Should I change my guard to leftie?

[u/nachetb]

Hey, so heres my story.

Ive been doing judo for two years now. I come from a striking background (Kyokushin karate) as a right handed striker (left foot forward). In my first year of judo, having no clue about the sport I spent the whole time mixing grips from left to right, thinking (in my karate mindset) I should be proficient with both. On my second year though, after learning more, I focused on sticking to only one guard, grappling right guard (righ foot forward) and practicing always the same throws.

Ive become much more comfortable with my stance, specially with turn throws and kumikata, but my feet movement still feels akward after years of having my left feet forward. Thing is, I want to learn judo for some years but mainly transition towards MMA long term. I was wondering, if I should relearn judo as a leftie for the sake of making striking/grappling transition eassier in the future or if it doesnt really matter which foot you use for each thing, I havent tried MMA yet and im not proficient in grappling enough to really have an answer, whats your opinion?

[u/[deleted]]

One of the revolutionary concepts when Judo was created was the idea of bilateral development - left and right side. You’ll need to throw both right and left hand for your shodan test and, if you’re right handed, adding some left hand attacks will help you in randori and possibly shiai.