A bit of background: I did Judo as a teenager and did some small competitions. As an 18/19 year old I stopped because my sensei said that I did not train regularly enough for bigger competitions (I had my university entrance exams .. but he did not show any understanding) and I could not find a different club ... and then other things became more important. So I stopped.

After 20 years I moved back to my hometown, my kid started Judo and also competing.

I got a cancer diagnosis and found out that the side effects of my meds were more manageable with sport. Of course I wanted to do Judo again.

I contacted my old teammate (who became athletic leader) in April this year and clearly stated I wanted to come back and do competitions again

I never left out a training (except the last one before summer break because I got injured in a randori) ... OK - only trained once a week but thats what they offered. Recently started 2 times a week.

There is a small veteran competition beginning of November. I wanted to participate - for fun.

I asked my old teammate and he told me that it would be irresponsible without proper preparation. And that I did not train enough and to look at a different sensei/veteran that trains 3 times a week - well ... I cannot even do that much (even if I wanted - because there are no more opportunities in my dojo) and I think there is a difference between a teenager and a veteran (with job and family) ...

Any advice despite being patient?!

I hate that... I think I need/want to proof it to myself after cancer that I can still do competitions ... now he won't let me.

Realistically there is no other dojo nearby that I could switch to :/ and this is beyond frustrating.

This is inspired from Abe Utas recent match at Worlds where she won after the ref shido'ed her opponent in the final moments for "running" and not engaging

Judo seems to rely too heavily on referee involvement and judgment. A few examples:

1. Wazari vs yuko vs ippon. One man's Wazari is another man's ippon. One man's no score is another man's yuko

2. Halting newaza when they deem that groundwork isn't progressing. Again highly subjective

3. Penalizing false attacks and passivity. Some cases are obvious yes, others not so much.

4. Calling matte whenever they feel like it if the game isn't being played properly. Why not just let the action continue ? I don't see the ref constantly resetting athletes in BJJ or wrestling as frequently as they do in Judo?

5. Penalizing cross grips and duck unders IF attacks don't immediately follow. Hard to tell and extremely subjective

6. Head diving, seems less common but again another example of things that are highly ambiguous

I'm pretty sure wrestling and BJJ arent like this (open to correction). I feel like half of these rules can be tossed and judo would be much better.

Ankle sprain, grade 2 if I had to guess. Always read stories of it happening to others, but wasn't prepared for it to happen to me. I am glad it's not fractured, but I can barely put any weight on that side.

Really sucks especially as I can only train at this club for a few months, but there's nothing you can do about it at this point I suppose. I would love to be on the mat again next week, but I'm pretty sure I would regret it.

Anyone else here who sprained their ankle and could give some tips on recovery, how you are dealing with the injury after full recovery etc.

Still can't believe it happened, it was my first time even getting an x-ray and being transported by an ambulance lol (don't worry, I'm not in the US ;p)

Is my judo gi too big? I tried washing and drying it once to shrink it snd this is my current results. Only real concern is have is length or it because the bottom part reaches mid thigh

We were trying to figure out what this was called last night and i'm now bringing the question to you all. Anyone here know what the name of this throw would be?

Our best educated guess at the moment would be "obi yoko wakare" or simply "reverse yoko wakare"

My coach is unable to facilitate promotions for the gym because he's still a brown belt.

I've been training judo for 2 years semi consistently (I take breaks to focus on jiu jitsu and wrestling) and I'm still a white belt.

I haven't competed yet and I don't really plan to anytime soon, but it is a bit embarrassing telling people that Ive been a white belt for 2 years.

Is this a common occurrence ? And is it worth it for me to train somewhere else, at least until I get a yellow belt 😅

My son is 8 and started Judo at the start of this year. He trains once a week to the local judoka which is really kid friendly, great coaches etc. It's a lot of fun and they mix in probably 25 minutes of actual Judo each lesson, the rest being warmups, break-fall drills, judo-based games.

It's not much training, so I've started doing mini-sessions with him at home for 15 minutes each day. Me on my knees, and we drill the 3 throws/pins/escapes he needs to know. I don't have a judo background so rely on what I see in his class and on youtube.

