4 October 2007, 01:17 in

My first Judo class

A month or two ago, one of the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) clubs in Perth closed down. Fortunately, that club merged into our club so we now have a new coach and new members, and I think the change is beneficial to everyone involved. Diogo, who has taken over most of the coaching responsibility from Troy, is from Brazil and holds a black belt in both BJJ and judo (respect!). The Monday night BJJ class has now been swapped for a judo class.

I can’t normally attend the Monday class because I do some self defense (weapons and unarmed combatives) training with Brandon at that time. However, this week, with Monday being a public holiday, we decided to go up and check it out. Brandon has already been training in Judo elsewhere for a while but it was my first class. Most of the guys there had already been to a few weeks worth of classes. I was interested to see how the class was run and how it compares and overlaps with BJJ.

After some warming up and stretching, we started by drilling the entry to some throws. I am not familiar with the Japanese names of the techniques, but we paired up and took turns in repping out 50 entries to three different types of throws, at a fast pace. It was hard work and by the end of each lot of 50 a lot of little places in my lower back and legs were sore. We then did some grip fighting practice with a partner, fighting to get better grips to control the opponent. From what I understand, the person with the better grips is an advantage and controls the fight, so it is important to practice this. My fingers and hands were very tired after this. We then did some randori (free sparring), which was good fun. Finally we practiced throwing a compliant partner for 10 repetitions, for any throw of our choice. We finished with stretching.

From my limited knowledge, it seems judo overlaps considerably with BJJ. Judo is a bit more of a sport, with more restrictive rules. It emphasizes stand up grappling, particularly throwing your opponent. Pinning your opponent or using a submission (joint lock or choke) are other ways of winning a match, but many techniques are not allowed in competitions. BJJ matches only finish when one participant wins by submission, or the time runs out (in which case points will be used to decide the winner). BJJ has less restrictive rules so a wider variety of attacks and techniques may be used, and it focuses more on groundwork and submissions. In Judo the gi (martial arts uniform) is always used, whereas BJJ is practiced both with and without the gi. The gi is significant because it provides “handles” with which to strongly grip and control your opponent, so it influences the style of the fight.

Most of what we learn in BJJ classes operates on the premise that we are already in the ground-fighting state (i.e. we are on the floor). However, often a BJJ practitioner’s stand-up grappling is not up to as high a standard as their groundwork, and so they may have trouble initiating the groundwork situation in which they thrive. I believe that cross-training a little in Judo will help a BJJ student develop their stand-up grappling game and thus make them a better overall fighter.

To give you an idea of what competition level judo looks like, here’s a judo highlights compilation video:

I really enjoyed the judo class and will try to incorporate judo into my training routine.

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