Capital London Judo, Hackney/Islington (London)

**Nevermore** · Posted On: 5/09/2012 4:27am

Review: Capital London Judo (capitallondonjudo.com)

Coach: Gabor Szanyi-Nagy (3rd Dan Black Belt)

This is fundamentally a good club. It has some problems: the BJA are insisting on regular intakes on their "ABC" beginners course, which means 5-10 complete beginners showing up all at once - that can be over half the club made up of complete beginners. Hopefully over time, as more people grade up, the club composition will be more balanced but at the moment it's very bottom-heavy.

Aliveness: 6

This is a judo club, and it has basically the same aliveness as you would expect: you'll get thrown, strangled and joint-locked a lot. At the moment, I suspect because of the large number of new white belts, there is very little tachiwaza (standing) randori, which is why I only gave it a 6. Hopefully that will change.

Equipment: 6

The club is based in a school hall (Monday and Wednesday) and a university gym (Friday), so there are no fixed mats. The padded area is a bit small but pretty standard for a shared-venue judo dojo. You bring your own gi (of course) - one thing that is a shame, especially with the number of people starting up, is that the club doesn't have any jackets to loan.

Gym Size: 6

About standard size, as above. Could be bigger, but I've seen smaller.

Instructor/Student Ratio: 6

There is one main instructor (Gabor) and a couple of assistants, although they are not often present unless he is away. The high low-grade:high-grade ratio means that he can get stuck helping someone new, and since there are often no other dan grades that can leave everyone a bit lost.

Atmosphere/Attitude: 9

Good attitude, everyone is very friendly.

Striking Instruction: 0

It's judo.

Grappling Instruction: 8

Again, it's judo - grappling is what we do. People go to tournaments, often with success (although so far mostly at lowish kyu-grade level).

Regarding newaza (ground grappling) especially, there are a couple of good BJJ players (2 brown belts) who train semi-regularly with us and have some good insights in the ground game. Gabor has a very good ground game himself and teaches a lot of newaza, although it's not always broken down enough - sometimes he will just demonstrate an entire, fairly long move and then send everyone off to practice it, which of course means we all fail completely.

Weapons: 0

No weapons, no defence against weapons, just judo.

**judoka_uk** · Posted On: 5/09/2012 7:57am

Originally Posted by Nevermore

You bring your own gi (of course) - one thing that is a shame, especially with the number of people starting up, is that the club doesn't have any jackets to loan.

Isn't a gi included in the price of the beginners course? Are the BJA dragging their heels at shipping them out?

**Nevermore** · Posted On: 5/09/2012 8:17am

Originally Posted by judoka_uk

Isn't a gi included in the price of the beginners course? Are the BJA dragging their heels at shipping them out?

You're quite right of course. I had forgotten since I didn't ever do the beginner's course when I started and therefore had to buy my own gi.

There seem to be quite a few people without gis though - I don't know whether that's because the BJA are slow at shipping them or because they have a timetable for the beginners' course and don't send them until that begins.

The beginners' course seems a really good program - it's certainly good value, and lots of people seem to be starting - but at smaller clubs it seems like it's almost a victim of its own success since the club can't really cope with so many new people all starting at once.

(I feel like I should say, by the way, that when I was giving the club 6s for lots of things I meant that to be good - looking at some other reviews there are a lot of 9s and 10s and in comparison 6 seems a bit miserly.)

**andrewpmma** · Posted On: 5/16/2012 5:32pm

Striking Instruction: 0

It's judo.
Weapons: 0

No weapons, no defence against weapons, just judo.

most places dont have it, however in the kodokan there is striking and weapon defense. But many schools focus on the sport side. in my dojo we have been toughing into the more traditional combative side of judo. Ive also been wanting to do some no gi here and there. i disagree with the not everybody wears a gi 24/7 argument but i do have a harder time throwing no gi in my mma class as im used to having the gi and not having someone hit me. I personally think more judo schools should show the more traditional martial art side of judo as with the combat sport side.

**Nevermore** · Posted On: 5/19/2012 3:56pm

Hi Andrew,

My understanding is that the striking instruction in judo is limited to kata. Since the club is almost all 5th-6th kyu there's no kata instruction. I don't think anyone going to a judo class (as opposed to a specific kata class) would expect any striking.

**andrewpmma** · Posted On: 5/21/2012 7:02pm

Originally Posted by Nevermore

Hi Andrew,

My understanding is that the striking instruction in judo is limited to kata. Since the club is almost all 5th-6th kyu there's no kata instruction. I don't think anyone going to a judo class (as opposed to a specific kata class) would expect any striking.

yes and i understand that, i just wanted to add that input as a side note that judo does include those things. And from a self defense point and martial art part of judo i believe should be more prevalent in the dojo.