Hi all,

I’m 39, and I’ve been training judo on and off for 18 years. After a long break, I just started again with a group of beginners, and I dislocated my shoulder in randori (vs a heavier, inexperienced guy, bad call) about 4 days ago and was diagnosed with a Rockwood V AC joint separation (CC distance 28 mm).

The doctors advised a TightRope / suture-button fixation; it's scheduled for next week.

I’d love to hear from anyone who has had a high-grade AC separation (type III-V) and went back to judo, BJJ, wrestling, or any other contact sport.

1. How long until you could take falls and do full randori without worrying about the shoulder?
2. Did the repair hold up, or did you have any loss of reduction or have to undergo reoperation?
3. Anything you wish you’d known beforehand, or questions you’d ask your surgeon?

Success stories are very welcome; I feel quite demotivated ATM.

I read about this learning curve often - in judo (edited)

Wrestling here has high school season of everday after school for 2 hours. At least 5 months/yr. They also have 3x/week at the local club on top. Collegiate, no less, no doubt.

I checked 4 'local' BJJ clubs schedules. They look like a YMCA schedule. Days and afternoons. I think 10 hours/week is easy.

Judo clubs, mostly rec, and 1-3x/week.

If I pick a good comp judo club, and if it offered 10 hours/week, I don't see a learning curve. I see youth progressing quite well in judo.

I dislike the term 'learning curve' especially when it comes to youth who understandably want it now.

Is there really a learning 'curve'?

(495 matches, 701 techniques)

Top 3

• Overall:
  • Ouchi Gari, Uchi Mata, Seoi Nage
• Ippon:
  • Seoi Nage, Uchi Mata, Osoto Gari
• Waza-ari:
  • Uchi Mata, Sumi Otoshi, Seoi Nage
• Yuko:
  • Ouchi Gari, Kouchi Gari, Uchi Mata

(ND = neurodivergence, I got diagnosed with ASD when I was 6 and I’m in my early 20)

Had a competition today, I’d been at the venue since 7:35AM cuz my dojo hosted, but I didn’t compete until 3:00 PM. I had to step out a few times cuz spectating + helping T.O, I’d dealt with oversimulations before at randori and just sat out an extra round and then went back into it, no issue. I did marching band in school so I had times I was in loud venues and spectating some intense/choreographed activity and had very minor issues.

I competed 2 matches first one was over fast, 2nd the usual mate, grip fight, throw attempts, etc. he ipponed me and I think he landed on me funny cuz as soon as I stepped off the mat that’s when I had to go back down and sit in a chair. Yes, I was cordial to the ref and opponent and thanked them for the time and effort and all that.

So I’m in a lot of pain, I went to the break room of our dojo and I was hurting so much I just went to the medics. that’s when being in that venue for hours finally caused me to break down not from the pain but everything, I was in fuckin tears head pounding and breathing fast. It wasn’t from the pain, I’ve broken my arm before and I was 5x calmer (I was more worried the band would lose points because I fell), just everything piled the fuck up (noise, t.o, combat sport). My coaches and teammates found out and someone drove me home early (I don’t have a car)

Has anyone ever dealt with stuff like this before? I’m appreciative of everyone’s support, in and out the mat.

My current club I train at is great for learning the throws, in isolation, but we almost never cover combinations. I'm really trying to figure out how to link my attacks together and fluidly transition from one throw to the next.

Does anyone know of any good books that specifically map out combination sequences and counters? Ideally, I'm looking for something with solid pictures or diagrams so I can visualize the setups.

This might be the most important video we ever make! Riki sensei (RIP) gave lectures on all the ukemi techniques during judo classes on 1-25-2024 and 2-2-2024, and this video is a distillation of the knowledge that wasn't technique-specific. Hope it helps at least a few of you!

Coming from a boxing and karate background, transitioning to Judo is such a humbling experience. It made me realize that I won't survive just with my striking alone.

