I start my first class in an hour. Spent months researching and nerding out about Judo, but now it's time for me to step away from the sidelines and actually try. Update: that was super fun. Paying my fees and getting my gis, I'm so happy that this is part of my life now!
@@RonnyDoplo that’s actually what I’m looking forward to. When I was younger I tried a full contact team sport and got injured early on. Took over a month to heal but I was afraid all the time to get hit and fall, trying to hide my rib injury. When I learned that Judo takes the time to teach you how to fall, it started this whole nerdy journey for me.
"If the majority of the class can't do something, that's direct feedback." This. This right here, is the difference between good teachers and bad teachers. Bad teachers say, "You're not getting it? You're a bad student" or "you're a slow learner". (And I've literally seen teachers tell students exactly this!) Good teachers say, "You're not getting it? How can I change my teaching / explanation / etc to make it click for you?" Good teachers make it their job to make sure you can't walk out of their class without learning something.
As a former u17 Greco wrestler, that is 6-0 in blue belt absolute competitions at 41 years old with eight months of training BJJ. I have literally only spent about 11 minutes on the mat total in submission only competition. Taking somebody from their feet to flat on their back with a little tug and foot sweep is brutally efficient for setting up the submissions. I would train judo but the nearest school is it a 2 Hour Drive And as a busy family man that ain’t happening. So now it’s me watching professors videos and begging my fellow students to work throws on the crash pad after class😅
these are the things that needed to be said! we needs to address these as community! and i have to say thank you for the effort putting into videos, Video editors and all the crew working to put these quality content out. things improves every day. love this sensei USSS!
Your insights are incredibly helpful. I recently started doing Judo as a supplement for BJJ and was instructed in the exact way you recommend against. If you were to do a part two of this "Rethinking Judo Basics", advice about how to self study the basics would be great. I imagine many people study at "traditional curriculum" schools and would benefit as well. I'll check out the video you mentioned about movement and angles as a starting place. Thank you!
I am going back to judo after nearly 20 years away - was a brown belt (junior) when I went back I went in as a blue belt. So decided to go back again to get back some fitness. Largely based on following this channel.
Shintaro, I just had this argument with some dude. He thought that uchikomi were critical for successfully learning Judo. I'm glad to hear someone with your credentials saying the same things I was saying!
Uchikomi are still essential. The issue is contextualising them. For example, I use stick uchikomi's as the first step to teaching foot work and angling sequences as well as the basic shape of different throws. This is invaluable to developing coordination and embedding neural pathways especially with beginners.
@@eltonblack9421 Alright. If you're talking about something other than "My coach is shouting at me to go faster and do more reps even though I just learned this throw" or "rapid fire do 30 entries as fast as you can without having time to think about what you just did", we're talking about different things. Since you mention angling and footwork, I'm going to assume we're kinda on the same page. I do see the value in something like a step-step-step-technique.
@@MatthewNguyen-zx3de You have to learn the shape of the throw, of course. But there are other ways to do that. And the shape of the throw is far subordinate to the wisdom and intuition of when and where you should attempt a throw. Have you ever seen a beginner at a kickboxing class being put on a heavy bag? They plant their feet too close to the bag and either don't get proper extension or they just muscle through the bag. They don't have enough experience and knowledge to make the exercise valuable. In fact, it's actively detrimental to them actually getting good at striking and not getting struck because they're getting BAD reps.
@@OMARANT100 unfortunately very common, I get the premise that you need "to try it a thousand times" but you have to learn to do it RIGHT first. I think we can definitely question the intrinsic value of no context rapid-fire uchi komi.
Shintaro couldn't agree more with the contextual teaching approach you suggest. Have you considered systematising and categorizing the setup sequences so one can include it in a syllabus as part of belt gradings and evaluations. I think if it's systematiaed as part of a syllabus it could become normative.
your mind is amazing. have only trained bjj and havent been to a dedicated judo class yet, but i can listen to all of your videos and am always engaged and interested.
This was beautifully argued. Every time I work with someone on the fundamentals, I first introduce them to the idea of Push Hands. While not directly related to Judo, Push Hands is all about the back and forth, the push and pull that any beginners level Judo practice should require, especially when it comes to ways to practice the push and pull within a directional stance without being thrown. It teaches you how to move in various directions and angles and how to be used to odd stances without needing to fall over a dozen times. Combine it with break falls and you have a pretty solid foundation of any grappling art, my friends.
Love it! been studying Judo since 1995. And now I'm teaching. This is going to be invaluable! I have always thought uchi komi and static training had severely limited applications in real randori/shiai scenarios.
