On Bowing and Foam Rubber

Fencing tends to start off with a quick salute. In boxing, you touch gloves. In jiu-jitsu, you slap hands. When I first tried Judo, all the bowing seemed formal to the point of being farcical. It seemed antiquated and pretentious. I found the whole thing off-putting, but I was lucky. Sensei Roy Kawaji explained it to me.

Bowing to your partner makes sense. It’s a different custom that accomplishes the same functions as the fencer’s salute, the boxer’s touch of the gloves, the wrestler’s hand shake, etc. First, it signals that both participants are ready to begin. It ensures that no one is caught by surprise, and so serves an important safety function. Second, all these gestures invite people to take a moment and reflect on a simple truth: they cannot participate in this fight without someone to oppose them. The bow to an opponent is a moment to feel and exhibit gratitude for this person who has shown up so that you can spar.

There are a lot of other bows in Judo, but Sensei Roy’s explanations all centered on this single theme. The act of bowing was there to give you a moment in which to feel gratitude.

You bow to the instructors and to the portrait of Jigoro Kano. Taking a moment to feel grateful that you have people to teach you Judo, and to feel grateful for all of the teachers and innovators who helped create and share this art going all the way back to Judo’s founder. Teachers bow to students because, without students, they would not be teachers.

You bow to the mats. Oddly, that was the action that first made all the grateful bowing business make sense to me. I’ve trained grappling on mats, carpets, grass, dirt, bark chips, and asphalt. If there is one thing I, as a practitioner of arts that involve tackling people to the ground, am thankful for, it’s the existence of quality training mats. In fact, when I first sat down to write this post, my original intent was just to write at length about the significance of mats.

Modern foam rubber mats don’t just make training more pleasant. They have fundamentally changed the grappling arts. There are depictions of single and double leg takedowns going back thousands of years, but the modern wrestler’s shot (with a penetration step placing a knee on the ground) is just that: modern. It’s a product of people training on mats. That doesn’t mean it can’t work on other surfaces. I know wrestlers who could shoot a double leg on concrete and make it work, but I don’t believe they could have gotten good enough to make it work if all their training had been on concrete. Foam rubber was forgiving enough on their knees to let them practice until the technique was smooth. I think foam rubber can also be credited for the increased popularity of throws that put the knees to the mat, including drop seoi-nage and the kneeling version of the fireman’s carry. Brazilian Jiu-jitsu has brought about a quantum leap in the sophistication of ground fighting, but part of the reason it was able to do that is that modern mats make rolling around on the ground comfortable enough for people to stay on the ground to learn.

I am deeply, profoundly, grateful for mats.

Judo practitioners bow when they enter the dojo. It’s so you can take a moment to feel grateful that you have a place to train, but also so you can take a moment to shift your mindset.

The founder of Straight Blast Gym, Jiu-jitsu black belt Matt Thornton, said something I really liked. He said, to the best of my recollection: “Jiu-jitsu done right is a powerful form of yoga, in the classical sense. It’s a meditation in which you let go of your regrets about the past and your concerns for the future. You’re totally present in the moment.” I find this to be true of all the martial arts I’ve sparred in. When I enter a flow state, abstract stresses simply go away. That meditative quality is, perhaps above all else, what I love about the practice of the martial arts. In Judo, you bow at the door to remind yourself that the dojo is a place for such work. The bow is a reminder to let go of your daily stress, leave it outside and, for the duration of your training time, strive to be simply present in the moment.

It’s been a few years since I was able to train Judo regularly. I don’t go through my day bowing all the time. I do try to stop when I can, take a moment, take a breath, and feel grateful.