Hidehiko Yoshida

[Bocgam]

Elite judoka. Serviceable fighter.

Held his own against Greco-Roman Olympic gold medalist Rulon Gardner. I mentioned this fight to a guy at work who loves to shit on judo.

But how much of his submission game is solely from his judo background? He rolled well with Royce in a controversial match in Japan. Ref ended it, calling Royce out. But Royce protested. In the rematch, they went to a time draw. Royce made an intelligent strategic decision in not wearing his gi in that one.

Are there schools of judo that have submission games that are no worse than competitive BJJ black belts? Or is it safe to say that even the highest level judokas will not necessarily have elite submission skills?

 

[Calibur]

I've trained with the people who prepped Yoshida for his post Judo career. From what I can gather no one he trained with was a pure bjj guy. You had guys training him like Koji Komoro , a judoka who excelled in submissions but no one who came from a strict Brazilian Jiu Jitsu position before submission background.

From a "submission" stand point there have ALWAYS been judo guys who could tap most any BJJ black belt using what they learned in Judo.

These days there are a lot of young high level judo guys training with high level bjj black belts and those judo guys often take those skills back to their team so it's much harder to say a judo guy with good submissions is pure judo. Too mang influences to call anything "pure"

 

[Bluesbreaker]

Yoshida was a very well-rounded judo player. When he was at his peak, the best players were usually good standing and on the ground. He was very good at both, even considering the time. The techniques he used to win in MMA were pretty standard judo holds.

Props to him for goving MMA a red hot go, despite being a bit older and out of shape.

 

[Ryo]

Yeah, Koji Komuro was one of the main guys who helped Yoshida train for the ground game. Koji talks abit about this in his book. There are several high level newaza guys in Japan who don't come from BJJ.

I'm not aware of any BJJ guys specifically who helped him. Yoshida was always good everywhere.

 

[RJ Green]

everybody should cross train.

judo + bjj = macaroni + cheese

 

[Thrawn33]

Old school Judo was real.

What exists now....

 

[ArtemV]

everybody should cross train.

judo + bjj = macaroni + cheese

It really confuses me how some guys at my Judo school act like a couple of sweeps, chokes and guard retention are some next level sh*t. I use fundamentals to pass guard, be defensively responsible etc, whenever in ne waza. It is laughable how some guys above green belt don't know how to open a guard, let alone pass it (some of their first reactions is to dig the elbows into the thigh). Even in guard, with some of the brown and black belts, some of their armbar and triangle attempts are really pathetic and just give me a free lane to pass into osaekomi. I really do think cross training should be done even more. My gym is starting to get a lot better though, for my Judo coach is now cross training in BJJ and has been implementing some of it into the ne waza. If only it had been done earlier, it would have made for more fun and challenging ne waza rolls with my partners.

 

[RJ Green]

most of the time i hear someone say "that's not judo" or "that's illegal", what they mean is "i'm unfamiliar with that, and my ego won't let me admit i have more to learn"

some of the citrus belts will try to complain about the bruises i leave on their jaw, my response is always "maybe trying to block my choke with your face and playing dead isn't a viable defense?"

edit: my general philosophy is "if the ref can't see it, it's not illegal."

 

[JosephDredd]

Yeah, Koji Komuro was one of the main guys who helped Yoshida train for the ground game. Koji talks abit about this in his book. There are several high level newaza guys in Japan who don't come from BJJ.

I'm not aware of any BJJ guys specifically who helped him. Yoshida was always good everywhere.

I just got my hands on koji's groundfighting DVD series and was utterly blown away by the absolute basics he teaches. he might literally change the way I shrimp, sit out, etc. (and I'm a two stripe purple belt)

I've never heard of koji, but someone was getting rid of the DVDs and I took them. What can you tell me about him? The first DVD is literally one of the most useful instructional I've ever seen.

 

[Ryo]

I just got my hands on koji's groundfighting DVD series and was utterly blown away by the absolute basics he teaches. he might literally change the way I shrimp, sit out, etc. (and I'm a two stripe purple belt)

I've never heard of koji, but someone was getting rid of the DVDs and I took them. What can you tell me about him? The first DVD is literally one of the most useful instructional I've ever seen.

Yea, his dvds and his book are some of the most detailed I've seen. He's a great teacher. He's a Kosen Judo guy, trained directly under Kanae Hirata, who was one of the last golden age Kosen guys. He medaled at national and international level competitions in his prime, but never made it to the Olympics. He competed in alot of Jiu-Jitsu and Sambo competitions too and against some of the best Jiu-Jitsu guys. He is known for his transition from standing to submission, which is what most of his book is about. The way he teaches the ezekial choke (which is his specialty) is really awesome. I use all his setups regularly. He used to teach full time at the Kodokan. Now he does alot of seminars worldwide at Judo and BJJ clubs, but he still teaches Judo at the Tokyo City University Junior and Senior high school. Hes a beast. Really cool guy too.