How is Newaza taught in your Judo Club

**ojgsxr6** · Posted On: 5/13/2011 2:14pm

With BJJ classes 3 days a week

**NeilG** · Posted On: 5/13/2011 2:27pm

Originally Posted by judoka_uk

Other good newaza clubs and just general all round Judo is Clive Douglas' club in Northampton

Played Clive in Edmonton last month. Beat me by a yuko. Went to the ground a couple of times, had him in osaekomi but he escaped.

**maofas** · Posted On: 5/13/2011 4:13pm

For the most part it's the same as BJJ, except that judoka do not know the meaning of LIGHT rolling.

Often groundwork is used more as a 20-30 minute warmup than a learning session. If you learn something new it's because a higher rank takes time out of smooshing you and shows you something, then lets you try it out.

Sometimes it's the typical drill stuff, then try it out in rolling. We're doing a lot of that lately. The only thing that drives me nuts is once in awhile we'll do 20-30 mins of newaza THEN drill some newaza techniques. I rarely remember anything new unless I can try them out in randori after I drill.

**judoka_uk** · Posted On: 5/13/2011 5:12pm

Originally Posted by NeilG

Played Clive in Edmonton last month. Beat me by a yuko. Went to the ground a couple of times, had him in osaekomi but he escaped.

You sure its the same Clive Douglas? The one I'm talking about is a 6th dan from the UK and probably the strongest old guy I've ever met.

**Kovacs** · Posted On: 5/13/2011 5:14pm

Ours is probably 60/40 Tachiwaza but tends to sway wildly depending on the attendance. Becouse the classes are mostly in schools, one week it can be starting on knees with a bunch of aggressive newb teens and the next it's a knockout exercise like what Judo_uk described with high grades.

I'm too novice to know if this is good in the long run or bad but it feels varied enough to be useful to me.

**Ming Loyalist** · Posted On: 5/13/2011 6:59pm

out of an hour class, we get 5-10 minutes of newaza randori at the end of every class, and there's a weekly newaza class which sometimes starts with technique instruction, but often starts with newaza uchi-komi which is just working on whatever you and your partner want to. noobs often get shown stuff during that time.

after that it's all newaza randori for the rest of the class, starting on the knees, although a lot of us either turtle up or pull guard to make it more realistic of a starting place. some people get stopped for stacking but it depends who is getting stacked (apparently stacking *me* is just fine, for instance)

**judoka_uk** · Posted On: 5/13/2011 7:39pm

Originally Posted by Kovacs

the next it's a knockout exercise like what Judo_uk described with high grades.

Really? I've not come across another club that does newaza like that and I travel to a fair few clubs.

That's pretty cool that you do loser stays out too. Apparently its how they do it a Tokai Univeristy in Japan and my coach had to endure it when he was out there with the British squad and it stuck with him when he came back to the UK.

I like it because it really tests character. If you've lost a couple of sets and you're tired and there's yet another fresh guy coming out to face you, you have to really dig deep to face them and still fight your heart out to try and win.

It also gives an option that not a lot of people have the balls to do and I've only seen done once, that is win all your matches, but still stay out and keep winning all of them for the whole session, but because you want to test your heart and your skills you stay out regardless. That's Budo, that's what Judo is all about.

I must confess that I've never done that. So I have still some way to go in developing my character and resolve as a man.

**kikoolol** · Posted On: 5/13/2011 9:57pm

90/10 tachiwaza to newaza when the club's pretty much empty and we're all fairly high level. 80/20 newaza to tachiwaza on newbie rush days. On average I'd say 70/30 tachiwaza to newaza.

We use newaza randori and drilling as a warmup for tachiwaza. For example, we play "roll the turtle" often for warmup (I play another game though : "armlock the turtle").

A typical class will go : 1) stretching, 2) conditioning, 3) ukemi, 4) basic newaza drills, 5) positional newaza sparring or free rolling then the rest is tachiwaza.

We also do mostly newaza when the club's crowded because of newbie rush days (where every new white belt subscribes at the same time, I hate those days...) and we can't throw each other without landing on a new student.

**NeilG** · Posted On: 5/13/2011 10:04pm

Originally Posted by judoka_uk

You sure its the same Clive Douglas? The one I'm talking about is a 6th dan from the UK and probably the strongest old guy I've ever met.

Yup. He was in town on business and probably not playing his best - he was hung over from the night before and withdrew after he fought me. And yeah, he's a tough old guy. Couldn't get past his grips. We were playing 50+ -90 - I think he might have been combined from the lower weight category, I'm about 85 kg he's quite a bit lighter.

That's been my competitive life lately - that tournament my first match was against the eventual winner, sandan guy from the BC interior someplace. Then I hit a rokudan national masters squad guy from England for the second match... Locally I used to keep running into these brothers from the Ukraine, one of whom won the US junior open, and then Ian McDonald from Lloyd who took 2nd in the open division in Edmonton. Life in the senior/masters division for a middle-aged brown belt is rough...

**Gidi** · Posted On: 5/14/2011 6:09am

Originally Posted by judoka_uk

1. 4/5 minute matches with free choice of partners, except for some beginners or spazzs who are kept with certain people i.e high grades.

2. Situational - one turtled, in guard, in half guard etc... Start and work until one of you gets the pin/tap then reset. Whoever was turtled/on bottom last time is now on top. Rinse and repeat for 4/5 minutes.

This is basically how we do it at my club.

3. The newaza session from hell.

Loser

Stays

Out

5 volunteers go out, everyone else is lined up at the mat edge. Partners go out to the volunteers. They tic tac toe, loser turtles, they randori until a pin/ tap, then tic tac toe, loser turtles for a best of three. Whoever wins the best of three gets to go back and have a rest. The loser stays out, rinse and repeat with a new partner. So the more you lose, the longer you stay out, the mored tired you get and the harder it becomes to win.

Brutal. It made a dan grade cry.

This we don't do, but it seems like an interesting routine, maybe in a couple of years when my judo-cred is a little higher I'll suggest it to my coach. He'll probably be against it, but it's still an interesting suggestion.