Tips for Randori

Students practicing randori, or free practice, are learning the use of letters, words and sentences of Judo to communicate in a meaningful way. The meaning of the Japanese word randori suggests there is generally no controlling form or pre-established method of practice. It is often practiced freely, with each person attacking and defending at will with full power.

In randori, one can never be sure what technique the opponent will employ next, so they must be constantly on guard. Being alert becomes second nature. One acquires poise, the self-confidence that comes from knowing that he can cope with any eventuality. The powers of attention and observation, imagination, of reasoning and judgment are naturally heightened and these are all useful attributes in daily life as well as in the dojo.

– Jigoro Kano, founder of Judo

The following are tips for randori. I believe many of these tips can be applied in Krav Maga practice as well as grappling practice.

• There is no score or winner in randori, so banish thoughts of victory or defeat.
  
  
• Focus on attacking freely without regard for being thrown.
  
  
• Keep a relaxed and natural posture to retain free movement of your body and mind.
  
  
• Keep your arms loose.
  
  
• Keep your head up and centered over your hips.
  
  
• Do not waste energy.
  
  
• Follow through with each technique; do not get in the habit of going half way.
  
  
• Follow up each technique with another.
  
  
• Never refuse a practice partner.
  
  
• Seek out training partners who are better than you are.
  
  
• Try new moves to overcome problem situations.
  
  
• Rely on skill and timing, not strength.
  
  
• Control your breathing.
  
  
• Keep your elbows close to your body where they are most powerful and least vulnerable.
  
  
• Always face your opponent.
  
  
• Do not cross your feet when moving around.
  
  
• Learn to feel your partner’s intentions and anticipate attacks.
  
  
• Maintain mizu no kokoro (mind like water); stay calm and undisturbed.
  
  
• Focus on kuzushi (breaking balance) to create opportunities for attacks.
  
  
• Employ the principle of maximum efficiency even when you could easily overpower the opponent with size or strength.
  
  
• Help your partner to learn while you perfect your technique.
  
  
• Act now; analyze later.
  
  
• Do not make excuses; do not give up. Tomorrow you will be better.

Go to Plan B

Sometimes you have to go to Plan B because Plan A just ain’t workin’. A few weeks ago... on our ground fighting night... we were practicing a shoulder choke. This choke works like the leg triangle choke except you're using your arms instead of your legs.

The choke is sometimes called an arm triangle choke. In Judo, it’s called a Kata Gatame. When using this choke, your opponent’s arm restricts blood flow on one side of his neck and you use an arm to restrict blood flow on the other side of his neck. You want to make sure that your opponent's arm is trapped between your head and his.

So... I’m practicing the choke on a person that weighs 275 lbs. He has… at least… a 19-inch neck and arms almost as big as my thighs. My preference for applying this choke is to use a reverse lever. For example, if my right arm is around my opponent’s neck, I place my right hand on my left forearm. I then move my left hand up to the side of my head and squeeze. I get a much tighter choke this way... 99 percent of the time.

One of the problems that I encountered with this individual was that my 80-inch reach (measured from fingertips to fingertips) hardly got around him to apply the choke. Another problem was that when I attempted to apply the choke... I couldn’t finish it. I called over another person... a 300-pounder (I’m a 240-pounder)... to attempt the choke. He used a gable (palm-to-palm) grip instead of a reverse lever. He… also… couldn’t finish the choke.

So... what’s the moral of the story? You can’t expect every technique to be effective on everybody. If something doesn’t work, switch to something else. Go to Plan B. Don’t waste your energy trying to make the technique work. The idea is to make your opponent waste his/her energy thereby facilitating your victory.

Related Posts

• Applying a Shoulder Choke

Front Leg Side Kick

The Front Leg Side Kick is perhaps the weakest of all the side kicks, but still a very effective kick. This kick is executed by shifting your weight onto your rear leg while bringing your front knee up directly in front of you. With practice, this can be one of your fastest side kicks in your kicking arsenal.

While facing my opponent, sometimes I like to use the Front Leg Side Kick because I can drive my opponent back farther than with the Front Kick. This is one of my favorite kicks. The following example is for a Front Leg Side Kick using the right leg.

1. From a fighting stance, raise your knee at least waist high. Your foot should already be in the correct position to strike your opponent.
   
2. Your base leg foot should have moved approximately 90-degrees counterclockwise by pivoting on the ball of your foot.
   
3. Turn your body counterclockwise so that the kicking leg side of your body is now facing directly towards your opponent
   
4. Your kicking leg foot is slightly in front of your base leg and as high above the knee as possible while being tucked in close to your groin.
   
