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Foreword - It is a great pleasure for me to know that The Secrets of Judo is to be published under the joint authorship of Jiichi Watanabe, sixth dan, and Lindy Avakian, third dan.

Mr. Watanabe has been deeply interested in the scientific study of the various techniques of judo, especially from the viewpoint of dynamics. Mr. Avakian came to the Kodokan from the United States and earnestly studied the principles and techniques of judo here in Japan.

01. Science of Judo - With the rapid expansion of interest in judo throughout the world today, there has developed a need for a textbook on the art and science of this sport: a textbook to be used as a reference and guide for schools, instructors, students, and the general public. The terms jujitsu and judo are common to our knowledge, but the difference in their meaning is not too clear.

02. Judo Dynamics - If we wish to carry a heavy load somewhere, we use certain required tools or machines to economize our energy and time. For instance, if we are putting a large stone on a truck, by leaning a plane surface against the truck and making the stone roll or slide along it we can easily do the work, economizing our energy and, in the end, our time. This is taking advantage of both the law of resolution of forces and the law of friction, and if, in addition, we use a lever, we can do the work even more easily.

03. Three Principles - In the previous chapter we learned about the unguarded moment: the moment that enables you to attack your opponent suc­cessfully. The unguarded moment is set up by two steps: first, by taking advantage of your opponent's long reaction time and, second, by breaking his posture before he can react. Once his posture is broken, he is certain to give you enough time to attack him success­fully. In broken posture he cannot change his position and his direc­tion of motion conveniently, and he takes a longer time to react to your attack.

04. Three Laws - You may have the erroneous idea that force is not necessary in judo, especially when you see a sixty-year-old instructor throwing many young- and strong men seemingly without effort. Dynamics, how­ever, denies this illusion. A body begins to move only when an external force works on it, as will be explained later. A human body is a phys­ical entity. Therefore, if you want to break your opponent's posture and make him fall down or hold him down on the mat;, you must apply the proper force to him.

05. Kinds of Force - You hold a book in your hand. If you open your hand, the book will drop to the floor immediately. The cause is the force of gravity that works on the book. When a hammer strikes the head of a nail, the nail is driven into a piece of wood. (See Figure 35.) A sled will stop when it reaches an area that is not covered with snow or ice. (See Figure 36.) Since these phenomena stem from forces that work on them, we know that there are many kinds of force around us. How are they made use of in judo? Let us now study them from this standpoint.

06. State of Force - In the preceding chapter we studied the chief forces used in judo practice and arrived at a conception of force. But when we apply force to a body, many different effects are produced according to the points at which force is applied and to the direction in which it works. The same thing can be said for the number of forces to be applied. In this chapter let us study what effects are produced by a force, or forces, working under a variety of conditions. We shall lean how to apply them most effectively in judo.

07. Practice Throwing - If you hold your opponent’s right sleeve with your left hand and his left lapel with your right hand, your techniques will be limited to only the right side. If you hold him by both sleeves, you can readily apply either right or left techniques such as hiza-guruma or de-ashi­harai, but this is not true in a number of other techniques such as hane-goshi, harai-goshi, or seoi-nage (hip and hand throws) . If you hold his jacket on both the right and left sides of his chest, you are well set to apply waist techniques but not seoi-rtage (shoulder throw) or de-ashi-harai and o-soto-gari, which are foot and leg throws.

08. Practice Grappling - The term grappling is often inaccurately called ne-ivaza, which refers only to techniques of grappling performed in a sitting or lying position. The correct word is katame-waza, which refers to the execution of grappling techniques in a standing position (that is, locks and strangles) as well as in a lying position. Grappling is classified into three forms: osaekomi-tvaza (holddowns), shime-waza (strangles), and kansetsu-waza (elbow locks and twists).

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