This is a question for the Judo guys and gals :new_evil:

I sometimes watch a Judo club that meets at the same location where my GF takes yoga. I wouldn't mind studying Judo but the hours don't fit with my schedule so I just watch the last ten minutes of their class. :love4:


Last week these higher students were randori and everyone was watching, you could hear a pin drop it was really gripping to watch. One got thrown by a ???hip throw??? and landed on his head somehow. His neck collapsed and I felt a gulp go down my throat becos it looked really nasty but somehow he was ok. Anyway this is what confused me:

The Judo guys were impressed that he had somehow avoided being thrown onto his back because that would have been an Ippon score.

So does judo teach you that it is better to land on your head than your back?

Yeah, that's an example of sport perversion of intelligent training IMO.

There's a rather popular judo coach who doesn't teach ukemi--one of the most valuable skills someone can pick up from judo training!--at ALL. He teaches roundoffs, neck bridges (to land like you describe) and other gymnastics...but no ukemi. He doesn't want any of his students doing ukemi ("slap-the-mat falls" he calls them) during a match.

He has a point...but no.

All these Judo questions as of late, Awesome!

Good ukemi (breakfalls) is the foundation of good Judo. However, in the context of intense competition, there is merit to not focusing on it.

For hobby Judo however, there is no excuse for poor ukemi, simply because there is no reason not to take a fall.

Any competition rule set is going to build bad habits unfortunately. That doesn't mean the competition itself is bad though. Watching Judo in the Olympics I don't think ippon is emphasized enough actually.

The judo club I played at (and will be returning to when I'm back home) talked about that rece ntly When a tourney comes up, we will occasionally practice not taking falls. In our classes, even in randori, we stress taking ukemi. It prolongs your life as a judoka.

Unless your're an elite level competitor, it's not worth risking an injury to your neck. Ending up with fused vertebrae could be the least of your problems.

Tell your GF to quit Yoga and sign the two of you up for that Judo class. It'll be fun.

I think the real problem with Judo is the only ground game a lot of people are taught is turtle to stall out the clock.

Gerald Lafon, a 5th dan Master Instructor for US Judo is well known for teaching his students to Turnout instead of doing proper Ukemi, which is a little controversial in some circles.

Here's an excerpt from an article he wrote, which can be found here: http://www.judoinfo.com/pdf/ukemi.pdf

For the last twenty years, I haven’t taught my students how to do ukemi, at least not the traditional ukemi one thinks of when the word is uttered. Modernists call that form of ukemi mat bashing. If you ask many Judo people in Southern California what they think of me, the very first thing out of their mouths is “he doesn’t teach his kids how to fall” as they roll their eyes and imply that I am crazy.
He actually makes a pretty good case for his approach, but personally, I think Ukemi is very important, and try to spend a lot of time working on my falls and rolling.

Interestingly, a friend of mine who is a good freestyle wrestler told me he has never been taught to breakfall, and that he "basically just figured out over time how to take falls in ways that don't leave him as disadvantaged in competition".

Who are these 'modernists' that think that what is probably the most important part of Judo is a bad thing?

I think this comes down to whether you'd rather lose by ippon or lose by breaking your neck. It's utterly stupid to risk serious injury just to prevent "losing" randori, let alone a competition. Hell, who gives a damn if you get thrown during training?!?!

I think this comes down to whether you'd rather lose by ippon or lose by breaking your neck. It's utterly stupid to risk serious injury just to prevent "losing" randori, let alone a competition.

Depending on the enormity of the competition. For local tourneys competitors should certainly not care less. But for high calibur judoists fighting in the elite tournaments like the Olympics, it's perfectly understandable.

For randori, and low level tournaments, certainly it is not worth it. But if you put the sweat, blood, and tears into training for Olympic level play I can see not wanting to concede a single score.

For randori, and low level tournaments, certainly it is not worth it. But if you put the sweat, blood, and tears into training for Olympic level play I can see not wanting to concede a single score.
I can totally understand that. I'm just peeved because i broke an arm trying to avoid a throw at a comp a few weeks ago. :new_puppy

I have more problems with the fact that the rules emphasize uke's landing position more than tori's. That is, as long as uke lands flat on his back, it doesn't seem to matter what tori does.
I've seen a good number of Ippon's from rolling uchimata's and the like which, if not for the fact that tori got an Ippon and won the fight, would've resulted in him getting bridged over and quite likely pinned.
It's probably just the BJJ player in me, but I object to people winning fights with throws that leave them in bad positions.

It probably goes back to the assumption that for practical applications the throw would be performed on a hard surface. If tori falls with the throw it should be a controlled fall that would result in little damage to tori, but still result in uke taking a hard fall onto their back.

My Judo Instructor was talking about how he hurt his back pretty badly by bridging trying to avoid an ippon. For some reason it doesn't seem smart to me.

At some tournies, purposely landing on your head (if you are the tori) can get you DQ-ed for the entire day. I am not sure why this would not apply to the uke.