Getting Thrown – Losing The Fear

I’m Paul Willson I am a brown belt in Ju Jutsu, a centuries old Japanese martial art.

In Ju Jutsu there are a large number of throwing techniques which meant I had to learn to throw a training partner and get used to being thrown by my training partner when practicing these techniques.

As you can imagine getting thrown is an unnatural thing to be done to you and can be nerve wracking when you are not used to it. It took me a long time to get used to it. I often consciously and subconsciously resisted being thrown in any throw where my feet. My body would move away from my training partner and my weight would sink making it extremely hard if not impossible for me to be thrown.

It has to be said I got very little support in being getting over it. I was told constantly to relax and if I wouldn’t relax I would have to be punched before I was thrown to make me more pliable. Relaxing was easier said than done.

The problem was psychological. I was thrown on a crash mat to try and find out the problem and being thrown on the crash mat was easy.

So how did I get over it? One reason was that I got a training partner who is very strong who took away the option of resisting because he could throw me even if I did. But the main reason was that I began looking at the floor when I was thrown. This helped a lot because I realised I wasn’t as high up as I thought I was and this took away a lot of the fear.

When you are thrown you are obviously taken off the ground which means you go higher in the air and often sideways so your legs flip to the side. Because your head goes briefly goes up you feel that you are higher than you actually are. If you look down and see that your feet just a couple inches from the ground and it takes most of the fear out of the situation so you relax. Once you relax you will find the landing softer.

No one really enjoys being thrown but if you have that fear it hard to overcome so I hope this tip helps take this fear away.