dynamic. As of now it appears very much so. Congrats to you Yosh, Mits Kimura, Henry Stone, Donn Draeger and all the others who made San Francisco such an unqualified success.
R.W. (Bob) Smith - Seattle, Washington
Underlines of nage-waza are from the Bulletin.
Note: As I had to manually copy this from Acrobat Reader, There may be some errors, and I did correct a few spelling errors from the original, not really knowing whether they were mine, or theirs. Otherwise, this is exactly as written as a Letter to the Editor by RW Smith. If you don't know who Smith is, a good introduction to him would be his most recent book Martial Musings, published in 1999.
Thanks go to Mr. Jerry Hays, a longtime judoka from the San Diego area. He gave permission for posting excerpts. Please feel free to comment.
I thought the coverage of Gene LeBell, especially his match for the grand championship was very interesting. The statement that the body (Amateur Judo Association/National Yudanshakai) remain non-political even in those early days of organized judo in the US is eye-opening.
Mark
Well, another successful step up the ladder has been taken. The quality of judo seen and experienced in San Francisco was so superior to that of last year in San Jose, it leads me to wonder happily what is in store for the next.
At 130 lb. Hatae, so predominant last year, was happy enough to grab third place. Sakaki, a wily old-timer, possesses fine tachi and should be in the running next year. Seattle's Charlie Woo proved stamina and one Te (seoinage) can take one to the heights. He secured a second in this, the second shiai of his life.
The 150 pounders were pound for pound the artists of the tournament. Yamada, Nakashima, Uchida -- all were splendid competitors capable of diversified techniques, either side, right or left. Yamada's uchi mata, Nakashima's seoinage, and Uchida's okuriashi, were finished products.
Vince Tamura, yodan of Chicago, was probably the outstanding stylist of the shiai. Tamura used an occasional ashibarai but chiefly a deep migi and/or hidari uchi mata to sweep the 180 pound division. His approach is so low, his tai-sabaki so tight, he had no trouble with the others of his division, Hirata, Konomi, Edmiston, and others were considerably outdistanced by his ability.
Like Hitae and Nakashima, Lyle Hunt found the going considerably rougher than last year. John Osako, yodan of Chicago, a favorite before the shiai began, lacked endurance and only uchi mata worked. This was not enough in the rugged fusegi of Gene LeBell. Lebell took first with a smashing kaeshi style, incorporating a powerful kesagatame to good effect. Lebell's only weakness is that he seems not to have any leading throws of any quality, save for a stabbing ashibarai. He has a semblance of seoinage, taiotoshi, and hidari-hanegoshi and if he can smooth these out he will be one, fine representative for us in international competition. Seattle's Shuzo Kato, shodan, held LeBell to a decision, dropped Hunt with a fierce osotokaeshi, pinned Vince LaRot with a tate-shihogatame and otherwise showed himself to be a real comer and a force to be reckoned with in future shiai.
In the finals LeBell won a decision over the 50 lb. lighter Yamada of Seattle. In the thirteen minutes of the bout Yamada attempted 11 throws, LeBell 7, including kaeshi attempts. Yet Yamada lost, probably because his posture was not upright, and he skirted the edges of the tatami overly much. We respect the decision, of course, but it is my feeling we indirectly insulted Kotani Sensei by not allowing him full jurisdiction over the decision. The rules provide that the referee may be the sole judge.
Also, perhaps we should amend the rules so that where there is no conclusive point scored in the overall finals we may have co-champions. The Kodokan did that in 1949 when Ishikawa and Kimura locked horns. I agree that a winner must be declared in the eliminations but I submit that it may be manifestly unfair to a man who manifestly battles his way into the finals to lose by judges' decision. This final bout ought to be conclusive and the LeBell-Yamada go certainly was not.
Another criticism. At one juncture a sandan refereed a match between two yodans. This is almost ludicrous. If the sandan doesn't have the propriety to bow off temporarily, other authorities should intervene to remedy the situation. This custom should extend to the judge.
The conferences brought nothing tangible but they were a start. My impression while sitting there were that men who had devoted their lives to judo (e.g. Tamura, godan, Chicago, and Miyazawa, rokudan, Seattle) could not get an edge-wise word in because of politicos yakking away on incidentals. One individual spoke almost constantly and only these three things came forth: protection, dominate, and control. I reiterate my vocal point made at the conferences. We are not a political organization. We should not be. We must have faith and trust in out colleagues. No one Yudanshakai is going to dominate the national organization. This individual likened us to congress vis-à-vis representation. The parallel is by no means satisfactory to me.
These are my views. Let us keep judo healthy and dynamic. As of now it appears very much so. Congrats to you Yosh, Mits Kimura, Henry Stone, Donn Draeger and all the others who made San Francisco such an unqualified success.
R.W. (Bob) Smith - Seattle, Washington
Underlines of nage-waza are from the Bulletin.
Note: As I had to manually copy this from Acrobat Reader, There may be some errors, and I did correct a few spelling errors from the original, not really knowing whether they were mine, or theirs. Otherwise, this is exactly as written as a Letter to the Editor by RW Smith. If you don't know who Smith is, a good introduction to him would be his most recent book Martial Musings, published in 1999.
Thanks go to Mr. Jerry Hays, a longtime judoka from the San Diego area. He gave permission for posting excerpts. Please feel free to comment.
I thought the coverage of Gene LeBell, especially his match for the grand championship was very interesting. The statement that the body (Amateur Judo Association/National Yudanshakai) remain non-political even in those early days of organized judo in the US is eye-opening.
Mark