Height and Grappling MA

[Jadran]

Is being short a disadvantage in Judo or BJJ?

[Draven]

[babo78]

Is being short a disadvantage in Judo or BJJ?

Being short heightwise is not a disadvantage in Judo at all. In some ways, quite helpful since your center of gravity is lower then most. Also only real difference between short person and tall person is effectiveness of certain techniques.

For example, seoi nage is good one for short person.

[Otaku Waffle]

Is being short a disadvantage in Judo or BJJ?

I was usually the shortest in my weight class and did OK for myself (Judo) though being stiff-armed by people bigger then you gets old after a while (hurray for Sode Tsurikomi Goshi.). Having a low center of gravity also helps for ushiro goshi (a crowd pleaser, too) and utsuri goshi, if you're the counter-happy type.

You just need to adapt your game to your body type (yes, that's my Captain Obvious-entry for the day.). Oh, if your body type is short and fat: change your body.:boxing:

[PoleFighter]

If you are taller, you will have a better guard, as longer legs are harder to pass and are better to attack with. If you are shorter, you will likely be more adept at guard passing and have better defence against joint locks.

[Jeice]

If you are taller, you will have a better guard, as longer legs are harder to pass and are better to attack with. If you are shorter, you will likely be more adept at guard passing and have better defence against joint locks.

Having long gangly legs gives you good opportunities in Open guard, but makes lots of unwanted space for the guy to exploit in closed guard. But I probably just need to practice more.

[warnerj5000]

Not that this anecdotal evidence means anything, but pretty much all of the really good jujutsu guys I know are short. So it doesn't seem to be a disadvantage, at least to them.

[FictionPimp]

If you are like me (5'9" with stubby legs and a long body 170 pounds) you find that closed guard can be a pain to hold as your legs have trouble reaching, and that triangle chokes are also really hard to get without some help from your opponent or sitting up. Thus you learn to spend a lot of time on open guard and rarley using things like triangle chokes and instead looking for other submissions. At the same time you find that long body gives you a lot of leverage and allows you to keep people at bay when they are in your closed guard.

As for judo, my knees suck and dropping my hips to throw shorter guys really sucks. So I tend to focus more on leg reaps on the shorter guys, so at least against guys like me, being shorter then me can really limit my options on how I can throw you.

[lurkness]

short people are less likley to be injured when grappling unlike me