I think it really depends on if you have beginners who are children or adults. When I started out as a kid (at 9 yo) we very much also "played" Judo and it was great fun. Grip was not really a big topic. Our Sensei's focus was on "hara", posture and good falling techniques. Children are not so much scared of falling and won't get hurt so quickly. If I'm imagining starting over as an adult, I would maybe be scared of falling. I think for teaching older children and adults your approach to basics makes total sense.
Most of the judo coaches here in Germany do not even teach kuzuchi, hikite/tsurite properly. Ukigoshi is dismissed as an "inproper" Ōgoshi! And then kids learn Harai Goshi as an bad Ashiwaza, because they never learned Ukigoshi. When I will be a coach (which I aspire to be), I will right all the wrongs! Great Judo coaches I love to watch are Hatsuyuki Hamada and Hiroshi Katanishi
Word. I always marvelled at how shitty I was at integrating anything when taught as stand-alone techniques. After class, I'd have to figure out how to get to be able to use it on my own.
When I joined judo, the first few sessions I spent the time doing solo attacks (sasae, kouchi, kosoto etc) with no setups and I was just trying to learn the reactions from my partners. A lot of times I would get called out for "not doing anything" but I truly didn't know how to do anything. Learning those initial reactions has helped me start to contextualize the moves and being closer to chaining techniques to get real moves off. I've also focused on judo and wrestling moves that I can do with or without the gi so I can get a lot more practice since I spend more time in a no gi Jiu Jitsu school.
Great video Shintaro! I'm a newbie in judo, ending my first month in practice and i really miss this type of instruction on "how to play the game", that you'r bringin to the table. Judo learn would be more enjoying and fluid that way
Thank you so much for revisiting Judo Basics in this podcast Shintaro. I love your Judo Basics video on Judo/BJJ fanatics and was happy to be able to understand each step you referred to in this podcast. Love this process of learning how to create positional advantage and movement to setup a throw based on Uke’s response. I am currently working on creating movement through faints and combos and will refer to your creating angles video to supplement my understanding. Much appreciated!!! 🥋🙇🏼🙏 Also, recent finger injuries have had me thinking about No Gi grips while recovering. Do you cover this same process ( 1. No Gi Grip, Positional Advantage, Movement and Feints, Direct Attacks, Misdirection, Combos, Transitions) in your No Gi Videos? Also so many No Gi grips to choose from. Do you ever transition grips (Gi or No Gi ) from a Disadvantaged Position? I have found in Gi, using Underhook forward turn throws smoothly transitioning to Kuzure Kesa and Collar Tie Turn Throws smoothly transitioning to Kesa Gatame. Would love to hear your thoughts on this as well as the idea of No Gi Grips when wearing a Gi. Thank you!!🙏🙏
Absolutely love this! I also wish judo clubs did more kumi kata drills to develop gripping, and supplement that with movement drills (i.e where to apply the greatest amount of kuzushi with that grip).
Good thoughts ! Not saying all schools are bad, but there has been a lot of bad Judo instruction over the years. I think the lack of good beginner instruction is one of the reasons for the decline in Judo's popularity in some countries.
Judo yellow belt, bjj purple belt here, but I'm 66, so I had to stop trad judo class because it's just too dangerous to do randori with 18 year old brown belts. I wish I could go to a class structured as you describe here. Thanks for the effort to improve class for hobbyists.
Great video man I NEEDED this i recently started BJJ and it seems disconnected to learn like learning a sub without learning how to set it up i kept finding myself watching judo vids to learn how to set up attacks takedowns etc.. i feel like learning a complete sequence and adding to it is best. P.S. i really should have learned Judo first lol i enjoy it so much better lol
Wonderful points, makes me reflect back on my own Kungfu experience. Techniques alone are useless you need the entire chain of operations. Position position position
Our classes during semester usually have ukemis at the end of the warm up, at least when we're throwing with advanced class. Consistent practice feels the best for ukemis, just a week or two away and it feels like you forgot how to do it right and need a couple of reps to fix it. Good for the warm up section too in terms of getting winded up but not exerting much effort so you catch your breath back quickly. Some of my favourite drills with beginners in class, usually after warm ups, are partnering up and trying to touch the shoulder staying inside your square with your partner, progression would be getting a lapel grip. Or tori taking a grip on someone who has gi and leading, and uke keeping constant distance, then uke leading and tori keeping constant distance. They are pretty engaging and feel like you're doing and learning something without getting into throwing. Osoto gari is such a weird choice for a starting throw too when it is never used after that, it doesn't almost ever lead to other throws or teach much of fundamental blocks for other throws. Ouchi gari is like the golden technique in comparison. Relatively simple, less impact, can be used to teach progressions and causing movement on the partner. Ippon seoi nage is also an easy throw to do, often taught early as well, but probably my least favourite to be uke for someone who doesn't know how to do it (everyone who hasn't been drilling it). It's gonna be a high drop to an uncomfortable position with no sleeve pull to ease the impact. And especially if you're not used to the impacts and your ukemi isn't great. In my opinion not a good beginner throw for those reasons. But one thing I'd really want to see from instructors early on, when the beginners get their gis, is the start of the micro judo lesson by Shintaro. How to freaking grip the gi. How come it's not a standard lesson when beginners have no idea how to grip the gi effectively so that they have control over uke. It makes a huge difference in kuzushi and how difficult a technique feels like if you don't have control over the uke via gi. Nobody tells you that. I asked about it from someone more experienced and they went basically full Japanese "you just take it like this and go", it wasn't until that micro judo lesson that I learned and it made a noticeable difference. Like just for walking the uke in a throwing drill it makes a difference - if tori has a solid grip, the uke will be in sync because tori transfers the intention on uke. Hearing Shintaro's thoughts on teaching judo for the last few episodes that were on the topic, I felt pretty good about how my instructor seems to think very similarly. Always thinking about the pedagogics and using his notebook to plan the program, sessions and effective teaching tools, asking himself what's important and useful and what's not, what makes sense holistically. He has prototyped teaching cues, methods and just in general progression and shaping the program for semester all summer because there's been only 1-2 of us but we've been attending almost every session.
