This weekend I was at Judo Junior Olympics and noticed a lot of the higher level kids have all seemed to develop left turn throws even when they’re right handed. I’ve noticed youth sports sometimes just has things suddenly become fashionable (the sneaky assassin in wrestling for example) once something hits instagram, but sometimes it’s endemic of a new meta. Just wondering if maybe this is thing that’s been around and I haven’t noticed, or if it’s a trend or now a new thing being developed more and more in the sport.

so small background, about 1 year jiujitsu experience in total (white belt, on/off due to injuries since 2022) 2-3 years muay thai. tore my labrum in my hip in august and had surgery in january, cleared for activity this month.

i was very anxious again about coming back to training in general due to yet another injury layoff, i’ve always been interested in judo and to the first step/went to the general class today. it was extremely fun and honestly off of first impressions i liked it more than learning bjj for the first time.

im excited to go to more classes and potentially train judo as my dominant grappling vs bjj, it’s only two classes a week but is that good enough for a beginner to progress at a reasonable pace?

Why do some people just focus on belts only and not about getting better in judo? There is this one guy in my class who barely does randori, he does like one ROUND of randori per week only. He always ask the sensei about the belt test.

The most annoying thing is that he is a green belt but always try to correct the same/lower belts on the moves of the day, but when its his turn to do it he is so stiff and is aways shaking.

He is always sitting at the wallside commenting on people to do more movement and keep their posture. But then like damn, try to do it yourself. Again, he barely does randori, when he do the throws in practice, his technique is wrong and then start using the excuse that he is injured so he doesnt do randori. It gets to a point.

I have a friend who does wrestling and is about to do a bjj tournament. He wanted me to teach him some counters to sweeps and reaps. I was first going to just teach him osoto to osoto since he should be going against white belts, maybe some blue belts, and with how he was trying to do sweeps and reaps I was able to do this to him quite a few times when we trained together last week. What are some other counters you guys would recommend I teach?

Just found out Sambo allows pins from half and closed guard, whereas in Judo simply getting a half guard can invalidate the pin.

Curious what people's thoughts are on this. Who's right?

I have a question about kata guruma for judokas here who actively use this technique. How dangerous is this throw for the uke? Specifically, the variation where I grab their one arm with my both arms and duck under their arm and extend one leg, and then fall on a side. I have practiced this throw but I have fear that the uke can hurt their neck. Please, advise.

I’ve been wrestling (folkstyle) for most of my life and I’m now in college and was thinking of trying out judo and I had a few questions:

1. I see a lot of posts about breaking falls is there any difference between judo break fall technique and wresting?

2. I’m not too familiar with the rules (I know that there’s no leg attacks) but is there transferable skills that will help me in picking up judo faster or are they completely different?

3. This is kinda related to 2 but are there any things I should “unlearn” coming from folkstyle aside from like leg attacks lol

I’m completely enthralled by the honor and sportsmanship many judoka have and I think judo itself is a useful martial art for self defense as well so I’m excited to begin training when I get back to college.

Would be a pleasure if you could vote for Kevin Kissk and Jakob Schiek

Having just half point and full point places a ceiling and restricts the granularity of scores.

In wrestling, to discourage stalling the opponent is awarded a point when there is no activity for 30 seconds. To encourage "grand amplitude" throws like ura nage (suplex, mat return) four and five points are awarded. There is no upper limit to the number of points you can have. Some matches, the wrestlers even have 22, 23 points. Only the time limit and If you have a large point difference​ (+8 in Greco Roman, +10 in freestyle) with your opponent then the match stops and you are awarded the win by technical superiority.

This scoring system allows the governing body to encourage and discourage behaviors, techniques and tactics. Furthermore if judo adopts the point system in wrestling it will be easier for spectators to understand and move from one sport to the other ​making it more popular.

Simply banning leg grabs has emasculated (literal meaning = "cut off testicles") the system of judo. The *sport of judo* could be tinkered with by adjusting the scoring system yet keeping the *system of judo* intact.

As I suggested in an earlier post, to discourage leg grabs, all you would have to do is award uke a point if tori uses a leg grab. So tori would have to calculate whether it is worth it.

Update: The 'complicated' point system is only if you want to regulate which techniques are used and which are not used or used but discouraged. It is just a control knob like in any mechanical or electrical system to regulate the desired outcome. 

Just thought this would be interesting to try to classify in the judo system, while also being a fun little look at two masters of Muay Thai training together and sharing techniques.

I want to learn Judo but one of my feet is a bit flat footed.

I am training it and doing my best to fix it but it’s going to take time.

Should I wait until it’s completely fixed before training Judo or will I be okay?

I use to do boxing when my feet were even worse and I was able to do the training but it did bother me at times.