5. The outside (knife) edge of your kicking foot is pointed down towards the ground.
   
6. As you begin to kick, your base leg foot should have moved approximately 20-degrees counterclockwise by pivoting on the ball of your foot.
   
7. As the heel edge of your kicking foot makes contact with its target, your base leg foot should now have moved 25-degrees counterclockwise by pivoting on the ball of your foot.
   
8. Your kicking foot, kicking leg (knee slightly bent), hips, back, shoulders and head should be in a straight line at the initial point of impact. Picture a pool stick making contact with a cue ball on a pool table. The heel edge of your kicking foot is like the tip of the pool stick.
   
9. Your kicking leg should return (recoil) along the same straight path of trajectory it followed from knee raising to impact.
   
10. Return to your fighting stance.

In my traditional martial arts days, I used to practice this kick by placing a chair beside me. It forced me to raise my knee high enough so that I was able to kick over the chair. I would also practice with a step ladder. I would practice kicking between each ladder rung. It helped with targeting my kicks.

If while sparring, you find yourself getting hit by a much taller opponent that is able to punch you while you’re executing a Front Kick, switch to a Front Leg Side Kick. It will put your head out of punching range while you’re delivering the kick.

Remember… for the street… no high kicks! Save those for your demonstration photos and movie stunt work.

Related Posts

• Krav Maga’s Basic Front Kicks

How to Avoid a Confrontation

Maybe there's been a misunderstanding, or perhaps someone's had a little too much to drink but a fight is brewing, and you don't want anything to do with it. What to do? Follow these easy steps, and avoid a nasty black eye.

Click here to continue...

Also, check out The Missing Link with Bill Kipp. He reveals proven strategies that enable you to take control of a situation, assertively de-escalating potential conflicts and repelling would-be attackers.

Defense Against Punches While Mounted

Being on your back with someone straddling you (mounted) and throwing punches at you is the second worst position you can be in. The worst position is to be face down, while being mounted, and someone’s throwing punches at you. Generally, anytime someone has your back (rear mount) it’s a worst-case scenario for you and a best-case scenario for them.

In Wednesday night’s class, we did a drill... I’ll call it the “Sleeping Beauty Drill.” In this drill, we were on our backs with our eyes closed and our arms spread eagle. My training partner was mounted on me. He awakened me by slapping me in the face and punching me in the torso. My job was to defend against the punches and then trap and roll (sweep) him.

As a Krav Maga practitioner... a Kravist... we don’t want to be on the ground if we can help it, but [blank] happens. So... as our lead instructor always says, “Let’s fix it.”

The following are a couple of techniques that can be used to reduce the punches being thrown and to get the attacker off you.

A very basic technique is to use Krav Maga's inside and outside defenses against the punches. In addition to that, as a punch is thrown, buck your hips straight up. This will force the attacker forward, making him lose his balance, and will probably make him base himself out on the ground with his hands. A variation to this is to buck up and drive a knee into the attacker's butt to force him forward onto his hands.

Once the attacker is on his hands, reach out and trap one of his arms above his elbow. You can reach either over (trapping from the inside out) or under (trapping from the outside in). Simultaneously, using your leg, trap the attacker’s leg that is on the same side as the trapped arm.

Next, buck your hips upward toward your head. At the end of this motion, roll your hips over toward the trapped side. Drive over with your feet to end up on top. When you’re on top, deliver punches and elbows to the face and groin as you get away from the attacker.

In another technique, start out the same way by using inside and outside defenses against the punches. However, this time grab one of the attacker’s wrists with both hands. You can use the grabbed arm to block punches from the attacker’s other arm.

Next, pull the grabbed arm across the attacker’s body while at the same time you use your leg to trap the attacker’s leg that is on the same side of the grabbed wrist. A variation to this is to grab both wrists and pull them across his body.

Now, buck your hips upward toward your head. At the end of this motion, roll your hips over toward the trapped side. Drive over with your feet to end up on top. When you’re on top, deliver punches and elbows to the face and groin as you get away from the attacker.

Tip: To effectively buck your attacker off you, make sure your hips are under him. A good ground fighter will ride your chest high in order to make your bridging or bucking ineffectual. To thwart him from riding high, jam your elbows into his knees to prevent him from sliding up. If he’s already slid up, jam your elbows into his knees and shimmy yourself up until your hips are underneath of him again.

Get out of this predicament as fast as possible. In the street, there will be no referee to stop the fight because you’re taking too many punches to the head and can’t defend yourself anymore.

Rolling Tips

Here are a few tips when rolling (wrestling, grappling).

Being Heavy

When you’re on top of your opponent, you should make yourself as heavy as possible.

Why be heavy?

