Hello. Today marks my first month in Judo with the best practice I have had so far! After studying a bit I realized that I was doing something called stiff arms and while effective at managing to stay on my feet I was also not learning anything. So, this practice I relaxed and was happily thrown around by two nearly 80 year old black belts. Impressive. Still, felt like I learned a lot and the teachers were pleased as well. All good news. I still have a silly smile on my face from today's practice. Boy was it amazing. I don't know if this is normal but out of an hour and half practice, we tend to do as much ground work as stand up work. Today we had more actually. And I learned how to control an opponent with my legs while on my back. It felt more like a BJJ training I think I got me a pretty decent dojo. On another news, I am organizing a small Judo practice at my work place. I found out that one of the guys there is a Judo black belt and former under 21 spanish champion. So, we are getting some mats, reserving a room and doing lunches or late afternoon Judo hour or hour and a half! So far, Judo is my favourite day of the week! Just needed to take this out of my chest... PS: My girlfriend just rolled her eyes at me when I told her and told me that I look like a kid on Christmas...
Fun doesn't describe it properly. It is bloody amazing. Today I feel as if a freight train ran over me during the night but can't wait to next week's practice. I wish I had the places to train two or three times a week. That would be brilliant. I imagine my skill level would increase a lot faster.
I quite liked it too! How did you find newaza? I find most of it's pretty basic, but some pins are really cool. I'm also only going once a week and loving it!
Actually, newaza is what I am enjoying the most. And I learned sot so basic movements. Yesterday I learned how to control an opponent from a back guard and before I had learned a couple of ways to choke and armbar. One I particularly enjoyed was while the opponent is turtling you grab his gi from bellow, twist anf sit on him while hooking legs under arm, and then fall back. Your bodyweight and lever makes him turn and you get an armbar once you are down. The beauty of these techniques is that youcan easilly make slight tweaks and change your angle of attack. But I guess if you do bjj, this is pretty staple.
Well it's a different mindset. I'm not interested in turnovers because my main goal is to get the hooks in and get a submission.
That turn in leads to submission. You use to make your hooks sink. We also learned how to hook ourselfs across the guard using our knees. Pretty cool. Do you find Judo important to your overall game? I imagine the standing throws are usefull since a lot of people don't expext that.
Yes and no. A turnover can lead you to a different top position, which in turn can offer various submission but also offers a pin (which is first and foremost). The idea being that side control is quicker to stand up from than having your hooks in. In a one-on-one fight taking the back is a superior position because the opponent has even less chance to hit you.
Yep my judo coach says if you aren’t being thrown in randori you aren’t learning, stiff arms are the first habit to break, then its being afraid to turn in for a throw, once you get passed these two bits then you start having fun As for ground work, the split is normally 60/40 or 70/30 in our place in favour of stand up work, but ground work is done in nearly every class and sometimes its just a ground work class
