Judo is a Japanese martial art and combat sport that jiujitsu master Jigoro Kano created in the early 20th century. Because he designed jiujitsu for defence against armed opponents on a battlefield, he felt that it lacked relevance and needed to be adapted for modern purposes. With this in mind, he removed the striking and more lethal techniques to create a sport more suited to modern needs that relied heavily on live training.
Judo
Judo is a combat sport, focusing on competition and live drilling and sparring, also known as randori. As judo practitioners, known as judoka, you wear a heavy duty outfit called a gi, which allows you to take a firm grip on the collar or the sleeve of your opponent. This gives you control of your opponent's body to throw him.
Judo emphasizes moving and unbalancing your opponent using your footwork and your grips, to set him up for a throw or takedown. Bouts are won by landing a clean throw known as ippon, throwing your opponent several times, or submitting him on the floor.
Benefits of Judo
Judo differs from traditional martial arts such as jujitsu since the techniques can be performed for real against a resisting opponent, so you can develop a real feel for whether or not your techniques would work against a resisting opponent. You can also apply techniques with near full force, unlike striking arts such as boxing or kickboxing. Judo players tend to have excellent balance, as well as great grip strength. The explosive hip throws and leg reaps mean that most judo players have very strong hips and powerful legs, as well as a familiarity with the ground game from judo newaza.
Judo and Other Sports
Judo translates well to a number of different sports. It has strong similarities with wrestling, especially freestyle or college or folkstyle wrestling. It meshes very well with its descendant, Brazilian jiu jitsu, giving a level of takedowns and takedown defence that is often missing from pure BJJ athletes, who do not cross-train in mixed martial arts.
It also has a strong relationship with mixed martial arts itself, or MMA. Numerous MMA fighters have come from a strong judo background, with fighters such as Karo Parisyan, Shinya Aoki, Satoshi Ishii and Hidehiko Yoshida all accomplished judoka who translated their skills to the ring.
Cross-Training
The easiest way to cross-train in judo is simply to begin training in addition to your regular training, whatever that may be. If you train in a gi normally, then you will find the grips familiar, with the additional focus on throws and unbalancing a welcome addition to your training. If your normal training is very different, you will need to adjust your grips to take advantage of the throws. However, the strength, explosiveness and balance acquired through training judo will translate to whatever sport you practice.
References
- "Judo for Mixed Martial Arts"; Karo Parisyan; 2008
- "Kodokan Judo"; Jigoro Kano; 1994
- Global Training Report: Cross Training in Judo
- Team Tooke: Judo for Jiu Jitsu
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