Self defense is mostly obsessively talked about by low level players who throw out 1000 different what ifs no matter what rules/martial art is discussed. realistically, i think if you take judo or any combat sport seriously for 2-3 years your chances are pretty okay if youre about the same size. more realistically though youll never have to defend yourself and if you do it's not against some D1 football player, it's the scrawny homeless guy or someone with nothing to lose not some 5x pro boxing champion. this isnt ufc 1.
USA Judo should encourage a hobbyist community instead of trying to win world medals . build the population then the medals will come far easier. they could look at basically any other martial arts club to see this.
Most coaching is bad in USA and focuses too much on teaching a throw vs where to put your hands, grip fight, move across the mat, etc. some guys are performing poorly mostly because their coach never told them much besides "put your foot here for the uchikomi". tell them how to actually move breakfall, grip, etc.
crosstraining can make you perform worse or better in judo. it really depends. and it's not the general path for higher level players.
rolling through should be scored as ippon. isnt popular on this sub but thats my opinion. all someone did was enjoy the ride of a throw. from a self defense pov we can critique all sacrifice throws and even doubles/singles where the player hits their own head on the mat at some point (ive seen this plenty of times in other grappling sports). on concrete maybe thats a bad idea. what ifs are why martial debates end up in a cycle.
Self defense is mostly obsessively talked about by low level players who throw out 1000 different what ifs no matter what rules/martial art is discussed. realistically, i think if you take judo or any combat sport seriously for 2-3 years your chances are pretty okay if youre about the same size.
As someone with almost 2 decades in grappling and self defence training i think this is a dangerous mindset. "Good enough" is a bad attitude towards self defence particularly in grappling arts
As an absolute minimum, if you haven't trained your Judo against a training partner trying to punch you then you arent prepared for self defence. The absolute fundamental of entering the clinch against strikes is not something that comes naturally and it is easy to absorb serious punishment or be knocked out by someone totally inexperienced while trying to do so
Also, the other extreme is true. If you arent consciously aware of your ability to accidentally seriously injure or kill someone with a throw then you are not prepared for self defence. You need to train a specific gameplan for someone trying to punch you or attack you, and it must be a gameplan which uses a high percentage takedown safe for both you and your entirely untrained opponent
Judo does not teach many takedowns which are safe for an entirely untrained opponent. It is one of my primary criticisms of Judo for self defence
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u/JaguarHaunting584 Jun 08 '25 edited Jun 08 '25
Self defense is mostly obsessively talked about by low level players who throw out 1000 different what ifs no matter what rules/martial art is discussed. realistically, i think if you take judo or any combat sport seriously for 2-3 years your chances are pretty okay if youre about the same size. more realistically though youll never have to defend yourself and if you do it's not against some D1 football player, it's the scrawny homeless guy or someone with nothing to lose not some 5x pro boxing champion. this isnt ufc 1.
USA Judo should encourage a hobbyist community instead of trying to win world medals . build the population then the medals will come far easier. they could look at basically any other martial arts club to see this.
Most coaching is bad in USA and focuses too much on teaching a throw vs where to put your hands, grip fight, move across the mat, etc. some guys are performing poorly mostly because their coach never told them much besides "put your foot here for the uchikomi". tell them how to actually move breakfall, grip, etc.
crosstraining can make you perform worse or better in judo. it really depends. and it's not the general path for higher level players.
rolling through should be scored as ippon. isnt popular on this sub but thats my opinion. all someone did was enjoy the ride of a throw. from a self defense pov we can critique all sacrifice throws and even doubles/singles where the player hits their own head on the mat at some point (ive seen this plenty of times in other grappling sports). on concrete maybe thats a bad idea. what ifs are why martial debates end up in a cycle.