Judo has a reputation as being pretty tough on your body, with some studies indicating it can lead to permanent joint damage in the hands, not to mention all the other injuries that can occur. Indeed one poster on another forum commented "Judo is worse than MMA for injuries". Certainly that has been my experience when doing Judo. I got pretty bust up doing it, and everyone I know who got their black belt has had to take long periods of time off Judo (3+ months) to recover from injuries. And I have trained in a few different clubs so I can't blame my experience on one particular coach or club Maybe I was just unlucky. How do people who have trained in Judo a long time cope with the stresses of Judo? Seems the answer for a lot of people where I live is to switch to BJJ lol!
They become coaches. BJJ is just as hard on the fingers, but easier in terms of repeated big impacts.
I don't find that at all, when I used to train Judo I'd wake up in the morning unable to close my hands. Where in BJJ there are a lot of ways to play and drill that save your digits, in Judo the only approved-of style is pretty rough on them.
I did judo for a bit at a club where the head coaches were all in their 50s and 60s. Not one of them took part in throwing practice because of the cumulative stress that had been put on their bodies by decades of judo training. But rather than quit, they stayed in the sport and changed their approach: they engaged in sweep-only randori (even national team members couldn't sweep them) and they were absolute beasts when it came to ne-waza (often beating much younger BJJ purple, brown and even black belts who came to "play").
Hmm, I'd be tempted to take a long hard look at how you're gripping in judo. I have had my share of finger injuries, but never anything so severe. There was a story a little while ago about how Keenan Cornelius had lost a significant amount of function in his fingers from BJJ.
I think BJJ is as tough on the fingers when using the gi, but no-gi doesn't seem as bad (the little no-gi I have done). Interesting points about people not throwing anymore Van Zandt! I loved Ashi Bari randori.
I suspect it's something anatomical, lots of arthritis in my family. His style of guard, where it's basically his grip on the lapel that takes all the passing pressure, I'm not super surprised.
Having a good (hand) strength training programme will help prevent excess grip Injuries, As will doing relaxed 'french randori', and plenty of newaza.
From what I understand it more so in the Olympics the sports side. If you just go there to learn and practice not any more than football, mountain coming or other sports. There many people in MMA who get injuries with wwf wrestling being really bad. Really in any sports or martial arts in 5 years you will get some injuries. You can get injuries rollerblading or skateboarding being even worse. Taekwondo is probably harder on you knees than Judo is.
