Hello sherdog. Ive been training MMA for a year now and i really enjoy it. I train 3 times a week doing the MMA and 3 Times a week doing Boxing. I want to improve my takedowns but my Gym has wrestling 2 times a week. There's a Judo club next to my house with very high level judoka and high level teachers. I went for a free trial and i really enjoyed it. My question is will adding 3 classes of judo help my MMA Game? Or am i better off taking the wrestling class 2 times a week?
Adding Judo to my mma training?
- Thread starter Benny1992
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Simple answer, you are better off training wrestling.
Judo is awesome, but it has a monster learning curve, particularly if you are older, and even when you have learned it, takes a lot of work to apply to mma.
That all said if you aren't obsessed with maximal mma performance, why not train judo if you enjoy it. May not be the most efficient approach to developing an mma skill set, but that may not be a burning concern if you aren't a pro.
Judo is awesome, but it has a monster learning curve, particularly if you are older, and even when you have learned it, takes a lot of work to apply to mma.
That all said if you aren't obsessed with maximal mma performance, why not train judo if you enjoy it. May not be the most efficient approach to developing an mma skill set, but that may not be a burning concern if you aren't a pro.
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Wrestling will help you more. If anything, get a few private lessons with the Judo guys and ask them about specific moves that translate well to MMA like kosoto gake, sasae tsuri komi ashi, and ouchi gari. Most of what you'll learn in Judo won't help you in MMA, because it's predicated on things like having a gi, lots of grip fighting, restrictive rules, and not caring about your landing position that are not true at all in MMA.
If your wrestling coaches have some freestyle background, ask them about upright clinch throws like inside and outside trips. Those are the same things you'll learn in Judo and are very useful for MMA, and wrestling clinch fighting (especially Greco) is better for MMA than Judo grip fighting.
If your wrestling coaches have some freestyle background, ask them about upright clinch throws like inside and outside trips. Those are the same things you'll learn in Judo and are very useful for MMA, and wrestling clinch fighting (especially Greco) is better for MMA than Judo grip fighting.
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I will echo the steep learning curve in Judo.
For MMA if you're only going to part time Judo, the best you can get is to improve your TDD, and that's from the clinch if you have a modern Judo coach, but if you have some old school guys it applies to shots too (old school players had to defend leg attacks standing)
Some Judo clubs have some intense training, so that could improve your stamina and toughness, but that depends on the club.
Maybe I'm off because I wrestled before judo, then had an old school coach while the leg attacks were legal, then the coach of my second team was an accomplished wrestler and Judoka who had us train in a fuck the IJF this is real Judo style.
That said do Judo, because it's fun, but the return on investment is a long time coming. If you need a more short term return for MMA wrestle.
For MMA if you're only going to part time Judo, the best you can get is to improve your TDD, and that's from the clinch if you have a modern Judo coach, but if you have some old school guys it applies to shots too (old school players had to defend leg attacks standing)
Some Judo clubs have some intense training, so that could improve your stamina and toughness, but that depends on the club.
Maybe I'm off because I wrestled before judo, then had an old school coach while the leg attacks were legal, then the coach of my second team was an accomplished wrestler and Judoka who had us train in a fuck the IJF this is real Judo style.
That said do Judo, because it's fun, but the return on investment is a long time coming. If you need a more short term return for MMA wrestle.
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I've been training judo for more than 5 years, and my Sensei and training partners train/have trained at Pedro's, but I've yet to make "pure" judo a large piece of my MMA game. The grips, angles, footwork, and positions are quite different than those found in MMA. Don't get me wrong; I love judo, and I do use it a ton in sparring (especially harai, uchi mata, kouchi, and ouchi), but I don't think that it works as well as wrestling in MMA (which, in turn, doesn't work as well as MMA-adapted wrestling in MMA).
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I think it would definitely overcomplicate things.
I believe judo is best when it's already highly developed before starting MMA, or being added to an already-developed MMA game.
I believe judo is best when it's already highly developed before starting MMA, or being added to an already-developed MMA game.
Stick to one thing and play it safe, that's what MMA is all about.
Whatever you do, don't find some new techniques to surprise your opponent.
It's your life kid, but the ones that make it to the top tend to be open minded and enjoy learning for its own sake.
If Judo interests you, do Judo. You may have a knack for it. If you don't, you can quit.
I wouldn't tell them you are training MMA though. lol
Whatever you do, don't find some new techniques to surprise your opponent.
It's your life kid, but the ones that make it to the top tend to be open minded and enjoy learning for its own sake.
If Judo interests you, do Judo. You may have a knack for it. If you don't, you can quit.
I wouldn't tell them you are training MMA though. lol
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you're best off taking both the wrestling and the judo, maybe alternating weeks between the two.
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both will make you understand the other better.
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Freestyle Wrestling. This wrestling form has all the nogi stand up techniques/grips (clich, takedowns, throws) and ground control.
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TS, what part of the country you in? And which of your wrestling or judo instructor is more qualified?
Not saying that either isn't a quality instructor lol. But if you're trying to get better at mma and it's an issue of potential brain health. The more qualified instructor who will best equip you to win your mma is who you need to go with
Obviously I favor wrestling and agree with most of the people on the thread that wrestling will probably be learned, applied, and help your mma more than your judo because you've never done stand-up grappling before. So given the little information here I would suggest that
But if the quality of instruction for the judo is far superior to the wrestling. That might be better
Not saying that either isn't a quality instructor lol. But if you're trying to get better at mma and it's an issue of potential brain health. The more qualified instructor who will best equip you to win your mma is who you need to go with
Obviously I favor wrestling and agree with most of the people on the thread that wrestling will probably be learned, applied, and help your mma more than your judo because you've never done stand-up grappling before. So given the little information here I would suggest that
But if the quality of instruction for the judo is far superior to the wrestling. That might be better
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Good advice. From the perspective of standing grappling I feel like both Olympic styles lend themselves better to MMA than American folk, mostly because folk is so focused on leg attacks whereas the more upright stances of MMA (which also exist in Greco and to a lesser degree freestyle) favor the clinch work and tripping/throwing attacks that are more common in the Oly styles. Folk however is really useful for mat work, the riding concepts of folk are incredibly useful in MMA and as far as I know don't really exist in any other common style of wrestling in the same way.
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Full disclosure - I'm just a hobbyist so take this advice FWIW...
With that said, I'd take some judo because of the toughness you get from randori but I'd focus on the trips and sweeps for MMA.
I belong to a few different gyms and whenever we drill no-Gi BJJ, I seem to be able to catch folks with trips and sweeps while we are fighting for underhooks. And those are low-energy moves so if you don't pull it off, you're not wasting too much energy and/or exposing yourself to bad positions.
I agree with the monster learning curve for throws though and it will be an even steeper one for getting those throws off in a no-gi environment but, oddly enough, I find the reaps, trips and uchi mata relatively straight-forward without the gi.
With that said, I'd take some judo because of the toughness you get from randori but I'd focus on the trips and sweeps for MMA.
I belong to a few different gyms and whenever we drill no-Gi BJJ, I seem to be able to catch folks with trips and sweeps while we are fighting for underhooks. And those are low-energy moves so if you don't pull it off, you're not wasting too much energy and/or exposing yourself to bad positions.
I agree with the monster learning curve for throws though and it will be an even steeper one for getting those throws off in a no-gi environment but, oddly enough, I find the reaps, trips and uchi mata relatively straight-forward without the gi.