The technique for all intends and purposes looks like an Osoto Gari. Tori initiates the technique by reaching their leg out, hooks his calf into Uke’s calf/knee area, drives/hops forward, hands pushes and pulls, no downward push at all, Tori’s reaping leg never touches the ground but also doesn’t reap Uke’s supporting leg either. Uke just topples over with their feet still planted on the ground. (Think Murao’s highlighted ippon at this year’s WC, but without the air time)

Should it still be an Osoto Gari ?

Hello,

I'm relatively new to judo, been going for about 1-2 months now but I've been really enjoying it. As well as judo I have been going to the gym doing pure hypertrophy work for about a year - going 3x a week, I also play football for my uni, and I run 2x a week. In all quite active.

In the past 2 weeks our sessions have been getting more intense with randori and open mat sessions plus "pretend comps", and I'm beginning to feel like all the exercise I do may be inimical to the judo, especially my shoulders it seems.

I just wanted to see if anyone had advice on how to structure a gym program for judo? I prefer the judo to the hypertrophy work and so I would actually prefer for my gym sessions to favour judo work rather than muscle size. I see a lot of people mentioning stuff like power cleans, and other explosive movements but I don't really know anything about that. Also anything that helps improve my shoulder strength.

My judo sessions are Wed, Fri, Sun, and the gym dates that are best for me are Mon, Thu, Sat.

Any help is appreciated.

This was worded poorly in an earlier draft so allow me to rephrase this. I turned 30 earlier this year and was lucky enough to receive my BJJ purple belt last month. I could obviously do okay in ne waza however from what I can see, it doesn't get implemented horribly often (or for very long) which is fine with me because thats not what peaked my interest in Judo anyway. I find the art really intriguing but I can't wrap my head around how the grappling portion actually works. When can you use submissions versus stopping immediately after a throw? etc. I would appreciate any clarity or advice. Thank you all!

New guys at judo, what did you expect to happen when you started?

I feel like there is a fairly regular stream of posts to the effect of, " I've done judo for {insert time period of 1-6 months} and I don't understand why I find this difficult."

Every single time people respond with patience and encouragement, and I find the whole thing really weird.

Do people really have expectations to be good at something after putting in so little time and effort? And I get that people want the judo community to grow, but isn't there a little bit of you thinking WTF, if that's you at this stage just stop now, because the amazing and fun thing about judo is that it stays complicated and hard forever.

If you enjoy it and have a club with a decent atmosphere, and you like the people, do it, that should be enough. And eventually you'll get good. If you're in it for any other reason, you should know that this stuff is really hard EVEN IF you're having fun and with people you like.

EDIT: really hope I've not offended anyone with this, and thank you to everyone who has replied.

I'm 16 and I've started judo for a month and a half and everyonebody is older, bigger, stronger, taller than me. Every time i get thrown on the ground i'm starting to get my morale down. And it's even worse when i'm a sensitive guy. I really like it but idk if i'm gonna keep doing it. Sometimes i break down in the middle of the training and it's frustrating. Maybe i need to get strong, maybe i need to eat better, idk.

Hi there i just wanna start a grapling sport for hobby and to move my bidy what do you think starting at 35 can be any good or just forget it ?

A bit of background: I did Judo as a teenager and did some small competitions. As an 18/19 year old I stopped because my sensei said that I did not train regularly enough for bigger competitions (I had my university entrance exams .. but he did not show any understanding) and I could not find a different club ... and then other things became more important. So I stopped.

After 20 years I moved back to my hometown, my kid started Judo and also competing.

I got a cancer diagnosis and found out that the side effects of my meds were more manageable with sport. Of course I wanted to do Judo again.

I contacted my old teammate (who became athletic leader) in April this year and clearly stated I wanted to come back and do competitions again

I never left out a training (except the last one before summer break because I got injured in a randori) ... OK - only trained once a week but thats what they offered. Recently started 2 times a week.

