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Monday, February 06, 2006
Rama: Shooting lessons from the Father of US Judo
By Karlon N. Rama
Stage five
“KINSA nang kano?” a kibitzer asked as I made my way into the Cacoy Doce Pares gym along C. Padilla St., Saturday night.
He was sitting beside Grand Master Ciriaco “Cacoy” Cañete as they watched a group of young judokas – wards of the Philippine Amateur Judo Association (Paja) Central Visayas – at practice.
“That young one right there, he’s going to be good. He’s small but he has lots a’ heart and he had good form,” he was saying to Grand Master Cacoy as I (with shoes off) did the Ritsu Rei, trying to do it as smartly as my late father used to teach, and entered the Dojo.
The Kano in question was 80-year-old O-Sensei Philip Porter.
Grand Master Cacoy, my own father’s Sensei during their Southern Philippines Amateur Judo Association (Spaja) days, introduced him as the most respected American in the international Judo community.
GRAND TEACHER. O-Sensei Porter is founder of the 53-year-old US Judo Association and a founding member of the US Martial Arts Association, the largest non-profit Martial Arts organization abroad.
He is given the distinction of O-Sensei (The Grand Teacher) in Judo because he is in charge of teaching and watching over the rank promotions of thousands of students worldwide.
O-Sensei Porter arrived in Cebu City from his hometown of Missouri Saturday afternoon and is here, ostensibly, for a 12-day vacation.
While here, however, he’ll be hanging out at the Paja Cebu Dojo, headed by Atty. Vicente Fernandez II, inside the Cacoy Doce Pares gym. (It was Fernandez and Cacoy who invited me that night, to see Porter, who just arrived from the US.)
O-Sensei began training in Judo in 1951, three years after graduating from West Point, while stationed at the Travis Airforce Base in California, USA.
He served three years as National Chairman of the American Amateur Judo Committee from 1961 to ’64, chairman of the US Olympic Judo Committee from 1964 to ’68, Secretary General of the Pan American Judo Union from 1964 to ’67, Technical Director of the Pan American Judo Union from 1967 to ’69, and President, US Judo Association from 1980 to 1995.
He’s taught Judo for over 45 years and taught the US National Judo Team from 1985 to 1992.
PARALLEL LESSONS. “Judo is being taught mechanically now. There’s more to it than that,” he said as I joined him and Grand Master Cacoy in watching the Paja judokas practice their Okuri Ashi Harai (the sliding foot-sweep).
But old habits are as hard to break, as lifelong passions are difficult to put aside. And so, and with a borrowed judogi, a barefoot O-Sensei trotted unto the tatami and taught.
At 80, his moves are explosive, his steps are defined and his presence is commanding.
“If I eat a banana and throw the peel to the ground and you step on it and fall, how strong was the banana?” he asked his students.
“Judo is not about strength, it’s about proper movement and timing. If you move to soon or too late, it won’t work,” he later said as he led the judokas into refining the Okuri Ashi Harai.
“Do not concentrate on the throw. Concentrate on the movement. If the movement is right then the throw will be correct,” he said.
Shooting, I reflect, progresses along a similar path.
If the shooter’s stance is correct, the grip proper, the sights aligned, the body relaxed and the trigger control exact, the shot will be accurate.
Like Judo, shooting is also not about strength to control of the recoil. Rather, it is moving with or working with the recoil that makes for good shots.
UPCOMING MATCHES. The Kamagong Gun Club Inc. is hosting the first ever Polymer Pistol Only match in Cebu City on Feb. 19, in its firing range at the AFP Central Command Headquarters in Camp Lapu-Lapu.
Owners of Glock, HS2000, polymer pistols from Heckler and Koch, Armscor APP and MAPP models, Jericho 941FBL and other polymer-framed models are invited to join.
According to Col. Ceferino Layao, the club president, the match will offer four divisions – Standard, Compact, Sub-Compact and Open – in three heated stages of intense firearm action under the International Defensive Pistol Association format.
The match also involves a shoot off.
As a purely carry-gun event, no race holsters and “competition-only rigs” will be allowed in the match. Log on to www.kamagonggun.org for details.
(knrama@gmail.com)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (February 6, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here.
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