Anyone here do judo?

[HeadBodyBodyBody]

Did judo a few years ago, very flawed martial art, entire premise is the other party not striking?!?

Well, yeah, and some might say the entire premise of boxing is flawed too, assuming the other guy won't grab you, it's swings and roundabouts...

does Puerto Rican judo count

if it's anything like the 53 blocks then no

Did Judo as a kid then flirted with Taekwondo and Boxing in my late teens but never kept 'em up, back to grappling now with BJJ so I can't really help you with the transition thing. I do want to give boxing another try but now I ain't got enough time to divide it between the sports and given my age BJJ seems like the smarter choice as well as having a Gracie Gym just on my damn doorstep.

Where bouts in Manc are you? Rob does 10 day free tasters in Marple and we got guys coming from Old Trafford - hell, even one dude from near Crewe. Maybe give it a try, see what you think?

EDIT: Oh, yeah... forgot we got one dude trains boxing at the Moss Side club on the Parkway. Maybe have a word with him.

V. helpful post, thank you. I should say though that I'm currently in London, and probably gonna stay here for a while, looking for a long-term place atm. I've been down to Moss Side q. a few times in the past, really like that gym! Lots of respect for what they do there, great for the community.

I've been recommended to go to a place in London called Budokwai, one of the most 'legit' places to learn judo in the country apparently. Also, with regards to not having enough time to divide your attention between sports, yeah, that's a worry, I was thinking if I can go to the boxing gym once a week maybe, I can 'keep my hand in'

I only know Puerto Rican judo. Judo know if I have a knife, judo know if I have a gun.

Judo seems like a great choice for standup grappling. I know it also has some groundwork too...and if you ever go on to do BJJ those arts combine very well together.

The only thing I dislike about it is that the techniques rely on grabbing the gi cloth too much.

Yeah that's what I like about it, that it's more of a 'stand-up' art, so I'm hoping it combines with boxing quite nicely, or at least doesn't interfere too much. With regards to the 'gi' thing, I figure that most of the time when fights happen people have their clothes on, so there will be something to grab if it ever came down to it? So it does seem to have 'real-life' import in that sense

[Clegg]

I've been recommended to go to a place in London called Budokwai, one of the most 'legit' places to learn judo in the country apparently. Also, with regards to not having enough time to divide your attention between sports, yeah, that's a worry, I was thinking if I can go to the boxing gym once a week maybe, I can 'keep my hand in'

Yeah that's one of the top places in the country for judo, never been myself but when I did BJJ in London, the black belts would go there for their judo training, they've had Olympic medallists and Roger Gracie train there as well.

[ShoulderRoll]

Well, yeah, and some might say the entire premise of boxing is flawed too, assuming the other guy won't grab you, it's swings and roundabouts...


if it's anything like the 53 blocks then no


V. helpful post, thank you. I should say though that I'm currently in London, and probably gonna stay here for a while, looking for a long-term place atm. I've been down to Moss Side q. a few times in the past, really like that gym! Lots of respect for what they do there, great for the community.

I've been recommended to go to a place in London called Budokwai, one of the most 'legit' places to learn judo in the country apparently. Also, with regards to not having enough time to divide your attention between sports, yeah, that's a worry, I was thinking if I can go to the boxing gym once a week maybe, I can 'keep my hand in'





Yeah that's what I like about it, that it's more of a 'stand-up' art, so I'm hoping it combines with boxing quite nicely, or at least doesn't interfere too much. With regards to the 'gi' thing, I figure that most of the time when fights happen people have their clothes on, so there will be something to grab if it ever came down to it? So it does seem to have 'real-life' import in that sense

If people are wearing heavy clothes and jackets etc. then I see the applicability.

But where I live it gets hot and people wear flimsy stuff like tank tops half the year it feels like. Wrestling would be more applicable here since it isn't reliant on what your opponent is wearing.

[Citizen Koba]

V. helpful post, thank you. I should say though that I'm currently in London, and probably gonna stay here for a while, looking for a long-term place atm. I've been down to Moss Side q. a few times in the past, really like that gym! Lots of respect for what they do there, great for the community.