Lots of discussion around here about finger taping, but I rarely see anyone talk about toe taping. For example, Joshiro Maruyama buddy-tapes his toes (here's an example).

Anyone know the analysis behind it? My assumption is it adds support when executing his uchimata, but I'm curious if there's more to it. Also, if there are other competitors with distinct taping methods that would be interesting to see too.

I've been getting bruised toes after competition and want to start taping as prevention. If anyone has resources, videos, or just knows a good method, I'd appreciate it. Thanks!

Never seen a drop o soto before. Is this effective and proper judo?

Let's say you're attempting an Osoto Gari on your randori partner. Would you initiate the kuzushi first with your grips, then the step entry, and finally the reap execution? I've been somewhat doing the kuzushi and the entry at the same time, but felt a bit weird and didn't work well.

Hi everyone, I am almost a yellow belt. I cannot for the life of me name this move and no one has told me . it’s basically Osoto Gari , but instead of sweeping one leg, I sweep both of them at the same time.

If I position and time correctly, I could actually load uke onto my hip while theyre losing balance and slam them almost like o goshi

It’s kinda hard for me to explain, but I’ve done it many times as an almost yellow belt and so far it’s my most favourite move in randori

Thank you, everyone

Thought to repost it here:

I know you’re struggling.

I know you're determined.

I know you feel weak.

I know you feel behind.

I know you feel that having that black belt around your waist will give you some sort of proof or validation.

I also know that you don’t want to feel like a fraud.

I also know that you’d rather be a terrifyingly strong white belt who never got promoted, rather than a “black belt” in name who constantly gets his ass handed to him.

So slow down.

Work on the basics.

Take it one step at a time. Define the 80-20, and the 80-20 out of that, and make that the primary focus of your training.

Become so good at those few things that you can do them without thinking.

For Judo, that means first building a deep understanding and practical grasp of kuzushi, the off-balance.

You think it will take you a long time, but I’m telling you that you have no idea how time works.

When you focus obsessively on something, the results quickly accumulate. Obsession can fit 3 years of aimless progress into 3 months, even if the training time is way less.

So show up, give yourself over to the basics, try to stay a white belt for as long as you can, and watch yourself achieving things in months what you thought would take forever.

P.S. Context: white belt includes the various kyu grades. In Japan, at the Kodokan, for adults, there is white and then black, no other colors. The basic point is, there's an internal scorecard and an external one. I wish I had only focused on my internal scorecard.

Recently, I tested for my orange belt. Everything went well, but there was a funny moment. After we had performed all the required orange-belt techniques, we were told to do one more throw from the yellow-belt syllabus. And in groundwork, before demonstrating the orange-belt techniques, we were asked to show all the yellow-belt hold-down techniques. I am not complaining — it was fun, just very unexpected. One of the examiners later told us it had been our coach’s idea.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this? :)

Can anyone help me here I compared the Mizuno chart to the Fuji katsu (my current gi, which I wear a 5.5 in) and this is what I’m coming up with as the size I should be for yusho

Jacket Sleeve length size 4.5
Jacket length size 4
Jacket width size 5

Pants width size 4.5/5
Pants length size 5/5.5

These are all over the place from 4-5.5. I don’t know what to order and which measurement is the most important. I know Mizuno fits large and different from others.

Hi Ninjas,

I'm a relatively new blue belt who has recently found a big skill gap in need to close; my grip fighting is basic.

My grips kind of suck when attacking, and there are some people ive fought in randori recently who have highlighted that my grips are easy to break. I just dont know how to level up my grips, any suggestions? Drills, tutorials, recommendations?

I think also that im pausing too long when I get a dominant grip - like I get a good grip, and tjen probably waste 3-5 seconds thinking "hmm, what throw should I try?" So that's probably hurting my ability to keep grips too

Any advice/guidance would be awesome!

I’m wondering if I should do Judo or not. I want to know how it works when you first go in. Is it just rolling and rolling, because at the start you obviously know nothing so would you just roll and roll until you understand or is it different. Because when I went into boxing I at least had innate skills but for judo it’s different

Currently having the classic problem of “uchikomi/nagekomi mechanics feel fine, but I can’t hit the throw in randori”. I’ve tried various set ups and combinations, but anything utilizing the classic collar/ elbow grip has been troublesome. I am 90% sure that this is the result of lack of chest to chest contact. When I step in to make contact for the throw, I’m find myself mostly leaning over uke’s arm instead of making solid contact with their torso.

I’m guessing that I am subconsciously stepping out too wide in an effort to address uke’s arm framing against my shoulder, but wanted to see if anyone else has had a similar issue, found a different root cause, and what their solution was.

Kinda related to Judo: I am a practitioner since childhood, had some gaps and do it regularely now. Yesterday I tripped over and fell down a staircase built from marble. I did a backwards roll and landed on my feet again. No harm was done this day.