Judo is making me skinny, I dunno if I’m losing muscle mass but my arms are so much skinnier compared to when I started. Is this a good or bad thing?

I hope the flair's correct, this being said... Greetings! Up to now I haven't competed due to two main reasons:

1)I'm 21 and I've picked up judo just a few years ago, there were/are almost no competitions for my level as most people my age have compete have already gained their first dan or are about to do so. 2) This is the main one, I'm a trans guy and have been on hormones for several years, however on my documents still state that I'm a female making me fall into the female's category. If I part-took in any match I'd result positive to doping (which would disqualify me from following the jury judge course I'm taking rn) and first and foremost it would be extremely unrespectful for any opponent as they'd go against someone doped compared to them.

In November I should get my documents rectified to the correct gender, making me eligible to go in matches against males from December to go on (also I got my blue belt recently opening up a new branch of matches I can sign up to). Hence I wanted to ask how's the competitions sector? What to expect?

Infos in case they're needed: I'm from Italy, I weight 60kg and I'm 153cm tall.

Edit: added info.

Note: The below is a bit of venting and hope seeking so I don’t get discouraged. I am so used to going to different MMA gyms or in general dealing with trainers who just aren’t good teachers. So, I am hoping I can get some insight to see if this is common or “off”. And I was a personal trainer and mentored at my IT job so I know good and bad teaching lol.

Beginner here, I’m a strong guy but I’d say I am not very coordinated lol. It takes me some tries but usually when I have something, I repeat it, feel it, then my brain doesn’t forget it. I can do this very quickly. I currently go to a Gi only Judo dojo. An issue I have noticed is that my sensei, and the black belts who help out, seem to forget to tell me important queues when teaching throws.

Something I will hear from one, I then learn an even more important aspect from another. Shoot, even a green belt kid told me the proper way to grip the Lapel. All of this is kindve scattered and “by chance” tip passings. Which I don’t mind but it seems too unstructured at times for such a steep learning curve martial art like Judo.

These are some really nice guys, Randori is fun and I learned the ground game aspect is my favorite. But as a man, it does get a bit tiresome to feel looked at as a silly boy when not getting something and sensei is almost puzzled as to what I am not understanding at times. The issue is so many important details are left out. Not to mention, they get confused when explaining because of the mirrored teaching of my right is their left lol. This is something I experienced ALOT especially im these environments but this seems to have a bit more hope to it.

Main point: I feel I will likely be filling in most of the gaps with online videos and readings. I currently take many notes. But all the little details are different, even the way they tie their belt is slightly different than how sensei shows it 😂(his looks right though). I am trying not to learn other tips just for him to tell me its not correct but he tends to miss telling me the parts about what my upper body is doing (not just my arms) while my lower body is doing something.

I want to know if anyone else experienced this? How did you deal with this if you did? What are some tips or visualization queues that helped you with the proprioception (footwork and pulling simultaneously).?

Figured I would write down my feelings right now, as I've hit a wall and I'm not sure if it's fixable. For context I'm 31 (32 in a few months). Whenever I train at full intensity I get the overwhelming need to throw up. I'm completely zapped of all energy and thought process, and sometimes I have to use every fibre of my being to not throw up.

This happens in competitions and in full intensity randori. I've been to two competitions where I was basically getting thrown around like a dirty towel. I didn't physically have the energy to be able to try anything, I spent all my time struggling to stay on my feet. Same with full intensity randori, I just get thrown around, I can't physically process what to try because it's all happening so fast for my brain.

After every session no matter how intense, I come home in pain. Back, legs, arms, neck. I find it difficult to climb into bed at night, and when I turn in the middle of the night I feel the pain. I think that between these two things, I'm just not cut out for martial arts. I'd just like to hear some opinions, maybe things I can try

Month 2 of judo since I picked it up with no martial arts experience.

Right now I have:

-cracked right toe bone (<not broken in half, just cracked> completely my fault, tried for a ko uchi and accidentally full force kicked my opponent in the shin)

-pain in left calf

-pain in right ankle

-lower back pain (from being slammed onto the tatami going up against a 100+ kg opponent)

-bleeding fingers

-pain in finger joints

-pretty sure I heard my right shoulder pop today trying for a tai otoshi and I lost all power in my right arm for a good 5 minutes, is back to normal now though

-pain in high left rib cage

Obviously have started taping my fingers and toes, and yes I have my cracked toe splinted and I am making sure to rest it and not agitate it. I am taking practices off recently to make sure it heals.

Just wanted to see if these types of injuries are common and typical in progression.

For context I'm not talking about the leg grab part, But my coach has said to me that this is head diving. But when I watch Judo on the TV it happens all the time. Does anybody know if this would be head diving or not?

Kano Jigoro’s teachings always contained reminders of the importance of personal improvement in all areas of one’s life.

With 40 years of experience teaching judo to children and a Master’s in Community Psychology, I felt it was time to publish before retirement.

The Poster represents our work in our dojo over the past three years. We are an after school program teaching kids ages 6-13.

