Why Japanese Masters Move the Way They Do

I lived and trained in Japan for nearly a decade, and there’s something about the way senior Japanese instructors move that I’ve never seen fully replicated—not in seminars, not in videos, not even in very advanced Western practitioners. 

In this episode, I try to put words to that difference.

I talk about the timing these teachers have—entering a fraction of a second before you’d expect, so completely prepared that the technique seems to begin before any contact happens.

I share the story of finally getting the chance to take ukemi for Yamaguchi Sensei during his 70th birthday celebration, running toward him, and inexplicably stopping a foot away from him before he’d even moved.

I also talk about the looseness in these teachers’ shoulders and knees, the idea of not “cutting corners,” and how, at a high enough level, the whole body becomes the site of the interaction rather than just the hands and arms.

And I talk about the quality of arrival—startling but not violent—and why that quality is trainable rather than simply a matter of personality.

🥋 Practice Prompt

During your next class, notice the moment before physical contact.

Are you waiting for the technique to begin, or are your attention, structure, and body already prepared?

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