I've been recommended to go to a place in London called Budokwai, one of the most 'legit' places to learn judo in the country apparently. Also, with regards to not having enough time to divide your attention between sports, yeah, that's a worry, I was thinking if I can go to the boxing gym once a week maybe, I can 'keep my hand in'


Yeah that's what I like about it, that it's more of a 'stand-up' art, so I'm hoping it combines with boxing quite nicely, or at least doesn't interfere too much. With regards to the 'gi' thing, I figure that most of the time when fights happen people have their clothes on, so there will be something to grab if it ever came down to it? So it does seem to have 'real-life' import in that sense

Well good luck wherever your journey takes you and whatever you choose to do, man. I did live not far from where the Moss Side club is now (just the other side of the Park) back in the early 90s as well as Hulme (when the Crescents were up) and the community has always been strong in the area.

With regards to your choice of sport it does depend very much on your goal. If you're looking for the smoothest transition, you could make the case that judo with it's greater emphasis on standing moves would prove easier and that you could possibly reach a higher level quicker... if you're looking for the most complete all round style (say for MMA or street) I'd argue that your boxing already gives you nearly all you need standing and that an art with greater ground focus (like BJJ) would make the perfect compliment. But then I will also admit to being hopelessly biased, I got the BJJ bug bad, man...

EDIT: Ha just looked on the Moss Side Boxing site and guess what - they offer BJJ there too. guess maybe there is something in my theory...

[VegasMichael]

Karo Parisyan and Ronda Rousey were both judo trained and used its techniques in mma to varying degrees.

[ShoulderRoll]

Karo Parisyan and Ronda Rousey were both judo trained and used its techniques in mma to varying degrees.

Ronda got slept by a former boxer, doe.

[VegasMichael]

Ronda got slept by a former boxer, doe.

True. Her trainers after her first defeat did NOT teach her well on how to do boxing which was her downfall. She did do well with what she knew for a while though.

[HeadBodyBodyBody]

Update:

Went along to judo classes for three months or so, got the first belt (red) and have done some sparring with brown and black belts. At the moment I'm not sure if I shall keep it up. A judo coach explained to me that it will take a year or two to start really understanding the movements and principles, with no upper ceiling, so it is quite similar to boxing in that sense (interestingly, he also said that BJJ is much easier to pick up). The prospect of putting a year or two into judo is not what is putting me off though.. some of the things that I find frustrating about it:

- Expense. I'd say the classes are about twice as expensive as for boxing. You also need at least one decent gi
- Dojo etiquette. There is an insane amount of bowing, and protocol. I have been told that you will get more or less of this, depending on how "traditional" your dojo is, but still, I find it annoying. There is a strong emphasis on the learning of Japanese culture alongside it all, which is only interesting up to a point
- Effectiveness. In an early lesson I was able to pin a brown belt, he said 'well done' but then complained that I'd been using too much strength and not enough technique... I don't know, man, I can't imagine someone training a couple of years at boxing and letting a newbie get the better of them...
- Need for training space, and a partner. You need a proper space to practice judo, for example, when practising ukemi (breakfalls), but more importantly, you also need a partner to work with... Even the kata in judo are done with two people (as opposed to say, karate, where kata is an individual thing)... what you are aiming to do in judo is to manipulate another human's balance - there is no way to practice this alone! This realistically means that the only place where you can really train judo, is at the dojo, so if you don't have one nearby then this is an issue. Maybe I'm too used to being able to pop into the boxing club alone, hitting the bags and whatever, and still getting a useful workout, but I find this aspect of training judo especially restrictive. [On the other hand, I do like the element of collaboration that this need for a partner instigates.]

One good thing I like about judo is that you can create an insane amount of momentum when moving another person around if you get in the 'pocket', and I can see that this could be extremely effective on the streets, to throw a person to the floor so hard... As I say, though, I think you'd have to be training judo a long while for it to be really effective. Another good thing is that judo links up nicely with boxing, punching at mid-range, and grappling at close range... Whilst sparring, I have noted to myself how easy it would be fluidly move from one to the other, if the need ever arose. Also, coming from having done a bit of boxing, I found I brought huge advantages with me in terms of hand speed and footwork. On the flipside, I can see that doing a bit of judo would vastly improve a boxer's sense of balance.

Hope this is helpful for somebody. Certainly, if I found a cheap, less traditional dojo that was close-by to my home, then I would definitely keep it up. But here in the UK, at least, that is hardly ever going to be the case. Indeed, something else I haven't mentioned, related to these aspects, is that judo seems to be much more of a middle-class pursuit than boxing, and I find that to be particularly uncomfortable. There isn't that grittiness that you get in a boxing gym, and that's an aspect of boxing that I really love, the sawdust'n'spit, old school gyms...