Why do I always say "Osss!"

My wife asked my yesterday, when I ended a blog post. Why do you say that?

I say it all the time in the academy, and while no one has asked, I wonder how many of them are asking the very same question.

I started Judo as a fat 9 year old kid at the Decatur, Illinois YMCA and my Sensei Bill Horve was about 1,000 years old at the time and very, very old school. When I did Judo in Texas, my sensei Timjo was a kodokan graduate. They were very traditional and everytime we ended a session or nearly anything it was punctuated with Oss.

It is shortslang Japanese for "Onegai Shimasu" which simply translated means "Respect." It also has come to mean an expression of fighting spirit, thus I say it all the time, and in a very laid back BJJ academy is a bit of an oddity. Which is also probably another reason why I do it.

Oss!