Starting at zero

I started training jiu-jitsu, and I am bad at it. That is the honest beginning.

This site is where I write down what I am learning while it is still new enough to see clearly. White belt is the only time you get to be confused on purpose. I want a record of it before the confusion turns into habit.

Why "yawara"

柔 yawara is the old Japanese word for the gentle art, the grappling the samurai trained before judo had a name. The 柔 means yielding, pliant, soft. It is the same character that opens both 柔術 (jūjutsu) and 柔道 (jūdō). Reaching past the modern word to the older one felt right for a place about learning the thing from the ground up.

So: 柔の道. A small path. Notes from the mat, kept in the open.

What goes here

Short posts. What a technique is supposed to do, what it actually did to me, and the gap between the two. No guru voice. I am not qualified for one yet.