Judo once a week - worth it?

[Nik123]

Guess you train at RGA right?

How'd you guess? : )

yep I do. what about you?

 

[LeonardoBjj]

- One class a week is better than no class at all!

 

[Jeff Goldblum69]

in all honesty I would say no... just do more jitz + maybe a hybrid no-gi grappling class with takedowns...

the double leg is your friend.

 

[Quebec Nick]

- One class a week is better than no class at all!

This

There's so many guys that are clueless about takedowns in BJJ that just being aware of it seems enough to be a little ahead of the pack.

I learned some takedowns in MMA classes, we drilled them a little but it was nothing to become an expert at it. But I'm a lot more agressive and confident than the others even if technically I suck just a little less than they do.

 

[Bayonet]

Well how many Bjj matches have you won using judo? I have more success winning by pulling guard in BJJ matches then trying to win with judo throws.

Anectdotal, but I've won several bjj matches with a very fundamentally Judo skill-set. Throw, pin, keep pressure on until I can get a collar choke or armbar going. I've only competed in a few low-level bjj tournaments, but I've medalled in them using that strategy. The fundamental skills of all grappling styles complement each other if you try to develop them equally instead of specializing in order to game a specific ruleset.

Gripfight, throw, pin, submit. That's all.

So as I've just started competing in bjj, figured working a bit of stand up into my game may be beneficial.

My timetable will only allow one extra class (already planning on doing bjj 3 times a week). So if I squeeze in one Judo session in the week, is that enough to actually learn anything?

Also am I risking serious injury with Judo vs bjj?

An extra class is an extra class. More time to learn, more time to drill, more time for sparring. Your progression won't be as fast as it would be if you were training standup full time, but it will be much faster than if you weren't training any standup at all. Again, I'm speaking from personal experience here and YMMV, but the BJJ club I train at started up a once-weekly, 1-1.5 hour Judo sesion, and the guys who consistently show up for it have gone from having the BJJ typical sloppy takedown game to guys who are starting to get dangerous on their feet.

As to injuries, it's anybody's call. BJJ seems as injury prone as Judo, in my opinion. If you get your ego out of the way and train with good partners, you'll be okay in either.

 

[Submission]

How'd you guess? : )

yep I do. what about you?

I used to. I trained there for 5 months when I lived in London.
Man, if I was you I'd really make an effort to go to Lyubo's class on Sundays. When I was there, sometimes I made the effort to go to Kingston on Saturdays, just to attend his class. He's a really great coach, for me the best of all at RGA.
You can also talk with guys like Laurent or Dean, who are black belts in Judo and also do BJJ (Dean is a black belt in both), and they can help you with your stand up game for sure.
I never went to the Judo classes there, but I watched some and I think the Judo there is not really applied to BJJ, in contrast with Lyubo's classes that are totally geared towards BJJ and MMA.

 

[Nik123]

I used to. I trained there for 5 months when I lived in London.
Man, if I was you I'd really make an effort to go to Lyubo's class on Sundays. When I was there, sometimes I made the effort to go to Kingston on Saturdays, just to attend his class. He's a really great coach, for me the best of all at RGA.
You can also talk with guys like Laurent or Dean, who are black belts in Judo and also do BJJ (Dean is a black belt in both), and they can help you with your stand up game for sure.
I never went to the Judo classes there, but I watched some and I think the Judo there is not really applied to BJJ, in contrast with Lyubo's classes that are totally geared towards BJJ and MMA.

Thanks for the detailed input there. Your take on the wrestling classes is interesting, wish they had a weekday slot otherwise might try to somehow make it on the sunday. What makes Lyubo the best coach there in your view?

 

[Thycidides]

Anectdotal, but I've won several bjj matches with a very fundamentally Judo skill-set. Throw, pin, keep pressure on until I can get a collar choke or armbar going. I've only competed in a few low-level bjj tournaments, but I've medalled in them using that strategy. The fundamental skills of all grappling styles complement each other if you try to develop them equally instead of specializing in order to game a specific ruleset.

Gripfight, throw, pin, submit. That's all.



.

Sure, that strategy can work in a bjj tournament but it seems to me someone that only does judo once or twice a week would have trouble doing so.

 

[lechien]

One day of judo per week is better than none.
I got to the point where I considering to not promote Bjj students unless they do some mileage in judo.

 

[Kbits]

You're looking at this wrong. You have four training sessions a week, yes? Learn judo once a week...then pick something from that to apply to bjj for the other three. Pick one thing to work on for a month. IOW,
start your BJJ standing and apply your judo there.