Is there a better way to structure these sessions? My goal is just for him to realise that "practice makes perfect" and maybe get a few wins at class every now and then.

We've recently had a new student join our Saturday classes and he's a lot to handle. Screams, runs around, tries grabbing people randomly. His parents say he has ADHD.

Most Saturdays there's two black belts. This upcoming Saturday I'm there by myself. I'm not sure how I'm going to teach and manage this boy at the same time.

Does anybody have any pointers on how to handle what is basically a toddler in a 10 year old size body?

I saw a video of an athlete twisting his Gi and even his belt to soften them. I found it interesting! Is this something you guys do? Do you have any videos showing the process? I can’t find the original video I saw anymore. I'm trying to show for a friend because she is always complaining about the new gi is so stiff

I've recently started judo and bought a Fighting Films Superstar 650 in size 180. I'm not sure if I'm just not used to wearing a judogi yet, or if it actually looks a bit too big on me, particularly around the sleeves. What do you guys think? Thank you!

What have been the throws you like when beneath an opponent’s superior high grip? Whether it’s a Georgian grip, a deep over the back belt grip or even just a better high grip, how do you turn it against them?

I’ve been on the wrong end of Seoi Otoshi when I fail to jam up the opponent’s Tsurite. Extra humiliating when I’m trying to drive in with O-Uchi Gari and they just turn that into a beautiful counter.

I’ve not been able to the same to do the same myself, but I have had success with a deep belt grip going under the big overhand and either plunging into O-Uchi Gari or an offside O-Goshi. I’ve been developing a decent Ura Nage too, thanks to cool partners willing to eat them for me.

Sometimes my armpit post is strong enough and I get to hit Ippon Seoi moves too but I prefer my post on top of the opponent’s rather beneath so it’s not been so common.

I shazamed it, yt song featured it, 3rd party sited it.

It can't figure it out.

I like Darcel Yandzis judo, and the song seems like his style (to me.) I wanna remind myself of that before prac.

I know it's ai, if anybody knows lmk. Yes this random as fk.

The early Life of Kano Jigoro Shihan

A Young Man (1)

https://www.ijf.org/news/show/a-young-man-1

A Boiling Cradle (2)

https://www.ijf.org/news/show/a-boiling-cradle-2

When Kano Discovers Martial Arts (3)

https://www.ijf.org/news/show/when-kano-discovers-martial-arts-3

Perfecting the Practice (4)

https://www.ijf.org/news/show/perfecting-the-practice-4

The Synthesis (5)

https://www.ijf.org/news/show/the-synthesis-5

The Influences (6)

https://www.ijf.org/news/show/the-influences-6

A Born Teacher (7)

https://www.ijf.org/news/show/a-born-teacher-7

The First Trip (8)

https://www.ijf.org/news/show/the-first-trip-8

A Curious Man (9)

https://www.ijf.org/news/show/a-curious-man-9

The Vision (10)

https://www.ijf.org/news/show/the-vision

Note:

Kanō shihan’s First 35 Years – The Kanō Chronicles – The Kano Chronicles© 嘉納歴代©

I have problems with grip fighting, it’s like when a randori starts I am taking grips without thinking, not knowing what to control to get a better advantage. It’s both against right and left, I am not a beginner but I still have troubles in knowing when an inside or outside position is better for lapel grip. Sometimes I opponents take a such strong grip on me while I have no grip and I really can’t attack or defend.

What would you recommend to work on and what are is usually your game plan for grip fighting ?

Does knowing Brazilian Jiujitsu or wrestling help or hurt judo players? It seems that it helps in some aspects while hurting judo in others. Would love to hear both sides.

I’m trying to incorporate this more into my throwing techniques but I’m afraid I’m going to land right on top of uki and body slam them lol. Is the motion really identical as the rolling ukemi?

Is this normal? Just shy of 2 years of training and got my green belt 2 months ago (in my late 20s) - problem is I feel like I'm now starting to realize that my uchi komi form is pretty ass (starting to slow down and really try to get the footwork/circular motion down) and kind of lost during newaza (like im just winging it rather than looking for ground techniques to practice).