Using the Kodokan Kodomo no Kata as the core curriculum, we have shown results consistent with the developers of the kata.

Additionally, we evaluated both the process and the results against the research based Risk and Protective Framework.

Please feel free to comment on this instructional model for kids that has demonstrated a decrease in injuries and an increase in student retention as well.

I just wanted to share this with the group. I’ve had it a few years. It was actually a Facebook find from some ladies uncles basement. I’m going to make a display for it. But I’ve never seen one with the box or the packaging from the store before.

Hey guys I stopped by an MMA place that charges $150 for a single specialty (whether it’s judo, jiu jitsu, boxing, etc.). The quality of instruction I got from my first day there was very good and I liked the feeling of being hands on and participating in grip fighting (they also have randori days). However, I was a little hesitant to join, because of the price and wanted to know if it’s too much.

One thing I notice about some Uchi-Mata is that a number of players will throw with a bent Tsurite wrist. How important is this for Uchi-Mata?

I would prefer to keep a strong straight wrist if possible as I feel putting pressure on it is quite uncomfortable. But if it actually helps with Uchi-Mata then maybe I need to just bite the bullet and try.

So I've been training in Judo as a beginner and haven't bought a Gi yet. (We've been practicing with just a shirt for a while). I want to buy a Gi but don't know how sizes work. I don't really know my accurate height and weight, but I can say I'm between 5'4 and about 80-90 kg in weight. I'm aged 20. Can you guys help me? Thanks.

Hello everyone! So for context, I've been cross training in judo and BJJ and stumbled across an issue I've been dealing with. I'm a little bit on the smaller side, (5'5" 66kg) and noticed that when I hold my partners down in kesa gatame in randori and rolling my back is able to be taken or it's easy for the opponent to escape (especially higher ranked BJJ partners). The position for me usually leads to a scramble. Are there any micro adjustments I can make to make my kesa gatame stronger for positional advancements?

Any one got any spots to train Judo between these areas? Or looking to train together or start a club?

My coach says the jigoku-jime/crucifix is osae-komi because you don't have leg control around the body. Is this true?

Hi everyone,

My question is, whether any of you specifically train or have tips/resources/strategies for the improvement of your grip fighting. I find this extremely difficult to do and I can't find any good resources for this. I have a book about Kumi Kata by Neil Adams, but it's just a collection of different gripping styles and possible techniques out of each position, which is not something that addresses the issue I'm having.

Let me try to precise my question a little. I have a bit of experience in judo so I'm not asking from a beginner standpoint. I have a well developed Repertoire of techniques (very precise Ashi waza, a good mixup of tai otoshi and uchi Mata, strong follow up techniques in transition from tachi waza to ne waza). I am also quite clear on what Kumi Kata Work for my Repertoire, mostly defaulting to standard sleeve lapel grip for most of my game. I'm also not a terribly bad judoka. even though my experience in shiai is limited I can mostly hold my water with strangers in randori when I go to cross club or federative randori trainings, because I'm quite versed technically and able to put in some nice suprise shots here and there.

However, what I struggle with is the following: whenever there's somebody who is a good grip fighter, or just knows how to deny my grip, or just steamrolls me with a punishing Kumi Kata that leaves me on defence, I have absolutely no clue what to do. I feel defenceless and more importantly I feel completely out of ideas on how to regain a more offensive posture to work for myself.

I have come to think that this is more related to a general lack of a game plan. I feel like I usually just assume default Kumi Kata and then work with whatever I'm given, but really don't really have an idea where I want to go, even though I am clear on what techniques I'm good at, I mainly just wait for the opportunity for them to come up rather than being able to build this opportunity for myself in Randori/shiai. Again, I'm not terribly bad at spotting these opportunities, but I'd like to be able to do more productive, proactive Judo.

My teacher (a good competitor in his youth) usually tells me to go fight more, because he himself has a more intuitive approach to judo and isn't really able to explicate what it that my judo is lacking. But first, I'm a hobbyist with a family to take care of and can't sacrifice too many of my weekends to go competing. And secondly I'm really more of a book smart sort of person who needs this explicit, strategic knowledge to approach my training. Just doing it more often until I eventually know how it's done doesn't work for me.

So, with all these caveats out there, does anyone have any tips on how to develop both a more strategic approach to grip fighting and/or a general more sophisticated game plan beyond just going in and seeing what happens?

Thanks in advance!

I have been doing Judo for a few weeks now. I love it. My teacher is perfect and never lazy or bothered to teach the newbie like I am.

Although, The Dojo is mainly Russian and my teacher mostly speaks russian. So when explaining techniques my teacher uses the russian names of techniques. I know the Japanese name of only one thing. Seoi Nage.

Is there a way to learn the Japanese names of the techniques? Like a site or a youtube channel.

Well I had my fingernail ripped off. Completely gone. No not at Judo. I had a large splinter go under my nail at work. Anyway just looking at ideas on what actual training i could still do. I can't even flex any fingers on that hand without the skin pulling on the injury. So far my main idea is just turn up to training and take social media material. Hit me up with some abstract ideas