Judo Report.

**Virus** · Posted On: 6/05/2006 8:05am

I've got three sessions of judo under my belt at my new place and I'd like to share my thoughts on training in the Gentle Art.

Dojo is a good size. It's in a large tent-like building at olympic park. Plenty of room for the class which seems to average about 15-20 people.

Classes start with a warmup, followed by solo drills such as sweeping the mat from side to side with the foot across the hall in a foot-sweep motion. Next we normally work on some partnered drills such as shifting from side to side and one person must try to sweep the other's foot at the right timing. Then we start to build up the resistance and motion a bit and do attacker/defender drills where one person must sweep the other while moving them around as they see fit. Last week we worked on a hip throw technqiue, the progression was static reps where you just lift them off the ground, then we moved onto reps of completed throws.

Randori is great. We were encoraged to work on the technique we were shown and try and get some throws. At the moment, I need to concentrate on staying on the balls of my feet and exploding into techniques. I found it much better to go on the offensive, try and be agressive with attacks even if you might fail and get countered. Much better then having to defend attacks just to stay on your feet. I very much like the fighting attitude of the sport. None of this "no fighting untill you have mastered 100,000 katas" stuff. If your martial art involves sparring the instructor on your first day you are onto a good thing.

I am fortunate to train at a place which values newaza and spends a good deal of time on the ground training submissions. We probably devote around 45-50% of our active training to newaza. BJJ helped me alot with this, and I can give some of the higher belts a decent fight on the ground, even though I am the worst person in my BJJ class. It's good to have some people around that don't tap me in 10 seconds like in BJJ class. The instructor has a very solid game on the ground. Talking to the senior coach after class, he mentioned that there is a trend towards getting back to a 50-50 standing/ground in judo and that he trained at the Japanese university where Maeda used to train.

In summary, judo pwns. It's alive and the training is highly athletic. The only flaws are some arbitary rules in place that don't seem to be there for safety, such as no changing grip to the opposite lapel for more than three seconds. That sounds a bit pointless to me.

**Teh El Macho** · Posted On: 6/05/2006 8:16am

Nice to hear you are enjoying it. I think the restrictions on grips came as a way to deal with Russian judoka that developed their own brand with "unorthodox" grips (from Sambo and wrestling I guess). It's a pretty moronic restriction IMO.. oh well.

Congrats in finding a great place to train.

**FictionPimp** · Posted On: 6/05/2006 8:18am

I belive that grip rule is to prevent you from using that grip defensivly. I could be wrong though. A lot of judo rules are in place for force action. It appears judo people hate watching people stall more then MMA fans.

**babo78** · Posted On: 6/05/2006 8:19am

Originally Posted by Virus

In summary, judo pwns. It's alive and the training is highly athletic. The only flaws are some arbitary rules in place that don't seem to be there for safety, such as no changing grip to the opposite lapel for more than three seconds. That sounds a bit pointless to me.

Gradz on enjoying it very much. there are lot of rules that are restricting judo. omega's thread on why your art sucks and his reasons for judo is on the money.

lot of arbitary and ambigous rules that restrict. beside that still kicks ass

**Beaton Yu** · Posted On: 6/05/2006 8:28am

Judo does own!!

You'll quickly find yourself becoming addicted to it. I don't know why it has that effect on people, but it does. I was freaking out last week because my dojo was closed on Monday and my next training day wasn't until Saturday. I was ready to start throwing my wife around.

I think the popularity of BJJ is having a positive effect on Judo. A lot of folks are working harder on their ground game because of it.

**Virus** · Posted On: 6/05/2006 8:30am

We need to lobby for judo reform. Bring back leglocks, spine cranks, neck cranks, head spearing, spitting, eye gouging and concealed weapons.

Seriosly, let's hear your reasons why judo pwns.

1) It's an old martial art with ties to tradition yet doesn't suck.

.

**Beaton Yu** · Posted On: 6/05/2006 8:42am

Originally Posted by Virus

Seriosly, let's hear your reasons why judo pwns.

RANDORI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

**FictionPimp** · Posted On: 6/05/2006 9:00am

1) Uchi Mata
2) Harai Goshi
3) Tani Otoshi

Those 3 throws make my bjj life so much easier.

**roberts** · Posted On: 6/05/2006 9:08am

i once done about 3 weeks of judo, the classes were small about 5 people including me in the adult class, but one of the guys was top 10 in the uk. I guess i could have learnt alot from staying there, but i guess the reason i gave it up was because (and this might sound stupid) it was in a leisure centre, and i went out there two times to find it had been called off. this pissed me off a bit also it was a very dull small gym.

i guess i was just being stupid. Personally tho i find it easier and mor fun to train in a spacious bright gym.

**Fitz** · Posted On: 6/05/2006 9:24am

Originally Posted by FictionPimp

A lot of judo rules are in place for force action. It appears judo people hate watching people stall more then MMA fans.

No, it's not the Judo people that hate the stalling, it is the Olympic Committee or more their marketing wing.

You can't convert new fans to Judo as a spectator sport if you've got people taking time to set things up and wait out their competitor's stamina. People want Action! Action! Action! so the Shiai rules keeps getting bent to push things that way. It's the same reason why the time count for full point holding techniques was reduced from 30 seconds to 25 in the 90s.

Training for Shiai has become a primary focus of most though not all Judo Clubs and as such Shiai rules heavily impact upon Randori and even Kata training in Judo, frankly to the detriment of both. Tadao Otaki and Donn Draeger warned of this decades ago in _Judo Formal Techniques_ but like much of Draeger's approach this warning was mostly unheeded.

Shiai is important, but it cannot be the primary focus for Judo training, especially with the arbitrary restrictions, absurd rules and general silliness that has been put upon it by outside pressures.