2008 National Shingitai Training Camp and Convention
May 16, 17 and 18, 2008
Perrysville, Ohio
For information, call John Saylor at (419) 938-6089.
The Shingitai camp is one of the best training camps in the United States to learn technical skills in jujitsu, judo, submission grappling and sambo. Everyone is welcome.
2008 National Shingitai Championships and Training 
Camp
Sept. 26, 27 and 28, 2008 Perrysville, Ohio
Categories for men and women, rookies and advanced. The Shingitai contest rules accomodate about every style of grappling and are fair for everyone. If you're a jujitsu, judo or sambo athlete or submission grappler, this event is for you! We will have both "gi" and "no gi" categories. Contact John Saylor at (419) 938-6089 for more information.
WELCOME MAT ATHLETES WIN MEDALS AT NATIONAL AAU JUDO CHAMPIONSHIPS
Our Welcome Mat team consisted of Travis Oliphant, Jon Taylor, Kelly Hunter, Josh Henges, Derrick Darling, Brian Lepic and Chris Bartley (who served as team coach).
The AAU Nationals was held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Aug. 12, 2007. Our six athletes won eight medals! Way to go guys!
SATURDAY SELF-DEFENSE JUJITSU CLASS
Class held every Saturday, 3:30-5:00 p.m. starting May 10, 2008 at the Sylvester Powell Community Center, 6200 Martway, Mission, Kansas. This class is Shingitai Jujitsu for self-defense and open to everyone. Beginners are welcome as well as advanced students. As John Saylor says; "Jujitsu is first and foremost a fighting art." This class is coached by Steve Scott. Call (913) 722-8200. The Early Summer 8-week session starts May 10 and goes through July 12. The Summer 8-week session runs from July 19 through Sept. 6, 2008.
WELCOME MAT ONLINE NEWSLETTER
Each month, Steve Scott publishes a free online newsletter covering a variety of topics inclusing training, technical skills, discussion on major events and news and anything else of interest. The goal is to offer upbeat, thoughtful and interesting information and commentary on the martial arts.
If you would like to receive this free. monthly online newseltter and be placed on the mailng list, e-mail Steve Scott at stevescottjudo@yahoo.com.
Every so often, we will re-print issues of the newsletter in this space.
WELCOME MAT ONLINE NEWSLETTER By Steve Scott
Oct, 2007
This month's quote: "If the only tool you have is a hammer, then every problem looks like a nail." Abraham Maslow
QUALITY TRAINING TIME
I know it it were up to me, I would spend a lot more time on the mat. But, something called "life" seems to keep demanding time from me, so little things like making a house payment, eating, paying my bills, paying a little bit of attention to my wife and other matters seem to take up time that could be spent on the mat.
I remember reading once that the great wrestling coach and champion, Dan Gable, was so engrossed in wrestling that he actually would forget the names of his daughters from time to time. One funny story I heard about Gable was when he had a leak in his kitchen plumbing and had to fix it. All the while he was under the sink making the repairs, he kept thinking to himself; "How does this help my wrestling? This takes time away from wrestling practice." Then, there's the story about the great football coach Vince Lombardi taking his son to the movies. Lombardi's son recounts that during the movie, his father was fidgeting in his seat, looking at his watch and obviously uneasy. About halfway through the movie, the great coach stood up, grabbed his young son by the hand and told him on the way out of the theater; "I can't sit still this long, I have a football team to coach." Okay, so maybe not all of us are that wrapped up in what we do, whether it's wrestling, judo, jujitsu or any sport or activity, but we certainly would love more time doing what we love to do on the mat.
