Verbal judo takes finesse, communication speaker says
by Rawly Bransom
editor-in-chief

In the face of the most vicious and spiteful verbal assaults, a police officer must remain cool and collective to keep a hostile situation from blowing up in his face, a professor of criminology said last week.

The method he uses is called verbal judo and was created by a police officer for the city of Los Angeles.

As the fourth installment in a four-part speech series on NW Campus over interpersonal communications, Bill Smith offered a condensed version of verbal judo to students.

The condensed version lasted one hour, unlike the full version that can take a minimum of eight hours to complete, Smith said.

“ Verbal judo is simply the mastery of communicating with others by redirecting another’s behavior,” he said.

Smith, a police officer before he began teaching at TCC, said verbal judo is much more gentle than a person’s normal aggressive behavior.

“Karate is a violent sport, unlike judo, which is much more gentle. In karate, a man will kick or punch you, but in judo, one allows the other’s movement and energy to be used to place the person, hopefully as gently as possible, where you want them,” he said.

Smith said several factors affect effective communication, such as a person’s perception of reality, needs, culture, gender and listening skills.

“ Police officers have shot people because they thought a gesture was threatening because the officers did not understand the person’s culture,” he said.

Like a martial art, verbal judo must be practiced until it has become a habit that is always there, Smith said.

The first habit a person must develop is a need to read differences, such as gender or culture, and interact with them.

The second is to be skillful with the three types of people: nice, who can gobble another up with flattery; difficult, who are rude loud and aggressive; and wimps, who make a person feel they are in his corner but turn on him whenever it is convenient.

To master those steps and the ways to deal with the three types of people (especially the difficult ones), a person must first learn how to handle verbal abuse.

“It takes more than one person to argue. Try silence, listening or even humor, but you have to be careful with humor because some people may get upset,” he said.

Smith asked audience members to act out different scenarios using verbal judo in a civilian setting.

Smith presented the four great arts to use with verbal judo.

The first is the art of presentation. Smith said the art of presentation involves generating voluntary compliance, which is the height of professionalism.

Smith said many of the world’s great orators, as JFK, Martin Luther King, Oprah Winfrey and even Adolph Hitler, all had this art.

“ Many studies have shown that only about 7-10 percent of communication is done through verbal content; 33-40 percent is pitch, tone, modulation or pace of the voice and 50-60 percent is nonverbal items such as body movement and stance,” he said.

The second great art is translation.

This art entails learning to send and code messages according to the audience’s mindset to ensure proper decoding.

A person must never use words that rise naturally to his lips, such as curse words. Finally, he should ask questions to clarify any misunderstandings.

The third great art is mediation. To mediate a situation properly a person must first diagnose the verbal encounter.

To do this, Smith said, a person must first identify the problem, second figure out who the audience or attacker is, then determine what constraints or mental and verbal barriers he is putting up and remember an ethical presence or to control the ego.

“ A discussion leans to an argument and then they attack you. They call you names, they talk about your momma and maybe even your religion if they think it can hurt you. I just stop and smile,” Smith said. “He (the attacker) cannot hurt me because I have my steady response and refuse to respond.”

To accomplish the art of mediating properly, a person must generate voluntary compliance by listening, empathizing, asking questions and being helpful, paraphrasing and summarizing.

The final great art of verbal judo is paraphrasing.

Paraphrasing is difficult, Smith said, because one must take another’s words and rephrase them. One must be considerate, but one must listen to gain understanding.

“ Our natural tendency is not to listen but to formulate a response to attack with at the nearest opportunity,” he said.

Smith also said paraphrasing is a powerful communication tool because it makes the person understand that police care and are listening intently.

Verbal judo takes time and practice to learn. After years, Smith said he still has relapses and must relearn abilities he teaches to others.

“ To be good at judo, like any other sport, you must be in control of yourself,” he said

The same control is needed when people communicate with each other, Smith said.

Last Updated: 4/21/2004
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