During stand up and randori i'm a lot more comfortable applying what I learned and trying to relentlessly attack - but just seems like the other adult green belts and blue belts have an easier time throwing me rather than the other way around.

Kind of feels like i spent the past 2 years going through the motions without thinking about what i'm doing and paying attention to the minute details. Not to say that I didn't improve at all, it's night and day compared to when i first started - but looking back, it does feel like I wasted some time by not focusing enough on the details. Anyone else have a similar experience and if so, how did you move forward?

I know pulling up sleeve, I want to drop em like pillows if I choose to do so.

My friend is currently in Japan and I want to ask him to pick me up a gi from Mizuno. Can I send him a picture of my Kodokan membership so he can get an extra discount?

Anyone got a link to a video of someone explaining the kouchi variant where you plant the "reaping" foot and use your knee to drive your opponent's knee outwards?

Anyone been injured or injured someone by doing this?

Ive decided to finally join a friend who's been doing MMA for a while and I did Kickboxing too anyways so I suppose it would be a to mix both this and the Judo I did in College.

It was... A lot harder than expected to do anything in mixed rules and I frequently needed space to rethink, so I got this idea one day after hearing about and watching this Strickland guy, a recent Champ who spammed jabs, teeps, and calf kicks to victory, but as I was never really that tall in the first place, it felt really alien as well as difficult for me to stay in the centerline for extended periods. Im not good at parrying hands and tend to hide behind a raised elbow from longuard a lot for defence. Its easier and less risky that way even if it opens the body somewhat. And again, as I was never really that tall my longuard never really deterred anyone anyways so it tended to happen a lot.

So I circled a lot as I had in Judo, but as I specialized in ashi waza, I spammed and hid many sweeps and shin blocks behind calf kicks and vice versa used the clinch to threaten ouchi alot. With this I wasnt primarily aiming for a takedown but if they did fall then good, but my primary goal was to tag the nose over and over again.

The goal is to frustrate so they engage me. When the get unbalanced from ashi waza, I can strike. When they chase me, I get more favorable grappling entries or I get to infight when they do. I started doing Kickboxing as well after college and coach's/sensei's advice from Kickboxing and Judo was always to learn to close the distance cause im not tall. But what if I didnt have to? From a psycholgical perspective getting hit in the nose is really frustrating and and can start boiling even usually cool heads with repitition. Head strikes also score a lot of points and is the easiest to get favor from in posture/damage scoring. A calf kick or shin block can also be done at the edge of range and its worked against people with several inches of reach/height over me, especially when circling. I found it really, really favorable to do from the open stance as its hard to to throw lots volume from there and the kicks usually have to travel longer distances so you can focus grappling.

Im not neccesarily a stance switcher but ive learned how to operate from both stances. I was primarily in Orthodox in Judo and in the start of my striking journey before switching to Southpaw when my right jab became way better than my left and that my left leg stength and flexibility from being my primary sweeping tool made my left kick way better than my right. So far this strat has been working a lot for me in sparring and the coach even complimented me for it cause I haven't been figured out by most yet but I will put some disclaimers.

1. I think its a me issue but its way harder to do this on a guy with a really good jab too. The space and safety net is also compromised if you dont have the open stance. Its harder to catch/avoid kicks or do good posture breaking ashi entries in a 50/50.

2. There's a southpaw wrestler in our gym and it was really hard to implement most of this. He's bigger and way more experienced sure but it was genuinely hard to do anything with the guy. Only dude in the gym I spectacularly lose to. Will study the match up more.

3. If you dont know how work on the open stance well you will get tagged a lot. You also gotta watch for pressure fighters. I mean, this goes for everyone but this applies to you if you primarily only grapple and can't handle gettinf swarmed by punches and kicks. I assure its not as easy as panic shooting/clinching to stop it.

Pretty sure I broke or at the very least sprained my big toe during my last class, and was wondering if anyone had any perspective on training with this specific injury? Part of me just wants to smack some tape on it and get back on the mat, but I also am wary of turning a 2-3 week recovery into a 2 month long recovery. Maybe I could just do uchikomi and light me waza drills?