It's 3 a.m. and you crave a late night snack, so you decide to walk down N. Charles St. to 7-Eleven. Suddenly, a strange man comes out of the bushes and grabs you by the collar. What do you do?
Your best bet is to run. But that is not always an option. You could step into the victim with your right foot, throwing off his balance slightly, then lock your leg around his and flip him to the ground, releasing yourself from his grip. Or, you could turn yourself perpendicular to the attacker by sweeping your foot around and then lock arms, then hurling him to the side.
A near instantaneous reaction, yet one imbued with carefully calculated martial arts technique: this is Japanese Jujitsu. Hopkins is home to lots of martial arts clubs, from Tae Kwon Do to karate to Soo Bahk Do.
Among these are two forms of Jujitsu: Brazilian and Japanese. While Brazilian Jujitsu is the more casually recognized form of the sport (even though the Brazilian form is a derivative of the Japanese version), Japanese Jujitsu has found a home at Hopkins since 2002.
Jujitsu is Japanese for "the gentle art." It is both an armed and unarmed form of combat whose techniques are based not on strength and size, but on forces such as balance and fluidity. Originating in Japan from samurai during the Muromachi Period (1333-1573), Jujitsu evolved as a method for defeating an armed opponent without the use of weapons.
Because striking an armored opponent while you are unarmed is not wise, the samurai developed methods for neutralizing the enemy in the form of pins, locks and throws. The idea was to use the opponent's energy against him, rather than directly transferring all of your force onto him.
But back to the present. On Sunday, at the encouragement of my friend who has been attending the classes, I decided to participate in the two-hour session at the Recreation Center.
For someone like me, who is in less than stellar shape and has not done any form of martial arts since elementary school, I was nervous but also excited, with that anticipation of trying something new and ambitious.
The class is taught by Sensei Mario Harold. At 5'10'' with an athletic build, Harold volunteers his time teaching at Hopkins as part of his responsibilities to his rank of Godan (5th degree black belt).
Harold, who works full-time as a security guard at St. Josephs's Medical Center, was first drawn to the idea of studying martial arts more than a decade ago. A janitor at the hospital with military experience convinced Harold that being able to defend against people was vital to his job.
"As a security officer you get into various different situations, people come in drunk, people come in with various psychological problems," Harold said. "He expressed to me the understanding that studying some form of jujitsu or something that has a lot of restraint could be beneficial. I needed an art that had restraining techniques where I won't get hurt, and where I wouldn't hurt the patient."
Harold soon afterwards began taking jujitsu classes at the Towson YMCA, where he has been studying ever since. Teaching the Budoshin 'traditional' form of jujitsu, he worked his way up to the rank of Godan, and teaches at the YMCA as part of the Daitobukan Dojo.
In 2002, one of Harold's students at Daitobukan, who was a Hopkins undergraduate at the time, approached Harold about teaching classes at Homewood. Harold has been able to find various students over the years who have become devoted to the art, such as current senior Eugene Sato, who discovered the club during his sophomore year.
"I started Tae Kwon Do when I was five, and did that for eight years, and later took up judo in high school for about a year and a half. I came across the jujitsu club while looking for something similar to judo that I could practice" Sato said. "I was specifically looking for something like jujitsu to practice so it didn't really take much to draw me in."
He said that the thing that impressed him the most was the liberal nature with which newcomers were ingratiated into the class. There were only six students in the group, one upper-level belt and several white belts. While Sato was the only one without a gi, the traditional martial arts uniform, he was still able to participate.
The same held true for me, as I did not have a gi of my own and showed up in shorts and a tee-shirt.
At the class I attended, I met a student from the Brazilian Jujitsu class, who decided on a whim to participate. Harold started us off with a series of calisthenics, sit-ups, pushups and wrist, hand and neck exercises. Simple enough - except I began to feel dizzy halfway through and had to sit for a bit (this is where the fact that I spend more time writing about sports than actually doing them caught up to me).
The group then proceeded to practice various methods of grappling and throwing. Using the upper belts and his assistant sensei as examples for proper technique, Harold grouped the participants based on height and was able to give individual as well as larger group instruction.
The session started at 6 p.m. and lasted until after 8 p.m., with probably close to 300 throws being completed between all participants during the duration of the class.
Sato, who has studied other forms of martial arts, finds Jujitsu to be one of the most rewarding.
"I definitely enjoy the wide-range of technical concepts that Jujitsu employs" Sato said. "Jujitsu takes a while to get into at first, especially since there is such a large variety of different types of techniques that can be taught, but I would always encourage people to join.
One aspect which Harold strives to include in his instruction is the practical applications of jujitsu. He recognizes that this is a city which often leaves people vulnerable to attack, and tries to give people something to work with if they are unfortunate enough to be unexpectedly assailed."
"Over the course of time I started realizing that people are going to take the same technique, but will absorb it and do what works for them," Harold said.
"I want to keep it practical and traditional, but I want you to be able to take with it what can work for you if you get attacked on the street. If you get in that situation, I want you to be able to take the technique I want you to be able to apply it right then and there when you need it and hopefully you can get away."
Japanese Jujitsu is not only a great self defense art, but it is also a great way to get exercise and stay in shape, something which most Hopkins students often lack the motivation to do.
Classes currently meet Fridays from 8-10 p.m. and Sundays from 6-8 p.m. at the Ralph S. O'Connor Recreation Center.