The things I write about in this article are aimed at the guy or gal who isn't a young stud or studette training for elite levels of competitive judo, sambo or orther fighting sports. If you're a dedicated athlete, then you will place everything else on the back shelf for the duration of your career and dedicate yourself to being the best athlete that you can possibly be. Many of you reading this are in this group...young athletes who want to be champions. In this case, follow the path that many of us (me included) have for a good portion of our lives and decide that you are not "normal" and realize that you will have to make huge sacrifices to being a champion in your chosen sport. The costs are many and have lasting effects. I've lost jobs and some of my friends have lost wives and husbands in the pursuit of athletic excellence. But the jist of this article, as I said, is for the dedicated athlete who wants to pursue jujitsu, judo or other combat sports or fighting skills and also wants to engage as fully as possible in life in general as well. Not everyone wants to live like a pauper and be a judo champion or championship coach (as many of my friends, family and I have). There is something called "balance" in life and this article is for that man or woman who wants to achieve a balance between his love for training and the rest of his life.
Since we don't have the luxury of spending long hours on the mat, we have to make up for it in "quality time." Sure, I know that phrase is a catchword for parents who usually don't spend much time with the kids and try to compress a week's worth of attention into 3 or 4 hours and usually neither parent or child seem to enjoy the time together. No, quality time on the mat is a bit more on the positive side and if done right, seems to work out really well in terms of getting good results out of what training time you have available to you.
If all you have available to you is 1 night per week on the mat, then you have to get as much quality time in as possible. If you can, go for a minimum of 2 nights per week, with each workout about 90 minutes in length. But, for the sake of conversation, let's say your mat time is limited to once per week.
Okay, you have every Thursday (for instance) available to you and the training time is 2 hours. First, let's look how you can schedule the rest of your week to (1) Get a bit more off-mat training time, and (2) Be in shape so you can get optimal training effectiveness on Thursday night on the mat.
Make Thursday your main training day, with at least 1 or 2 days as off-mat training days. Even if you spend 60 minutes in each off-mat workout, it will help a lot. Spread out your days so that you are busy throughout the week. Thursday is your on-mat day, with Saturday and Tuesday as the days you have off-mat training.
Tuesday and Saturday can be used as days where you train with the weights, do uchikomi, run, do plyometrics or anything that will make you better for your primary day on the mat. If you're a judo or jujitsu athlete, make sure the lifting you do makes you stronger and fitter for your primary activity. Do lots of uchikomis which serves as both good aerobic training and skill training on your off-mat days. Many old-timers (me included) vividly remember doing thousands of uchikomi with a judo belt wrapped around a pole in the garage or basement or outside on a tree. I remember doing lots and lots of sit-throughs and other related exercises and moves off the mat so that my groundfighting would be better when I was on the mat. In other words, try to sneak away from the rigors of daily living and spend at least an hour twice a week in off-mat training.
When you're on the mat, try to achieve the "Ten Percent Rule." That is, spend no more than 10% of the time you have on the mat not engaged in some form of training. That means at least 90% effective training time. This means no time for gossip, admiring each other's belt or new judogi, or telling some new guy how good you used to be. Sure, be friendly with your team-mates. After all, what we do is a group activity and we need each other to train with. Part of that is socialization and being friendly, but keep the glad-handing to a minimum when on the mat and save it for after practice.
My goal as a coach is to have a structured training practice or class every time. the first 30 minutes are spent on warm-ups (including stretching), breakfalls and drill-training. I try to live up to what Mel Bruno told me many years ago; "Teach them judo, but train them like wrestlers." The second 30 minutes or so are devoted to working on skills. I usually teach a skill or a group of skills that are liked to each other and give the group plenty of time to work on them. My job as coach is to see that each group of students develop that skill to the best of their abilities and then, when they get a good mechanical grasp of it, make the move work for them. The last 30-40 minutes are spent on supervised free time. This is when the students can randori, get some extra time on the crash pads, work on some self-defense moves, roll around in extended groundfighting and newaza training or do drill son their own to improve themselves. This is when there is a little "down time" in the actual training as it's free time devoted to letting the students have time on their own.