The other thing to do is alternate weeks. Eg:

Wk 1
Bjj x3
Judo x1

Wk 2
Bjj x 1
Judo x 3

Etc.

(I'm excluding solo training advice here)

Also, you might find this useful. I wrote it for guys like you

https://www.reddit.com/r/judo/comme...jjers/?utm_source=amp&utm_medium=comment_list

 

[RJ Green]

judo's fuckin rough too. unless you've got a sprung floor it's hard to practice regularly without having great falling, and even then there's still a limit as far as wear and tear.

it's kinda like snowboarding - in the beginning you can barely stay on your feet, and falling down hurts. eventually you're good enough to ride, and you can fall down without dying. you learn some new shit. eventually you hit some harder runs and jumps.. are you gonna get better with more practice? most likely. do real adults have consistent time for that shit? not really. would you have been better if you started when you were like 5? probably, but your parents weren't loaded.

sure, you can try to focus on all the flips and shit, but bigger jumps mean bigger falls. does every run have to be a double-black or a trip through the terrain park? nah, you can scratch the same itch on the cruisers. will you be WORLD CHAMPION if you don't have a fucktuple-cork? no, but so the fuck what? is it enjoyable without being THE BEST? absolutely.

is it better than staying home? almost always.

 

[Submission]

Thanks for the detailed input there. Your take on the wrestling classes is interesting, wish they had a weekday slot otherwise might try to somehow make it on the sunday. What makes Lyubo the best coach there in your view?

When I was there he used to teach at Mondays and Wednesdays, which was better than just on Sundays.
For me, he's the best for a vast amount of reasons.
1) Attention to students. His classes were small compared to the BJJ ones (approximately 20 students on his classes), and his attention to detail and focus on students' mistakes were superb. No one else there spends the time correcting things with you that he does.
2) Knowledge. Lyubo in 5 months showed me more things that I've never seen than anybody in 4 years (except when I was a newbie and knew nothing). Also he shows a lot of stuff that usually you don't see in BJJ classes.
3) Structure of the classes. His classes were 1.15-1.30 hour long, and it used to be a short warm-up of the joints and articulations followed by 5-10 minutes of gymnastics. Than it was straight to wrestling, you'd get almost one hour of drilling at a high pace and than 2 or 3 rounds of sparring at the end of the session. His Q&A availability at the end of the sessions was also great, you could ask him any question and he would be able to answer anybody's questions with great patience and detail.

 

[Bayonet]

Sure, that strategy can work in a bjj tournament but it seems to me someone that only does judo once or twice a week would have trouble doing so.

Maybe. Personally, I think that a solid blue or purple belt that really starts to pay attention to developing a good, general purpose tachiwaza game would be pretty hard to handle.

 

[Kenny from MD]

I spend about 15-20 minutes every night of training working judo in some way, shape or form. Grip fighting, repping my go-to throws, randori or starting matches from standing. Train smart and efficiently with purpose. Set goals and develop them. Don't just do a bunch of fits and random stuff because someone told you to. The amount of improvement I've made from when I started taking takedowns seriously and meow is insane and meow I'm throwing people with way more experience than me.

 

[Kenny from MD]

In response to judo being rough, there is SO MUCH to learn that doesn't involve being thrown or throwing. I'd argue for the purposes of non judokas the actual throw is way LESS important than everything else you can practice- gripping, moving, adjusting, fitting in, etc. Learn to set things up and finishing the throw is actually a no brainer.
Think... is it hard to finish an arm lock when you've finished all the work of locking it up already?

 

[Quebec Nick]

In response to judo being rough, there is SO MUCH to learn that doesn't involve being thrown or throwing. I'd argue for the purposes of non judokas the actual throw is way LESS important than everything else you can practice- gripping, moving, adjusting, fitting in, etc. Learn to set things up and finishing the throw is actually a no brainer.
Think... is it hard to finish an arm lock when you've finished all the work of locking it up already?

In MMA gyms and BJJ classes you only work on the throw, most of the time you already have the good grips (or have the right arms position in no gi) and you just have to finish it. So even when we are drilling them, it's often useless when you start on the feet because you don't know how to set it up.

Sometimes in BJJ class I'm lucky enough to do a throw but it's a lot more about the other guy giving it to me than me setting it up.

You have a very interesting point of view

 

[Kenny from MD]

That's a case of bad training and bad instruction if you're just repping the throw with no understanding of how or why or what is going on. The drill I use the most is grip fighting into my throw and then resetting. I MIGHT fit in without throwing if I feel it's appropriate... as you get the hang of judo you already know when you have the throw beforehand, at least at the lower level in which I'm a part of. Obviously I can't speak to an elite level.