Judo....

[Shamrock]

I'm moving in a couple weeks and, I kid you not, about 120 feet from my house is a martial arts complex. I'm a fan of trying all different types of physical activity. I've done boxing, lacrosse, football and hockey all had thier ups and downs.

Judo seems appealing to me but I honestly couldn't tell you why. I have no idea what this sport involves besides the ignorant opinions I can derive from kung-fu movies. Anyone into/train for Judo? What kind of involvement am I looking at, 2x times a week or every night for 2x hours?

Is it similar to Karate with the belt system?

[arbit]

Judo is close to wrestling. There arent kicks/punches, it mainly grappling. But its not all force. People wear thick uniforms and so u can use thier momentum to throw them.
Judo practice invloves a lot of being thrown about, falling down, airfalls etc. Then u'll learn how to throw other people. Upper body strenght ovbioulsy helps.
More advanced is choke holds - if u'r both on the ground, u'll learn how to do choke holds. Strength doesnt matter here, and once u'r in a choke, its all over. I've been choked by <100lb folks (I weigh 175). Technique is the key.
Start training u'r sholders/rotators now. Judo involves a lot of force in compromising positions, and u dont want to hurt u'rself.
Judo isnt a striking sport like karate/taekwondo/boxing. Its more like wait for opponent to be a wee bit off balance and then in the next millisecond throw/choke him

[Shamrock]

I think this is what I heard about Judo that I liked. I'm not an aggressive person and I like what I'm hearing (poking around the web).

How does the belt system work? Is it Universal or does it vary by Dojo

I'm starting to wonder about the Russian style of martial arts (Sytema). Anyone have any experience with this? The nearest club to me is run by an ex Spetnaz (sp?) member and a guy trained by one of Stalin's body guards!

[arbit]

Originally Posted by Shamrock

I think this is what I heard about Judo that I liked. I'm not an aggressive person and I like what I'm hearing (poking around the web).

How does the belt system work? Is it Universal or does it vary by Dojo

I'm starting to wonder about the Russian style of martial arts (Sytema). Anyone have any experience with this? The nearest club to me is run by an ex Spetnaz (sp?) member and a guy trained by one of Stalin's body guards!

Belt system varies tho loosely they are the same. Belt system is just a way to classify beginners/intermediates according to their knowledge.

[mcgee]

Originally Posted by Shamrock

I'm starting to wonder about the Russian style of martial arts (Sytema). Anyone have any experience with this? The nearest club to me is run by an ex Spetnaz (sp?) member and a guy trained by one of Stalin's body guards!

Systema when taught correctly can be devastating - its a military style so is unforgiving. It has lots of elements from judo (trips throws groundwork etc) as well as what seems to be a lot of stuff from kali/eskrima (filipino art). Very impressive indeed when its used to its full potential (I've seen a couple of demos - unfortunately the opponent was completely compliant). However with it being a military system it quite often gets diluted when taught to the public.

You should pick the martial art that you are going to train by what you want to get out of it. For instance if you want a good all round "fighting" style with non of the traditional dogma then go for a submission fighting or mma club. You'll learn 3 disciplines - stand up, clinch and ground.

If you don't mind the grading system and the dogma that comes with a TMA (traditional martial art) and don't mind being less rounded (this is true of most TMA's) style then look into Judo, Karate, TKD, KungFu (in its various forms).

If you want to get good at fighting (or defence - depends how you look at it) look at the sport MA's like Muay Thai, free style Karate or even western boxing.

Judging by your first post you like the fitness element that comes with MA so I would say Judo is probably a very good place to start.

Above all though enjoy it.

James

[Merrida]

Is that Russian or Israeli?

Curiously,....do you believe "dogma" associated with tradition through process is incompatible with being well-rounded?

[Chris09]

Judo is a great work out. It ranks up there in one of the two most physicaly draining activities I have done. The other is boxing. Fighting really takes it out of you.

The only downside (in my opinion) to judo are the trows. As with anything, to get good at something, you have to practice it. So, when you are practicing throwing someone you have to do it a lot. This is great.....but keep in mind, you are not the only one inthe class, there are other people that need to practice throwing. So you will have to be the one thrown. You stand up, get into position, and let them pick you up and drop, or throw you on the floor, then get up and do it all over again many times.

It doesn't really hurt and is not bad. But the repition can wear on your body. Your joints can get ratteled. I started getting sore in my joints. I love pain, but when it has to do with the joints, i am more cautious. It turns out, you use your elbows, knees, and back for the rest of your life. If they get all beat up at a young age, then there is a good chance of them hurting further down the line. I am 24 and notice that it takes me longer to get back up than when I was 17 and 18.

This being said, I think judo is great but unforunately, as with any really physical sport, the body will wear down.

Thats just my two cents, I hope I helped.

[pseudonym]

Judo is a great art, depending on the Dojo it cold be very traditional or more progressive (the Judo club at my old uni in Oz had regular training sessions and comps with the BJJ - no, that's an acronym for brazillian jiujitsu... - club ... I would elect to run (away) against any of those boys ).

If you really wanna become an ass whooping machine take a good look at McGees post, he's onto it by the sounds, though in response to Merridas Q I don't think dogma or tradition necessarily limits the 'effectiveness' of an art (and as far as I know Systema is Russian - Krav Maga is the fairly similar standard taught in thr Israeli army ... will stand corrected though). To get your fill of debates on the martial arts and which is best/coolest/pulls more chicks, whatever head on over to martialartsplanet.com (seems to be down just now).

The belt system in Judo can vary form Dojo to Dojo but will generally be similar to the Karate system (yellow, green, blue, brown, black).

Judo is definately great for fitness and for a dojo that close if the price is right I recommend giving it a shot for a while.

[mcgee]

Originally Posted by Merrida

Is that Russian or Israeli?

Curiously,....do you believe "dogma" associated with tradition through process is incompatible with being well-rounded?

No not at all. The problem I found (having studied and instructed Shotokan Karate - admittedly not well rounded in itself) is that the "dogma" i.e the traditional aspect of MA can become the driving force within the club.

I certainly believe that it has its place though. I started learning Karate at 9 years old and responded very well to the discipline. It talk me a great amount of self control, self awareness, respect and discipline.

However as I grew older and started to instruct I found that I had little time for the traditional rituals (I would teach a 1hr class and 20 minutes of it would be taken up with the traditional stuff - then a 15 minute warmup, leaving only 25 minutes of actually Karate instruction).

Becoming well rounded as a Martial Artist is difficult when you study a TMA IMO because you encounter the attitude all too often that the art you are learning is the best and nothing else matters, however cross training in a number of TMA's can give you well rounded skills (presuming that that is what you want from MA) if you don't mind the traditional aspect of it all.

This is why I train sub. fighting now. We get a very good mix of Muay Thai, western boxing, Judo (without a grading system - just using the stuff that works for us), BJJ, Greco Roman, Kali/Eskrima (empty hand aspect in the sub fighting class - with the knives and sticks in a seperate class) and basically anything else that we see and think may be of use, but without all of the trad. stuff that takes time e.g the main instructor isn't refered to as Sensei, Sifu, Master or anyting else apart from his name. We don't bow, no one is graded so there is no division in the class (we train equally with everyone), and we all take a hand in instructing. We have group responsibility for each other safety and learning. Its a very cool and relaxed scenario. Also we have worked very hard to keep out the element (admittedly small) that want to come in and just hurt people, which was one of the reasons that I left Karate (higher graded students that would just beat on the lower grades).

But at the end of the day it doesn't actually matter what art or form you learn so long as you enjoy it and can take someting from it.