In all, a 2-hour workout keeps everybody moving, thinking, learning, trying, exercising and staying busy in a positive way. If I'm successful as a coach, everybody goes home happy, injury-free (although being sore from a hard workout is a good thing), better off for having been on the mat and ready for a good night's sleep.
What you do and how you do it when on the mat, as well as what you do off the mat is what makes you what you are as a martial arts or self-defense athlete. Quality time is just that...quality.
VITAL LEGLOCKS NOW AVAILABLE
Turtle Press has released my latest book VITAL LEGLOCKS. If you're into lower body submissions, this is a book you'll want. I looked at lower body submissions holds not only from a sambo perspective but also from catch wrestling, the old-time legit pro wrestling and submission grappling as well. I want to thank all the guys at Welcome Mat, Bill Brown Karate and John Saylor and his bunch from the Barn of Truth. You can order it for $18.95 from www.TurtlePress.com or buy one from me. Send a check or money order (payable to Steve Scott) for $18.95 plus $2.50 for shipping to 8000 Jefferson, Kansas City, MO 64114.
NEW BOOK ON LEGITIMATE PRO WRESTLING Frank Gotch Vs. George Hackenschmidt" by Barron Sheppherd
A revealing look at the Frank Gotch/George Hackenschmidt battles along with their battles with other wrestlers of their era. This informative book contains every aspect of the two historic matches between the Titans of wrestling along with descriptions of thier other great matches as well. The truth behind the controversies of the Gotch vs. Hackenschmidt bouts will be uncovered. This is a great book on professional wrestling when it was real.
Also as a bonus the book also contains instructions on wrestling from the greatest wrestlers of the late 19th and early 20th century. 200 pages and full of photos of both the matches along with photos of other wrestlers of the era.
Due out in December for 24.95 Pre Order and receive a discount price of $18.95 Order directly from Badass Fightwear at http://badassfightwear.com/ to get your copy. (I'm a big fan of old-time legit pro wrestling and this looks like a great book. Barron's spent a lot of time and effort reserching this book and I'm looking forward to readinng it.)
Have a safe and fun Halloween tonight. Don't eat too much candy. Until next month.
WELCOME MAT EARNS OUTSTANDING JUJITSU CLUB AWARD BY SHINGITAI JUJITSU ASSOCIATION
The Shingitai Jujitsu Association named the Welcome Mat Judo-Jujitsu Club as the nation's top jujitsu program for 2007.
The award was presented by SJA National Director John Saylor (right in photo) to Steve Scott at the Shingitai Awards Banquet in May, 2007. Congratulations to all the Welcome Mat members for making this happen!
ERIC MILLSAP WINS 2007 SHINGITAI JUJITSU ASSOCIATION DIRECTOR'S AWARD
Eric Millsap (right in photo) was named as the 2007 winner of the SJA Director's Award. This national award is presented by SJA Director John Saylor (left in photo) to an outstanding member displaying the qualities that Shingitai Jujitsu represents. The award was presented at the Shingitai Awards Banquet in May, 2007 in Perrysville, Ohio. Eric has deveoped a strong junior jujitsu program at Welcome Mat. Also at the same event, Eric was personally promoted to Sandan (3rd Grade Black Belt) by John Saylor.
2007 WELCOME MAT BANQUET
The 2007 Welcome Mat Awards Banquet was held at the Kansas City North Community Center on Dec. 7 with about 135 people attending. Lots of great food was available at this pot-luck dinner and everyone had a great time as well. A large number of black belt promotions, along with other rank promotions and the annual Welcome Mat awards for outstanding performances went to many deserving people. This dinner marked the last time the we'll have a large annual banquet. With so many Welcome Mat locations now operating, it will be best for each club location to host its individual awards banquet so the Welcome Mat tradition will go on in many places, not only one. Thanks to everyone who attended and congratulations to all the award winners!Welcome Mat Clinics
In addition to having coaches and technicians come to Kansas City to teach clinics at Welcome Mat, we also have clinics and special classes featuring Welcome Mat coaches and athletes and are some of the most popular events held at our club. Welcome Mat is fortunate to have so many talented athletes, coaches and clinicians as members and we try to take advantage of the many skills they have to offer by holding clinics and special classes on a regular basis. About every 6 weeks or so, one of our Welcome Mat members conducts a clinic in his or her speciality or area of interest. A wide variety of subjects are covered including CPR, yawara and hand techniques, law enforcement restraint skills, catch wrestling, leglocks, armlocks, throws and gripping, Muay Thai, boxing and many other interesting and informative areas of skill. Here are a few photos showing some Welcome Mat clinics.