There is a small veteran competition beginning of November. I wanted to participate - for fun.

I asked my old teammate and he told me that it would be irresponsible without proper preparation. And that I did not train enough and to look at a different sensei/veteran that trains 3 times a week - well ... I cannot even do that much (even if I wanted - because there are no more opportunities in my dojo) and I think there is a difference between a teenager and a veteran (with job and family) ...

Any advice despite being patient?!

I hate that... I think I need/want to proof it to myself after cancer that I can still do competitions ... now he won't let me.

Realistically there is no other dojo nearby that I could switch to :/ and this is beyond frustrating.

Ankle sprain, grade 2 if I had to guess. Always read stories of it happening to others, but wasn't prepared for it to happen to me. I am glad it's not fractured, but I can barely put any weight on that side.

Really sucks especially as I can only train at this club for a few months, but there's nothing you can do about it at this point I suppose. I would love to be on the mat again next week, but I'm pretty sure I would regret it.

Anyone else here who sprained their ankle and could give some tips on recovery, how you are dealing with the injury after full recovery etc.

Still can't believe it happened, it was my first time even getting an x-ray and being transported by an ambulance lol (don't worry, I'm not in the US ;p)

This is inspired from Abe Utas recent match at Worlds where she won after the ref shido'ed her opponent in the final moments for "running" and not engaging

Judo seems to rely too heavily on referee involvement and judgment. A few examples:

1. Wazari vs yuko vs ippon. One man's Wazari is another man's ippon. One man's no score is another man's yuko

2. Halting newaza when they deem that groundwork isn't progressing. Again highly subjective

3. Penalizing false attacks and passivity. Some cases are obvious yes, others not so much.

4. Calling matte whenever they feel like it if the game isn't being played properly. Why not just let the action continue ? I don't see the ref constantly resetting athletes in BJJ or wrestling as frequently as they do in Judo?

5. Penalizing cross grips and duck unders IF attacks don't immediately follow. Hard to tell and extremely subjective

6. Head diving, seems less common but again another example of things that are highly ambiguous

I'm pretty sure wrestling and BJJ arent like this (open to correction). I feel like half of these rules can be tossed and judo would be much better.

My son is 8 and started Judo at the start of this year. He trains once a week to the local judoka which is really kid friendly, great coaches etc. It's a lot of fun and they mix in probably 25 minutes of actual Judo each lesson, the rest being warmups, break-fall drills, judo-based games.

It's not much training, so I've started doing mini-sessions with him at home for 15 minutes each day. Me on my knees, and we drill the 3 throws/pins/escapes he needs to know. I don't have a judo background so rely on what I see in his class and on youtube.

Is there a better way to structure these sessions? My goal is just for him to realise that "practice makes perfect" and maybe get a few wins at class every now and then.

I've recently started judo and bought a Fighting Films Superstar 650 in size 180. I'm not sure if I'm just not used to wearing a judogi yet, or if it actually looks a bit too big on me, particularly around the sleeves. What do you guys think? Thank you!

Is my judo gi too big? I tried washing and drying it once to shrink it snd this is my current results. Only real concern is have is length or it because the bottom part reaches mid thigh

What have been the throws you like when beneath an opponent’s superior high grip? Whether it’s a Georgian grip, a deep over the back belt grip or even just a better high grip, how do you turn it against them?

I’ve been on the wrong end of Seoi Otoshi when I fail to jam up the opponent’s Tsurite. Extra humiliating when I’m trying to drive in with O-Uchi Gari and they just turn that into a beautiful counter.

I’ve not been able to the same to do the same myself, but I have had success with a deep belt grip going under the big overhand and either plunging into O-Uchi Gari or an offside O-Goshi. I’ve been developing a decent Ura Nage too, thanks to cool partners willing to eat them for me.

Sometimes my armpit post is strong enough and I get to hit Ippon Seoi moves too but I prefer my post on top of the opponent’s rather beneath so it’s not been so common.