I think you make a lot of good points and this sounds like a much better way to teach the holistic fundamentals of judo (not just putting a microscope on how throws work in isolation). I particularly like how your exercises are pairing people up giving them some light instruction and just letting them have a go at figuring out how to get that winning position/move their partner, and learn these fundamentals in context, without being super explicit (first do A, then B, then C, then D..), or at least thats what it sounded like you were talking about. Since you're thinking about pedagogy, you might be interested in The Combat Learning podcast, which goes talks a lot about how we can apply modern sports science pedagogy to martial arts training. Here is an episode where the host had on a Judo coach from the UK, Cal Jones, I think you might find some interesting ideas in here ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-6eoCL63WkTs.html Appreciate how much free content you put out, it's helped my Judo a lot!
Glad someone else brought up Eco and CLA. I've been doing classes in BJJ using CLA. I can do some stand up wrestling games but I suck at coming up witj judo games. Hope some more Judoka get involved besides Cal so I can learn from their ideas.
The drive from southern Illinois/ Indiana is a bit of a stretch for me.... could you send out some of your curated talent to open a judo gym, say, in Evansville? That'd be great, thanks!
In am starting Judo again after 20+ years away. I was a competing black belt with a background in wrestling. Most of my offensive techniques are now illegal. Should I consider starting over at white belt? I understand that black belt requirements may have changed also.
Lol, what Bjj does. Tried many first lessons at different places and they don't explain shit. You're seeing good clubs from an ambassadors view. Most clubs have nothing planned
Hey im a full time BJJ coach from Michigan. I love this style of podcast. Id love to hop on and discuss this type of thing with you. Hit me up, please! ❤
I'm 8 minutes in and paused to say, hell yeah, that is the one thing that always turned me away from judo. do an hour of bjj, another hour of muay thai, another hour of boxing, now get slammed down by someone that isnt paying attention to technique and risk a blown out knee.
Yes, but the question is what is the context of this question. Every country's system is different and every dojo has different resources. My dojo has kata classes where you for certain learn a leg lock, kata is mandatory for certain degrees of dan as well. Does "do they teach ground" mean newaza? Every dojo does newaza, they're mandatory for different belt degrees.
To clarify, my jiu jitsu gym also teaches some judo takedowns. Some. With both judo and bjj, there's just so much technical knowledge to learn. Usually, for good understanding and proficiency, you need to dedicate your learning on one at a time for a longer period of time. More than one or two weeks a year. Just my opinion, and that ain't much I guess..
Do you need learn breakfalls by rehearsing the throws. You practice the breakfall every single time someone practices a throw. So why train breakfalls by yourself as conditioning???
Breakfalls are a skill to not get hurt when thrown. It makes no sense to get thrown to learn to not get hurt by getting thrown. It is crucial for safe practice to learn breakfalls before getting thrown. Especially the older you start judo if you don't have any conditioning on impacts on your body, which almost nobody does. You need to learn to walk before you start running. And just like any skill, you need deliberate practice on the skill to improve it. And to get used to the impacts in a less hard format before you get thrown over the shoulder. And if you have started judo as a beginner with beginners, you know that the throws will not be well and consistently executed in the most gentle fashion, making them an awful place to practice breakfalls - you want to have learned to breakfall especially for that situation.
@@Yupppi breakfalls is just slapping the mat or holding your arms up. If the throws are controlled and not to crazy it seems super safe to start with o soto gari, o goshi, ko uchi gari etc etc. Uke can slowly get used to it. I have seen complete beginners get proficient in randori in a bit more than a monthh.
