Judo does a really trash job in conditioning compared to wrestling. Technique is one thing, but having an integrated conditioning routine like wrestling is really important and a lot of places don’t have that.
Another thing is sports aspect of Judo has led to the martial arts being diluted significantly. Same is the issue with TKD and Karate.
I agree. If I only have an hour to do judo, I want to do judo and not sit ups that I can do at home. Coaches should be more explicit about working out at least 2-3 times a week outside of judo
That happens even in wrestling, Muay Thai, and Boxing. It is just that these martial arts have specific workouts that are integrated with the training that helps them be better at that. Like Muay Thai and Boxing guys regularly do road work and jumping ropes. Wrestling guys do compound lifts.
Wrestling is a taxpayer funded martial art taught from middle school to college. They have full blown S&C programs to develop an athlete. In college and some states in high school, wrestling is damn near a full time job.
Judo is usually taught at your local YMCA by a volunteer or as a side class in a bjj school twice a week. If they started training like you would a real athlete, the class size would shrink by 90%.
This is very good and even ttue for western europe. Yes judokas can be tough as nails. As atheltic as elite wrestler but on average judoka clubs are far far far inferior in conditioning and athleticism than wrestling clubs. Especially western europe and even usa like u say, so many hobbyist judokas black belt from 18 to 45 lets say who definitely have a hobbyist mindset and approach and dont train nearly as hard as wrestling im this aspect.
When you’re new you can get all your conditioning from randori - just do more randori. When you’re high level randori stops improving your judo much and all your gains are from S&C. But that S&C routine has to be specific to you. The workouts of an uchimata player and a seoi player will be totally different. Basically one size fits all conditioning is useful for exactly no one in judo. It works better in American wrestling because 90+% of people have the same shot spamming style.
In wrestling, matches frequently last the entire 6 minutes, making superior conditioning a significant advantage. In judo, superior technique often ends the match within the minute.
That would make sense if the top Judo practitioners are not doing strength and conditioning. But they do strength and conditioning workouts equal to what top wrestlers do.
They do it because technique can only get you so far, especially in competitions where everyone more or less has equal level of skill.
There are also comments here saying that outside USA conditioning workouts are part of training. Which again indicates that strength and conditioning plays a really important role.
Conditioning certainly matters at the highest level of judo, but the ruleset doesn't emphasize conditioning to the same extent as wrestling. In judo, matches can end very quickly through superior technique, and skilled judokas often finish their initial matches within seconds. No amount of conditioning can compensate for a significant technical skill gap. In wrestling, however, competitors typically battle the full six minutes, meaning stamina matters more.
I disagree, judo is one of the combat sports where athletes are freakishly strong.
Outside of the US its on par with wrestling. I do agree with your point when it comes to USA judo but looking at Japan, France, mongolian, Korea. They have tons of integrated strength & conditioning.
Western europe even france there is mo discussion even possible, average judo club isnt your average wrestling club, i never saw any real wrestling club where anyone wasnt super strong, super shape, gymnastics freaks, but i know majority of judokas here western europe who are altough better than average, nowhere as strong nor athletic/conditioned as wrestlers. I feel judo is much more hobbyist gyms mindset vs real legit tough as nails gyms and athletes while wrestling is 95 to even 99 % even in europe hard as hell
Agreed. At a high level they are wrestling caliber but at a local level absolutely no comparison. Wrestling is seasonal for casuals but during that season it’s insanely conditioning focused.
I would agree for the opposite reason. I see a lot of Judo places that have suboptimal, overly long conditioning routines that don’t integrate Judo.
The good places, usually competition heavy with high level players, will have you doing hard drills rather than a lot of pushups and sit-ups and squats.
Most of them even in good judo countries like Netherlands belgium france....
Wrestling clubs i never saw anyone out of shape, they always strong, athletic as hell, for anything who trains moderately hard even...
Ofcourse on high level this dissappear, and olympic judoka or world-class are just as good as Wrestling dimg get me wrong
Same with BJJ. People talk about “adrenaline dumps” in competition. Funny how you never hear wrestlers talk about that. It’s just competition highlighting poor conditioning.
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u/ChurchofMarx Jul 06 '25
Judo does a really trash job in conditioning compared to wrestling. Technique is one thing, but having an integrated conditioning routine like wrestling is really important and a lot of places don’t have that.
Another thing is sports aspect of Judo has led to the martial arts being diluted significantly. Same is the issue with TKD and Karate.