Like I stated in my previous BJJ thread (http://www.bullshido.net/forums/showthread.php?t=105097), I competed in my first Judo tournament on 3/27. This was a smaller local tournament hosted by the Cupertino Judo Club at a local high school. I have been training for a year (started in early April 2010, subtract a couple months for injuries) and am a Green Belt.

Weighed in at 147 and was grouped up with four other people making a grand total of 5 ppl in my division (me and two other guys train at the same location). Vids below, any feedback would be highly appreciated!! I'm the tall skinny one with a buzzcut.

Round 1: Loss.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoJeMTRGgTs

Round 2: Loss. The judge had the blue belt (hes also a blue in BJJ) change his belt to a white so that they didnt get confused (since i was standing on the blue side) when dishing out points but they still did and we went into sudden death which he won. The ref got pissed at us cuz we didnt hear him call time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1spadA2FHE


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFiLJVHByk0

Round 3: Win.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4c3dRa3jNk

Round 4: Win via DQ.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49wqLjjq4Mg

Overall not quite how I wanted to go, but it was fun and in the end I took home third place and got a shiny trophy and an injured knee.

Good effort!

You need to decide if you are a righty or a lefty. You keep switching grips and posture, which give openings to your opponents. You did not attack much despite having a superior high collar grip on many occasions, while your opponents generally went after you much harder. If you get the high collar grip, you will also need to get sleeve control. Usual sequence is to get the sleeve first, then the collar for right vs right or left vs left.

Remember, you can pin and win in Judo, so figure out how to go for the choke and switch it to a pin. You almost did a couple of times but didn't finish up for some reason.

You posture is pretty good, and you got one very nice throw for ippon. I think you might benefit from a bit more nage komi (throwing practice), while moving using the grip you want to get.

Shorter guys are going to always use the seoi nage to kouchi gari trick on you.

Judoka_UK, who posts here regularly has a blog that has cross posted bullshido articles on the fundamentals of Judo you should check out.

Ben

Thanks for taking the time to watch the vids and critique Ben.

my natural fighting stance is orthodox (left foot/hand forward) but my power hand is my right hand so in judo shouldnt my right hand/foot be forward? Some of the times when I switched sides/grips was to mess with my opponents (my 2nd and 4th matches were against gymmates).

I do my best to follow Judoka_UK's blog and his posts here but im more of a visual person and only tend to skim through lots of text (even if its immensely useful)...

You mean orthodox for striking, I assume? I have no idea.

Just decide which side you want to fight in Judo. If you want to do MMA or other striking, I suggest you stick with the left foot forward/left hand forward (left grip in Judo). That way you won't quit switching around in the middle of things.

You can train yourself to fight left in Judo. The "power hand" thing is a misnomer, it's called tsurite. It does a lot more than generate "power".

Judoka_UK has a lot of good videos posted as well as you are a visual learner.

Ben