Boxing or Judo as a base?

[Soul Rebel 2]

Is doing both out the question? If I had to choose one I'd pick boxing given the way that its currently the art that really separates the men from the boys in MMA striking. That said, doing judo will give you a fairly well rounded base for getting into MMA grappling.

Also, while a thread of this nature is up. Am I the only one somewhat annoyed by the binary way that Sherdog (the community, not the website) separates the striking and grappling forums? I'm happy that the different forums exist (because ours is the best) but theres not enough cross pollination between the two when it comes to MMA related topics.

 

[Deckard78]

Couldn’t start a thread so I have to write here. I have the same question but a completely different background and goals.

I am 41 with a happy family. I have trained in aikido on for several years, half of them on and of. Although I like it a lot and I think it’s mastery (after 10-20) years can give great fighting, self defense skills, I am too old for this. On top of that I didn’t feel I was receiving good physical and cardio exercise.

Few years ago I was in the unpleasant situation that my family was verbally and almost physically attacked. This was not a self defense situation exactly, as we could walk ourselves out of it, as we did. But I would like to be more confident and prepared for a possible next time.

Just to be clear, no weapons defense, no sports, just interested in standing my own and protecting my loved ones in the shortest possible time.

I am torn between those two, as judo is closest to aikido and more “gentle”. If I would take boxing I would explicitly say to my trainer that I would go as far as to spar to learn technique. No real fights with powerful punches for me at this age.

On the other hand I think that in a shorter amount of time boxing would take me close to where i want to be. Oh, and planning to get my kid to learn judo next year.

I am slim 75kg, 1 meter 75cm tall.

Sorry for the long post. Your thoughts?

 

[Reyesnuthugr]

Couldn’t start a thread so I have to write here. I have the same question but a completely different background and goals.

I am 41 with a happy family. I have trained in aikido on for several years, half of them on and of. Although I like it a lot and I think it’s mastery (after 10-20) years can give great fighting, self defense skills, I am too old for this. On top of that I didn’t feel I was receiving good physical and cardio exercise.

Few years ago I was in the unpleasant situation that my family was verbally and almost physically attacked. This was not a self defense situation exactly, as we could walk ourselves out of it, as we did. But I would like to be more confident and prepared for a possible next time.

Just to be clear, no weapons defense, no sports, just interested in standing my own and protecting my loved ones in the shortest possible time.

I am torn between those two, as judo is closest to aikido and more “gentle”. If I would take boxing I would explicitly say to my trainer that I would go as far as to spar to learn technique. No real fights with powerful punches for me at this age.

On the other hand I think that in a shorter amount of time boxing would take me close to where i want to be. Oh, and planning to get my kid to learn judo next year.

I am slim 75kg, 1 meter 75cm tall.

Sorry for the long post. Your thoughts?

I think you're leaning towards boxing-- it could give you the confidence and ability to act quickly and see strikes forming so you can avoid them, which is what you're really afraid of.

Grappling is a big deal too, of course. You should know enough of both to negate a realistic threat like what you went through. Right now it sounds like you are most lacking in the striking department. Boxing is the most practical (and technical, ime) striking you'll find. Make sure to get a technical instructor because there ARE meathead trainers who think they know boxing but are really just weightlifting brawlers-- you don't want one of those, they wont be able to teach you much except what unnecessary concussions feel like while you were actually trying to learn something.

When you find a good instructor, make sure to take private lessons so you can learn at an accelerated pace to make up for lost time (which is what you want). Don't do the exercise portion during the lessons (they will be glad to have you do that and then take your money)-- ask for technical instruction like footwork and movement drills, how to punch correctly, defensive drills. Ask to work on the stuff you are worst at. Don't spend very much (perhaps not any) of it doing padwork either, imo. Learning in this case is more about brains than sweaty exhausting grunting, it doesn't work like Rocky movies tell us it does (a delicious lie, tailor-made to feed off of American cultural ideals...and naivety).

As for Judo, you should still dabble in that perhaps, just to get a baseline idea of how effective your previous accumulated training was. Don't expect to do impressively or even decently-- that way you can only be surprised in a good way. If you need a lot of training there, you can practice some of that during or after your stint in boxing. Also you should go for private lessons there if you can so you can learn much more quickly.

IMO

 

[Deckard78]

thank you. This is one of the most balanced answers I have received. And I appreciate that you put my previous martial experience into perspective and not bashing it. There is a good boxing school relatively close and focus is on technique. I think I always wanted to try but a was bit afraid of the roughness..

 

[Blue_Lou]

Definitely boxing. It’s a bit more practical, there’s more classes for you, plus you already have some judo experience