Judo or MMA

**cereus** · Posted On: 2/10/2013 3:18am

@gregaquaman I was guessing at the rules to be honest. I said c class because I thought it was amateur with full unified MMA rules. All but one guy has had success in competition as far as I remember. I have to be honest, I don't get the no sparring either but like I said I haven't asked directly about it yet. It's a fairly small club and changes are being made to how we go about classes and the schedule gradually and in response to student demand.

Which leads me to answering Lv1Sierpinski. We tend to do drills for our warm ups which often include drilling a takedown or takedown defense. The technique section of the class is centered on a take down maybe 1 in 5 times? It'll usually be variations on singles and doubles but the gi classes quite often have some judo throws in there. As I said my coach listens to his students and we have started a sort of add on session to focus on takedown and takedown defense, that could be 30 minutes of stand up sparring to a full hour+ class with technique and drills depending on what the students want.

**erezb** · Posted On: 2/10/2013 7:56am

Judo..if you want to compete in bjj, and can't take more bjj classes, than Judo will give you a nice stand up, Powerful grip and explosiveness.
My personal view is that it is best to focus on one aspect of MA like grappling or striking, and get good enough to obtain some reflexes from it. (two years of a minimum of 3 times per week, with ample sparring). Than if you want to become this complete fighter you start adding.
Having said that judo and bjj are close enough to cross train nicely (imo).

**DarkPhoenix** · Posted On: 2/12/2013 8:47am

Originally Posted by BJMills

I agree with pepto on all counts. Especially if you want to compete in bjj tournaments, judo will be directly applicable.

Er... Learn to defend singles, doubles, and ankle picks though. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think they are a part of competative judo anymore but they will come up in grappling tournaments.

You are correct. They don't use any of the techniques in competition anymore, but just about every judo club I have played in still teaches the techniques and they are used in randori.

Being biased, I would say go with judo. 9 out of 10 BJJ players hate being thrown and have a tendency (in my experience at least) to start playing really defensively once they know the other player is a judoka.

**Krijgsman** · Posted On: 2/12/2013 4:58pm

We had a relatively high level BJJ guy (I don't actually know what belt, but he was jokingly barimboloing around his gf before class and when I asked how long he'd trained he said "a long time") show up at the Judo club I have recently started at.

He has an aversion to actually committing to finishing his throws, which surprised me, since I assumed he would have drilled some take downs. But, he works hard and I suspect he will quickly become a beast.

Just thought I'd share.

**DarkPhoenix** · Posted On: 2/13/2013 6:08am

That comes from the somewhat rational/irrational fear that most BJJ players have with giving up their backs.

**Krijgsman** · Posted On: 2/13/2013 4:14pm

Originally Posted by DarkPhoenix

That comes from the somewhat rational/irrational fear that most BJJ players have with giving up their backs.

That makes sense. I guess. Really, his fit and footwork were fine, he just struggled to finish the throw once he had me off my toes/moving.

**pepto_bismol** · Posted On: 2/13/2013 5:04pm

Originally Posted by Krijgsman

when I asked how long he'd trained he said "a long time") show up at the Judo club I have recently started at.

His response sounds kind of conspicuous since "a long time" can mean different things to different people. Maybe it's just semantics.

Did he end up being cool despite his aversion to being thrown?

**Krijgsman** · Posted On: 2/13/2013 5:07pm

Originally Posted by pepto_bismol

His response sounds kind of conspicuous since "a long time" can mean different things to different people. Maybe it's just semantics.

Did he end up being cool despite his aversion to being thrown?

Oh yah, he was way cool. We were tori-uke partners for a class and he was really great to work with. I would have loved to do some groundwork with him, but we focused on nage waza that class period.

**judokan4life** · Posted On: 2/25/2013 9:36am

Training in randori/free sparring is essential to developing natural skills (without thinking) in attack and defense. This is also how you begin to develop your own fighting and defensive style based on your own strengths and weaknesses. For example, in Judo, you can block a throw with your hips or arms (relying on power and leverage) or by shifting out of the way (relying on timing and quickness) and then come in for a counter.

Once you do regular randori or free sparring, you'll understand, but practicing against a non-cooperative partner is a completely different world.

Another factor not mentioned is the quality of your practice opponents. It's always good to have at least one or two people in your class whose fighting style you want emulate.

Good luck!