Will Start Training Judo as a 30 year old. Any Advice? UPDATE: I'm back at it!

thanks everyone for the responses they are very helpful! Also what GI do you think i should be getting? My club sells single weave gi's which i have heard are fine for most beginners but i have no real experience to be honest.

Im going to be giving my everything to Judo and being very proactive. How many days a week would you guys suggest in the beginning? 2-3 times a week?
 
Judo and wrestling feel like they should be worse on your body, but orthopedic surgeries seem just as common among the BJJ guys...
Over a decade of wrestling and Judo and it was a butterfly sweep that tore my ACL.
 
I'm sure it's already been mentioned a fair bit since this thread is 2 pages long, but here are a few things you'll want to take seriously.

Start slow, don't pace yourself more than you need to, Judo can be extremely devastating.
Take your break falls seriously, very seriously, allow yourself to be loose when practicing them and practice them a lot.
On the topic of looseness, try to stay loose during all aspects of training, the stiffer you are the more likely you are to injure yourself.
Stretch, dynamic or movement based stretching during your warm up, and static stretching after practice.

That should get you rolling, if you're going to attempt competition or use it to complement MMA there is a whole bunch of other things you'll want to keep in mind but I think those few points are a good base to go from.

Cheers and good luck on your journey :)
 
It all depends on the school. If you don't have a good coach and training partners, then Judo is a waste of time let alone the possibility of injury.
 
I agree with everyone else in this thread.

And if you have some sports tape, I recommend taping over your knuckles. Everyone new who comes in, lacks the callouses in their knuckles and grinds them into a bloody mess.
 
thanks everyone for the responses they are very helpful! Also what GI do you think i should be getting? My club sells single weave gi's which i have heard are fine for most beginners but i have no real experience to be honest.

Im going to be giving my everything to Judo and being very proactive. How many days a week would you guys suggest in the beginning? 2-3 times a week?
In terms of a judogi, I would start with a single weave, as they're cheap. Also, if you're used to BJJ gis, you would probably find a double weave to be pretty heavy. I wouldn't spend money on a double weave yet, since you may find that you don't enjoy judo as much as you'd think. If you really enjoy it and plan on continuing, then you can look into a double weave. A lot of clubs have deals or can order in bulk so you save some money. I would also get a white judogi to start, since it's slightly cheaper.

In terms of how many times a week you should attend, that'll depend on how you feel. More is better if you feel up to it, but you have to pay attention to your body. There's no point in pushing yourself too hard, since that's how you get injured.
 
drop throws are horrible for your knees
getting stacked is horrible for your back
getting thrown is horrible for your hips
getting thrown wrong is horrible for your everything

go at your own pace. you're a 30 year old starting judo rather than a 30 year old judo player. you've got less wear and tear, but you're more susceptible to wear and tear.

try to prioritize doing everything correctly before trying to do everything quickly. you don't just plop a new driver into rush hour interstate traffic. lots of people want to floor it when they should probably tap the brakes.

figure out which throws work for your body type.

work on ROM, especially squats. when you're learning throws, prioritize position. position = leverage. leverage + timing = technique. strength + technique = judo


Maybe I’m missing something obvious...

Why is being thrown bad for your hips?
 
most judo throws land in a sidefall. your hip is usually the first thing that makes contact with the ground after your slap.

i train 6 days per week, take 30-50 falls per day (nagekomi and randori, i don't even count ukemi), which is 200-300 falls per week, 800-1200 per month, so around 10000ish per year, ~125,000 since i've started training.

i only train about 10 hours per week. i'm a hack amateur and i've taken one-eighth of a million falls, 95% of which have been on the same hip.
 
Take it easy at first but I know a of dude who started at 30 and managed to make it to the Olympics three years later.
 
I believe it, RJ Green. I sat down and calculated the number of falls I've taken over a 15 year period and it's almost 200,000. Your numbers are spot on I think.

I was very (very very) lucky that we made extensive use of crashmats at my dojo ... because tatami over concrete (what we have always had) is just fucked for full throws.

PS: I had a DEXA scan done once as part of a uni project and it showed my bone density at 110% of normal...on my right side, specifically forearm and hip.

PPS: Nicest flooring I ever trained on was tatami over 115 year old floor boards (in a church) that had started to sag. Juuuuuust the right amount of spring to take out the sting but not so much that you can slack off ukemi. Good throws still hurt a little.

Anyway: for longevity, TS must find a place with sprung floors. Without that (or crashmats) forget starting judo over the age of 30. IMHO and YMMV.
 
I agree with everyone else in this thread.

And if you have some sports tape, I recommend taping over your knuckles. Everyone new who comes in, lacks the callouses in their knuckles and grinds them into a bloody mess.

Ah but then you never develop the callouses.

The sooner you develop the "buttons", the better.
 
Take it easy at first but I know a of dude who started at 30 and managed to make it to the Olympics three years later.
Seriously? Mind telling us more about that? It would be seriously cool to know that's even possible. Not looking to go to the Olympics myself but it would be awesome to hear.
 
Anyway: for longevity, TS must find a place with sprung floors. Without that (or crashmats) forget starting judo over the age of 30. IMHO and YMMV.
Luckily The place im going to be training at has sprung floors!
 
Ah but then you never develop the callouses.

The sooner you develop the "buttons", the better.
Agreed, though you'll bleed like a stuck pig in your first few classes, if you don't tape up.
 
I meant to update you guys if anyone was interested.

I did my first class on Tuesday and it went brilliantly.

The conditioning wasn't over bearing but I imagine it will become extremely exhausting once we do some randori (which will be omitted while we learn the basics)

We learned how to do break falls which I have learned in the past but I'm out of practice with. My hands hurt when I did it. Is that indicative of an error? Also we learned a throw called o-goshi but we didn't actually complete the throw. We stopped half way to learn how to lift our opponent.

I'm hooked!
 
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We learned how to do break falls which I have learned in the past but I'm out of practice with. My hands hurt when I did it. Is that indicative of an error? Also we learned a throw called o-goshi but we didn't actually complete the throw. We stopped half way to learn how to lift our opponent.

I'm hooked!
That's great to hear that you're enjoying it! In terms of the hands hurting, that's pretty common at the start and you get used to it. Just make sure that when you slap the mat you're doing it as you land and that you aren't posting your arm.
 
it'll feel better when it stops hurting.

judo is pain.
 
I meant to update you guys if anyone was interested.

I did my first class on Tuesday and it went brilliantly.

The conditioning wasn't over bearing but I imagine it will become extremely exhausting once we do some randori (which will be omitted while we learn the basics)

We learned how to do break falls which I have learned in the past but I'm out of practice with. My hands hurt when I did it. Is that indicative of an error? Also we learned a throw called o-goshi but we didn't actually complete the throw. We stopped half way to learn how to lift our opponent.

I'm hooked!

I started judo a few weeks ago and asked my instructor the same thing about the hand hurting. He said you get used to it.

I think the basic idea being it's better to have a stinging sensation in your hand then to break your elbow. He confirmed my theory.
 
After a long time of talking about it im finally joining a Judo club (at my school). Im not necessarily a stranger to it as i have done some formal training in my early 20s but it didn't last long due to an unrelated injury (back). I have heard that Judo is hard on literally everything in your body but is a tad more back friendly than BJJ, which i have heard can be rather hard on the discs.

Either way i love the sport, i have a lot of respect for it and im looking to be as good as i possibly can be in this life time. Any advice so i don't kill myself?
Buy stock in Advil lol. You’re in your prime, don’t worry so much. I’m 36, for what it’s worth.
 
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