Monday, January 15, 2007

What Can Judoka Learn From BJJ, Part 1

Visit to a regional Judo tournament few weeks ago convinced me of a necessity
to communicate this message as broadly to Judo community as possible.

The Situation:

BJJ practitioner with unknown level of BJJ experience, but definitely not a
beginner in BJJ, enters a Judo tournament as white belt.

He enters to compete in his bracket (white-green)
as well as in the bracket above (brown-black and beyond).

As he enters the actual contest it is clear that his standing technique is not good at all.

He cannot pull one decent throw; however - he tries.
He tries everything he can to bring the other guy down to the mat.
The sad news is that his oponents, Judo guys, are not good either.
As we all know Judo throws are hard to master, and the people in his
category are not good (yet) at pulling any good throws either.

BJJer, however, has one major advantage:
he knows the ground grappling, submission techniques well,
so as soon as he and his oponents end up on the ground he immediately has the edge.

As they go on the ground, his oponent goes to the belly or turtles up.
BJJ guys immediately takes his back and starts sinking the choke in.
Judo guy at this level often gets surprised, often intimidated, and loses to submission
(taps before he even gets "sleepy").

If the Judo guy happens to end on his back or with his arms extended out,
BJJ guy, like on the autopilot, goes for an arm bar (Juji Gatame) and wins that way.

This is in white-green category.

In brown/black belt category BJJ guy has harder time.
Judo guys are impossible for him to throw them.
He almost has no chance to even budge them.

However, many of the Judo guys use throwing techniques like drop Ippon Seoi Nage
that are not really "safe" against the experienced grappler.
If throw like drop Ippon Seoi Nage does not result in an ippon tori (thrower)
is likely to end up in a very disadvantageous position where BJJ guy has his back.

As the game goes to the ground Judo brown/black belts are experienced enough to defend most common attacks from this mid-level BJJ player, but their stamina is often not up to the par with the BJJ player, so game gets pretty tense and commonly even-handed.

As the match progresses Judo players (judoka) win in this category only if they can
take advantage of Judo rules, or if they can score a clear ippon.

Otherwise, they suffer a humiliating defeat from a white belt.

Some important conclusions:

Most of Judo players are totally unprepared to face the BJJ player in Judo competition.

  • Judoka's game is often not tuned for the style and strategy that BJJ player imposes.

  • Judoka's skills are often not well matched against the submission style grappling that BJJ players impose

  • Many Judo techniques used against BJJ players in tournaments are not effective enough to give judoka reasonable advantage.

  • BJJ players enter the tournaments as very low ranks which is the misrepresentation of the skill giving Judoka false sense of advantage. (In my opinion, Judo and BJJ are far too similar to allow one practitioner with years of experience to wear a beginners belt.)

These are my conclusions. I feel I have pretty good response to each one of these issues listed,
so in the next set of entries I will address each one of these areas,
and I will provide a very specific set of tips and recommendations on how to successfully respond to BJJ players using their strategy to judoka's advantage.