One of my ex-team mates pointed me to this video on You Tube. It shows a typical training session in Japan and in particular Yoshida preparing for a tournament and finally training with a young Inoue. Having trained in Japan many times and in particularly at this dojo it brought back many memories, mostly fond memories but also memories of how tough the Randori is out there. you will notice that Yoshida is wearing a blue (sometimes red) sash which means he cannot rest for the whole of the session. Sessions last for typically 2.5 to 3 hours with the first half hour being warm up and uchikomi and the rest being randori. The Japanese train like this every day and each university has a session like this which is mandatory for most students. The session carries typically 150 - 200 dan grades most of which are beatable however any travelling team tends to be given the blue or red sash so we would spend two hours fighting without rest and for the last half hour the national team would come onto the mat to give us a good hiding.
It does however demonstrate why the Japanese produce great players, in the UK and Europe we tend to have 15-20 dan grades on a mat at best and that would be once or twice a week maximum. The Japanese have 200 dan grades every day to train with. In the UK and Europe we focus on fitness and strength training off the mat with weights, running, circuits etc Where as the Japanese get all the fitness and strength training they need whilst Judo training with live opponents.
The competition for places and medals within Japan is much stronger than in most other countries and so the team that does get selected tends to be head and shoulders better than most other countries.
The world of course has now caught up with Japan but as a result of more sophisticated training methods rather than weight of practice partners, if the Japanese could learn from countries like Holland with their natural resource would once again become unbeatable.