1. It makes it harder for him to escape.
2. It makes it harder for him to breathe, which means he’ll get tired faster.
3. You’ll be connected to him in such a way that you’ll feel everything he’s attempting to do.
4. He might make a mistake trying to get your bodyweight off him, which may create submission opportunities.

How do you become heavy?

Keep your hips below his center of gravity. For example, if your opponent is lying flat on his back, dissect the distance between the top of his chest and the ground and find the halfway point. That halfway point is his center of gravity. You must keep your hips below that center of gravity.

Make sure your energy is going straight through him and not on an angle. This will make you as heavy as humanly possible.

Hips

Your opponent - on his feet - whether he’s striking , attempting a take down or when he’s on the ground, gets all his power from his hips. Therefore, you want to control his hips.

Comfort

You want to keep your opponent in an unnatural position. You don’t want him to be in a comfortable, relaxed or natural state. If he’s comfortable, relaxed or in natural state, he can harness all of his energy and strength to counter your moves.

The bottom line is... make your opponent carry your weight at all times, keep his hips under control and make him as uncomfortable as possible.

Krav Maga’s Basic Front Kicks

The Front Kick is one of the most versatile tools in your striking arsenal. Some have compared it to a jab in boxing – used first to find your range and/or set up your opponent for a finishing technique.

Regular Front Kick (Groin Kick)
From a fighting stance, swing the rear leg forward and upward with the knee bent. As the hip of the kicking leg comes forward, the knee extends out. Pivot your base foot slightly and strike through the groin with your instep or the lower part of your shin. Recoil your leg immediately after making contact. Place your foot down in front of you or back into a fighting stance.

This is the first kick you learn in Krav Maga. When the kick lands correctly, it is very damaging and can end a fight.

Front Kick to a Vertical Target
From a fighting stance, swing the rear leg forward with the knee bent. As the hip of the kicking leg comes forward, punch the foot, leg and hip straight out. Make sure that the bones in the foot, ankle and lower leg are in a straight line to provide support to the ball of the foot when you execute the kick. Pivot your base foot slightly and while driving forward, strike through the target with the ball of your foot. Recoil your leg immediately after making contact. Place your foot down in front of you or back into a fighting stance.

The Front Kick to a Vertical Target is a penetrating kick that is made to the midsection or chest. A greater amount of force is used when striking your intended target with a smaller surface area. Let’s say that you can deliver 100 lbs. of force to your target, and that the surface area of the ball of your foot is 2 square inches. If you strike the target correctly with the ball of your foot, you will be delivering 50 lbs. of pressure per square inch.

However, if you strike the target with the entire bottom of your foot, which has a surface area of 20 square inches, then you would be striking your target with 5 lbs of pressure per square inch. When you strike the target with a large surface area, you are dissipating the force over a wider surface area resulting in a push rather than a penetrating impact.

Defensive Front Kick
From a fighting stance, swing the rear leg forward with the knee bent. As the hip of the kicking leg comes forward, punch the foot, leg and hip straight out. Pivot your base foot slightly and while driving forward, strike through the target with the entire bottom of your foot. Recoil your leg immediately after making contact. Place your foot down in front of you or back into a fighting stance.

The Defensive Front Kick is used to stop an advancing opponent or to push a close opponent to a greater distance.

A Front Kick can be an excellent offensive or defensive weapon. When executed properly and delivered to a vulnerable target, it can devastate an opponent.

Applying a Shoulder Choke

Chokes are applied to the wind pipe thereby restricting air intake or to the carotid arteries thereby restricting blood flow to the brain. Both are quite formidable when applied properly.

In our last groundfighting class, we were introduced to a shoulder choke that is sometimes called an arm triangle. In Judo, it is called a Kata Gatame. When using this choke, your opponent’s arm restricts blood flow on one side of his/her neck and you use an arm to restrict blood flow on the other side of his/her neck. You want to make sure that your opponent's arm is trapped between your head and his/hers.

The choke can be used when you are on your back and your opponent is on top of you in full mount. If it is not effective from that position, you can sweep your opponent to their back and apply the choke from a side mount position.

Our instructor demonstrated the choke using a gable (palm-to-palm) grip. My preference is to use a reverse lever. For example, if my right arm is around my opponent’s neck, I place my right hand on my left forearm. I then move my left hand up to the side of my head and squeeze. I get a much tighter choke this way.

Now… for a street fight, I wouldn’t take the time to choke someone out. I will follow my Krav Maga principles. There is always the possibility of the person pulling out an edged weapon while we’re rolling around on the ground. In addition, the person may be a part of a group that decides to join in the fray. However, if he―hopefully, I won’t be fighting a woman―is my only adversary and my only concern is controlling him, I might opt for the choke. The situation will ultimately dictate my actions.