Andy Edwards (below, left) teaching Yawara the the group at the Sylvester Powell Community Center, January, 2008. Shingitai Jujitsu covers a wide variety of fighting skills and Yawara is one of many areas that a well-rounded 
jujitsu exponent must know. In the photo at right, Andy is demonstrating a wrist lock on Erik Butler.
CPR classes are taught yearly and Welcome Mat members can get American Heart Association certification. The photo at left shows the May, 2007 CPR class. Photo by Mark Lozano.
Coach Education and Training clinics are held on a regular basis and are open to anyone who wants to learn more about teaching and coaching. The photo at left show Steve Scott conducting a coach education clinic in 2002. Photo by Bob Rittman.
The photo at right shows Jarrod 
Fobes conducting a Catch wrestling clinic in 2007 at Kansas City North Community Center.
The photo (below, left) shows 
Bret Holder and Alan Johnson teaching a Muay Thai class at Kansas City North Community Center in 2007.
World Sambo Champion and Welcome Mat athlete Chris Heckadon conducted a sambo 
and judo clinic in 2002. The photo at the right shows Chris teaching a tie-up with Bill West.
This photo shows Bjorn Carlson coaching Jerry Buccalatto and Mike Thomas at his Shorinji Kempo clinic at Welcome Mat in 2008.
WELCOME MAT ONLINE NEWSLETTER
December, 2007
By Steve Scott
Here's an edited version of the December, 2007 newsletter. How we learn and how we retain knowledge and skills is an interesting subject. The better coaches and instructors pass along technical, theoretical and tactical skills along with important life's lesson, the better each student becomes and the better martial arts become, no matter what martial art or discipline taught. This article is about learning motor skills effectively and my views on the subject. Steve Scott
LEARNING MOTOR SKILLS This will be brief and certainly won't get the space the subject deserves, but something I heard about recently prompted this article on coaching.
I recently heard about a young instructor who stated that he believed the best time to learn anything was when the student is exhausted from hard physical training. I've heard this theory 
before, but have never been a follower of it. His logic was that only after hard and exhaustive training can someone learn "technique." Again, I've heard this for many years and he was simply saying what someone had told him. But results don't reflect this theory of teaching motor skills. From my own personal experience and from the experience of successful coaches that I have discussed this with, the best time to teach motor skills is when the athlete or student is "fresh." (This photo shows the guys drill training on ankle locks in a "scramble drill" designed to develop both aggressive attacks as well as develop a good defense.)
Generally, this happens after the student has had sufficient physical activity to be both mentally and physically alert and not after the student has been physically (and hand in hand, mentally) exhausted. Studies, as well as common sense coaching, has proved that athletes who are physically spent are just as mentally spent and psycho-motor, cognitive and affective learning is least efficient at this point.
