“When you make a mistake or fail one technique, you should think it’s a good opportunity for the next technique, because that mistake and failure becomes a good setup for the next technique. All the techniques are connected together like a chain.“
Toshi: All of my students from the Australian branch enjoyed and had very precious experience in the international S,A,W championship.
I always feel a very nice atmosphere every time when I bring my students to compete in the S,A,W tournament.
It’s very good to see all the competitors have good manners and respect, and also great to see everyone is happy and enjoying the whole event.
Of course everyone tries their very best to win, but after the competition, everyone respects each other and drinks happily together at the party.
I think being able to have that kind of atmosphere is from Sensei’s character.
I remember Sensei always told us this,
“Dojo members are like real family”.
When I was still training in Japan 30 years ago, S,A,W was just one dojo, and Sensei said
“Think everyone who is training here is a real family”.
Now, we have a lot of branch dojo in Japan, and outside Japan is my Australia branch, also there are some overseas cooperate dojos as well.
People from Hawaii and Sydney are always coming to the international competition, and they respect Sensei and S,A,W. It became a bigger organisation, but still feels like one family.
Aso: When you fight in competitions, you have to fight by yourself alone in the ring. No one else can fight for you. So, whichever winning or losing, you have to take all the responsibility.
That’s why martial arts is good to develop a sense of responsibility, increase independence, proactivity, and cultivate your individuality.
But if they become too big, it sometimes makes a bad effect on people.
You might develop too much ego, and lose gratitude to other people, lose respect, lose cooperativeness, and become selfish.
You might think you became good from just your own effort, but you can’t learn anything without Sensei or coach, you can’t train hard without teammates, you can’t do sparring without training partners.
Many people are helping you in the process of your improvement.
You have to be a person who can have gratitude and respect for other people.
So, you should think all the dojo members are like real family and have respect and gratitude for each other, help and take care of each other.
Toshi: That’s a very nice concept. I try to include it into my dojo too.
As a conclusion of this interview, please give some advice to young martial artists.
Aso: OK. The important thing for young people to remember is to focus on your merits and strengths first.
Don’t worry if you can’t do certain techniques very well like other people.
Everyone has a different body size such as long arms or short arms, skinny legs or muscly legs, light weight or heavy.
Everyone has different strengths, different speeds, and different flexibility.
Some techniques are easy to do for some people and some are not.
Even our personalities make us able to do some techniques good or not as good.
Find the techniques which you can do really well, and try to sharpen up those techniques first.
Also, always keep in your mind about this,
“There is no failure in submission techniques.”
A lot of people give up and stop movement when they apply one technique and fail, but there is no failure in submissions.
Because if you think you made a mistake or failed, keep going to the next technique.
For example,
if you made a mistake for your guard arm bar, then your opponent is just about to come on top of you to hold you down, use their momentum to turn them over, then you can come on top of them to hold them down, but if you think you made a mistake and stop movement, then they come on top of you to hold you down, so that mistake becomes a real mistake.
When you make a mistake or fail one technique, you should think it’s a good opportunity for the next technique, because that mistake and failure becomes a good setup for the next technique.
All the techniques are connected together like a chain.
This concept is exactly the same as our lives.
Everything you do or everything you experience are all connected together.
There is no failure in our lives.
If you think you made a mistake or failed something, just try the next challenge.
That mistake or failure will be a good set up for your next challenge.
If you give up and stop making an effort, they will become real mistakes and failures.
If you think you made a mistake or failure, think it’s a good opportunity, then keep challenging.
That’s the SAW spirit, and that’s what we should aim for.
