Once the class has been through a few techniques, they should be warm. The next thing that we might do is combine the techniques we’ve been taught, so we might put two techniques together to be done in conjunction with each other, we may get one of the partners to perform a technique and then get the other partner to perform a counter to that technique. The amount of counters and combinations that we can do will be dependant on the level of aptitude of the class present.

There should always be a session of free practice. Free practice or as it is known in Japanese, Randori. Randori is not a competition, the idea of the Randori is to allow the club students to practice the techniques that they have already done in a more static position. They should now move on and practice those techniques on the move. It’s quite important that people understand that this is not a competition and there is still a degree of co-operation at this point in time. So, whilst it might be easily possible to resist all techniques that are attempted, each student should not just resist they should be co-operating to a certain extent. Now it is possible that you may go to a club or even to a class where they’re just having a Randori session, so if you turn up at one of these sessions it’s important to understand that you must do your own warm up, that the mat is being made available for people to have a bit of a hard training session. So, this would not be so co-operative as the Randori session that we might put on the back of some learning – this is really about where the players go to try their own techniques out.

Aylwin Judo Club South East London SE16