The specific situation that prompted me to write this article about was brought about by a young instructor who was visiting one of my student's dojo and taught a class. Additionally, he spent an inordinate amount of time (about 20 straight minutes) on non-stop push ups as part of his warm-up. Not to be too critical, but from my observation, a coach that spends excessive time on calisthenics or warm-ups (of any type) is short on ideas of what to coach and how to coach it, so he kills as much time as possible on "conditioning." Years ago, I remember a guy who was a wrestling coach for an area high school who had never wrestled and was only doing it for the coaching stipend he got. He admitted that he didn't know how to coach wrestling and no interest in learning how. He told me that he killed a lot of time in wrestling practice by making the kids do conditioning. He let the upper classmen show the new kids basic wrestling skills at the end of practice, but spent at least 3/4 of the 
practice having the boys run stairs and work on other fitness drills. He told me "I don't know anything about wrestling, but I can sure run the hell out of them." He was replaced mid-season by someone who knew something about wrestling, which was good news for the wrestlers. I guess my point is that fitness training is a fundamental part of being able to perform skills, especially on an elite level, or at least against someone as good as you are. To do judo, jujitsu or any martial art, you simply have to be in good enough shape to perform the many complex skills that make up the many forms of martial arts. However, learning best take place when the athlete or student is alert, physically, mentally and emotionally. Often, if not always, if an athlete is too physically exhausted to practice a skill correctly, he won't learn it well. He'll start to take shortcuts in the actual learning of the skill and make mistakes during the practice of the skill. (This photo shows Eric Millsap running a drill training session at Welcome Mat.)
A great deal of learning martial arts takes place by way of kinesthetic awareness or a "feel" for the skill. When you "feel" your judo, you have a complete master of the skill you are doing. The initial stages of skill learning rely on this kinesthetic feel of learning a new movement. If someone is too physically exhausted, he won't sense that "feel" for learning a new movement. Even if he does, he will take short-cuts to perform the task of skill learning and poor technique will result.
Also, the willingness to train or to learn new movements by the student is necessary. If someone is physically drained, he will be mentally drained more often than not and he will be less likely to accept the new challenges of learning a new physical skill (or even a new mental skills). A student is far more willing to accept the challenge of learning a new skill if he's physically capable.
I'm not trying to criticize this young, un-named instructor, but his approach to coaching is obviously different from mine and his actions prompted some thought on my part and hopefully some thought on your part as well.
If you would like to subscribe to our free, online newsletter, e-mail Steve Scott at stevescottjudo@yahoo.com and we'll add your name to the list.
MISSOURI STATE JUDO CHAMPIONSHIPS AND SHINGITAI OPEN
Odessa, Missouri, Saturday, July 26, 2008 AAU Sanctioned
Two categories at one event...The Missouri State Judo Championships and the Shingitai Open. The Shingitai Open will feature Shingitai contest rules at this unique AAU sanctioned judo meet. If you are a judo, jujitsu, sambo or submission grappling athlete, this event will be great for you. Categories for adults, kids, masters and rookies. Male and female groups also. AAU weight classes will be used. For information on how to enter or a list of the rules, contact Steve Scott at stevescottjudo@yahoo.com.
SHINGITAI JUJITSU ASSOCIATION AWARD HONOREES AND LIFE MEMBERS
SHINGITAI JUJITSU ASSOCIATION AWARDS (Presented at the SJA Annual Convention each year.)
2007
The "Yone" Award John Saylor
Allen Coage Memorial Award J.P. Pocock
Outstanding Instructor Award John Ingallina
Outstanding Club Award Welcome Mat Judo and Jujitsu Club, Kansas City, Missouri
Director's Award Eric Millsap
2008
(Awards will be presented at the Shingitai Training Camp/Convention on May 16, 2008.)
SHINGITAI JUJITSU ASSOCIATION LIFE MEMBERS
The following people have generously contributed to the Shingitai Jujitsu Association and joined as Life Members, demonstrating their lifetime committment to the development of Shingitai Jujitsu and to the Shingitai Jujitsu Association. Congratulations and a sincere thanks to all these Life Members from the Shingitai Jujitsu Association.
001 Bob Rittman, Kansas City, Missouri
002 Ed Rogers, Kansas City, Missouri
003 Bret Holder, Kansas City, Missouri
004 Steve Scott, Kansas City, Missouri
005 Wayne Marble, Blue Springs, Missouri
006 Craig Johnson, Edwardsville, Kansas
