Mitsuyo Maeda - Maeda's Philosophy of Combat

Maeda's Philosophy of Combat

According to Renzo Gracie's book Mastering Jujitsu, Maeda not only taught the art of judo to Carlos Gracie, but also taught a particular philosophy about the nature of combat based on his travels competing and training alongside catch-wrestlers, boxers, savate fighters, and various other martial artists. The book details Maeda's theory that physical combat could be broken down into distinct phases, such as the striking phase, the grappling phase, the ground phase, and so on. Thus, it was a smart fighter's task to keep the fight located in the phase of combat that best suited his own strengths. The book further states that this theory was a fundamental influence on the Gracie approach to combat. The approach included armed versus armed, armed versus unarmed, unarmed, standing (tachiwaza, 立ち技), kneeling (suwariwaza, 座技), and ground work (newaza, 寝技), close quarters (hakuheijugi, 白兵主義), and other forms of combat. It was employed by other proponents of judo ('Kano jiu-jutsu') who, like Maeda, engaged in challenge match fighting overseas as judo spread internationally (e.g., Yukio Tani in the United Kingdom from 1905, Mikonosuke Kawaishi in France, and others).