Hello everyone. I am intersted in joining a gym. The problem is that i dont know if i should do jiu jitsu or judo? Could someone explain tto me the common characteristics and diffrences in the 2 sports.
P.S.- i am a folkstyle wrestler. Would ethier of the 2 benefit more?
thanks for ur time
That is a very broad question. We have no idea if you even are familiar with fundamental Judo positions like the guard and of course the submission game.
I will TRY to give you a very basic rundown of what to expect with either and what you might be familiar with.
Judo- The wear a heavy duty cotton gi (judo uniform) and they use it to throw an opponent flat on his back, which happens to be the ultimate goal in Judo...a Perfect throw.
In Judo you will find the pins and throws very familiar with some modifications due to the Judogi.
What MIGHT surprise you is that if you cannot make a percect throw, nor pin your opponent both of you would have a limited time (in competition) to actually apply a submission.
As you might find out by following some threads around here, come Judoka(judo players) and judo schools are better at the mat work and subs than others.
Your transition would be very swift IMO if you are any good at wrestling.
A few guys from my brothers wrestling team (years ago) took up Judo in the summer and they did very well at the summer tourneys in Judo.
Jiu Jitsu- In general most BJJ schools also wear a heavy gi but occassionally will train no gi for submission wrestling and MMA purposes. In general you will find much less focus on takedowns and pins and a HEAVY emphasis on reversals and submissions. In Bjj you get most of your points from putting your opponent in bad BJJ positions like side mount, mount, rear mount etc...The fight is over right away if someone locks in a submission hold and they give you all the time in the world to get the submission.
Your transition may not be as swift because while a pin would end a wrestling match and even a judo match it is simply a transition point in Jiu Jitsu. You gain the dominant position and then work for your submission hold.
You also might be quite surprised to learn that a BJJ player would be very much at home flat on his back. In fact he will have a huge arsenal of subs to throw at you from that position.
IMO you would be fine doing either sport but entering Judo 1st you would not be lost and you could still use some of the things you learned in wrestling. All this while getting an intro to the submissions that BJJ will teach you later.
Then after you have some idea of things like armbars, turtle, guard, sidemount, chokes you could jump right in and have a strong base to work your BJJ.
BTW how are you at wrestling?
Varsity? JV? Record? State qualifier? regional qualifier?
