I had a student, a doctor, who was a charming man. We were used to working together. When he controlled me on the ground, he would say to me every time, “Mr Corréa, you will not get out!” I would answer him, “No, I will not get out, but I am getting out right now.” And I would get out. I was not opposing, I had found what I teach now: carrying one’s idea as if it were already finished. And I made no effort, because I had already arrived on the other side.

You were already out at the moment when you were beginning? The beginning and the end were the same moment?

That is true, I have always done that and I still do it. When I think about getting out, I already know the path. Immediately before the action, the path is already completed in my mind. But at the moment of getting out, I do not think about it. I do not think about the path. I get out.

Immediately?

I cannot decide to go and then leave afterwards. That is two moments, whereas when one is controlled on the ground one cannot do otherwise, one must act immediately.

As soon as one is caught?

Yes, but it is not a question of speed. It is about doing everything at the same time: the encompass, the mobility, the control. Whereas we tend to do things one after the other and the escape at the end. One must make an immediate action. If all the elements are not gathered in the very moment of the escape, it is not possible. You are facing a wall.

It is true, often one decides to get out but then finds oneself blocked.

That is because one must already be on the other side of the wall. If you remain on this side, you stop. Because the true decision is to get out. It is not to tell oneself that one is going to do it. When one says that one is going to do something, it means that one spends time preparing. Preparing is what one always wants to do. It is losing time on execution.

In that case, what place does strategy have?

There is no strategy. I do not want there to be strategy in the practice of judo. It takes a year to elaborate a plan in advance for what you are going to do. You have someone in front of you, your life is in danger, you are not going to think, “Should I…?” No, immediately you do something so as not to die. Strategy in judo does not exist.

How does one manage to do something without preparation?

One remains awake and acts within the action. In judo there is a close relationship between thought and the hara. They are constantly linked, thought decides together with the physical action of the hara. That is to say, from the instant I think something, that is it, I can do it, with the help of my abdomen which is the motor. Someone who does not know, who does not practise, who has not found this link, has great difficulty doing it. That is part of education: one does not know, you do not know how to use your abdomen.

It is not so easy.

It is difficult because for that one must already have felt within oneself what this link is.

How does one work on this?

There are exercises that one can do every day, even just five minutes, in order to coordinate thought and the hara, and to take a decision with the whole body. With thought and the whole body. This can only be done in a certain position. If the body is open, one cannot. When it is open, everything is diluted, there is neither concentration of energy nor concentration of thought. One must come to feel and to know this.