In brief (and acknowleding there are exceptions to the following).... Benefits: You will get very fit You will be training under constant pressure You will learn takedowns that slap people with the planet Cheap Fewer frauds than almost any other martial art Wide array of submissions Drawbacks: No striking - like at all Restrictive ruleset competitively No real self defense syllabus per se or even practice of same No weapon work Can be VERY stressful on the body if you are an old gipper of 40 like me Judo does not pretend to be anything other than it actually is which is one reason I like it so much; when blended with another system, especially a striking one, it is absolutley devastating Go for it
You're from Stoke right? What clubs are you looking at? The only Judo I could find in Stoke was in Scabby Abbey (Abbey Hulton). But that was a long time ago.
Get thrown by high grades as often as you can. They throw properly so you land correctly and (usually) uninjured, unlike low grades who tend to 'drop' you straight on the floor (which is where a lot of injuries occur).
IMO, the major draw back is the Gi dependency. When you have Gi, you can use your stiff arm to hold on your opponent's Gi to prevent him from getting closer. You can't do that in no-Gi environment. Also with Gi, you can pull. Without Gi, you have to train different "pulling" method. I think Judo guys should also train for no-Gi. But I don't know the no-Gi concept is popular in the Judo community or not. I just hate to see one day that someone's Judo skill doesn't work for the sand beach if needed.
It is an issue but it does have a lot of transfer over to other clothing - as a drawback it is one that has an upside too, especially with chokes and finishes
I had tried it before. It doesn't work well on those 3 for $10 T- shirt that you can buy in Las Vegas. It's an excellent "winter time ski slope" combat skill. But the "summer time sand beach" training is missing. If you can fight well in "winter time ski slope", but your skill doesn't work well in "summer time sand beach, something is not balance there.
Pretty much anything with sleeves can be used. Obviously some items of clothing are better for it than others. Judo isn't for self defence. It's a jacket wrestling sport. No-gi will probably never be more than a novelty in the Judo community.
It can be for self-defense. It doesn't have to be for jacket wrestling sport only. It just needs a bit open mind and some evolution. If you are a Judo instructor and if you are teaching a group of MMA guys, you may have to change your teaching method. The more Judo instructors that teach MMA guys, the more that the art of Judo will be evolved. Someone in the ancient time made Judo from a combat art into a sport. In the modern time, someone makes it to go back to the combat art. That's a vey noble thing to do IMO.
If you know Judo, it can be a real asset in MMA, but it's not something I would teach to an MMA fighter. BJJ and wrestling already have enough no-gi takedowns, I'm not sure that Judo has all that much to add to it.
I teach Chinese wrestling which is very similar to Judo. I do believe both Judo and Chinese wrestling can add a lot of value into the MMA world. I have just received an E-mail from a students of mine. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I gave a 4 hour private lesson to two MMA guy's on Saturday. They where amazed that throwing some one from control increases their over all ability to follow on with techniques after the person has been thrown. I also showed them how sacrifice throws do not all ways give you a advantage. These guys are more sprawl and brawl or ground and pound guys. They have friends that teach and I hope this will fill out my workshop I want to do on the 21st of this month.
I'm not questioning the utility of Judo, I'm questioning whether the amount of time it takes to become proficient in the throws that do cross over to MMA is worthwhile for someone only interested in MMA. Victor Lombard threw Jake Shields with a beautiful Tai-Otoshi a few months ago - but to teach an MMA fighter how to do that reliably would take a really long time. Time that would be better spent on other things. Judo for MMA courses are great, but I think they should be for Judoka competing in MMA, not for MMA fighters looking to experiment with Judo.
Did anyone see the sparring of Ronda and Gegard? They used Judo with wrestling style clinches. [ame]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=o9xjs2fWJEs[/ame]
I agree that one can learn "pull guard" within one month (even shorter) while he may need to spend 2 years to learn leg lift (Uchi Mata). But I don't believe MMA will stay in the current stage without moving forward. IMO, both Judo and Chinese wrestling can add value into the MMA world with "leg skill" such as block, lift, hook, sweep, scoop, twist, spring, cut, sticky, bite, ...
Judo is brilliant and forms its own raison d'être. Like Olympic TKD it doesn't care about applicability to MMA, K1, or TTFN. The best reason for doing judo is because you want to do judo. As such it will provide you with a tough sporting opportunity. The skills of balance, technique and most importantly dealing with a resisting opponent from day one have great crossovers for SD, but similarly judo is not concerned with SD, it's concerned with judo. I'd go do it because it's great in its own right, but do a specific self defence class to cover that area. Mitch
I seem to be hearing a lot that wrestling is superior to Judo in terms of grappling and self defence. Not sure what to make of that.
Wrestlers say that a lot. Judoka tend to disagree. Funny that. Join a Judo club. If you enjoy it, keep training.
