# Anybody in here train in Freestyle Judo?



## Brandon Miller (May 6, 2019)

Was curious if anyone has ever trained or currently trains in freestyle judo? I’m thinking of joining this freestyle judo school www.judokai.net

What’s freestyle judo like?


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## jobo (May 7, 2019)

Brandon Miller said:


> Was curious if anyone has ever trained or currently trains in freestyle judo? I’m thinking of joining this freestyle judo school www.judokai.net
> 
> What’s freestyle judo like?


looks intriguing,  it presumably means you can turn up in any old clothes you havego judging by the pictures and is a cross between several grappling arts . give it a go


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## Martial D (May 7, 2019)

Brandon Miller said:


> Was curious if anyone has ever trained or currently trains in freestyle judo? I’m thinking of joining this freestyle judo school www.judokai.net
> 
> What’s freestyle judo like?


Do it.


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## Tony Dismukes (May 7, 2019)

Looks worth checking out.


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## Deleted member 39746 (May 7, 2019)

Never heard of it until now, but then there are plenty of obscure people who teach who do pretty well and obscure systems out there and such.   

Couldn't hurt, they offer a few different styles of grappling by the look of it.   I would definately go and give it a looksky if i was in the area.


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## jobo (May 7, 2019)

Rat said:


> Never heard of it until now, but then there are plenty of obscure people who teach who do pretty well and obscure systems out there and such.
> 
> Couldn't hurt, they offer a few different styles of grappling by the look of it.   I would definately go and give it a looksky if i was in the area.


what really, you would attend a class, ?


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## mcmoon (Jun 7, 2019)

A little late but I have trained at this school.  They only teach judo but it is freestyle judo (basically scoring slightly different and leg grabs are legal).  Will take off the gi sometime and do some nogi.  Head instructor is a past wrestler as well so will show a lot of wrestling in newaza.


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## JP3 (Jun 8, 2019)

I started hearing of freestyle judo about 10 years ago. Here in Texas, it was brought up in an AAU context. Judo itself was undergoing a lot of changes here in Texas, with people struggling to get interest in it as a sport, physical education for kids & adults, a lifetime fitness thing like Dr. Kano envisioned.

The problem is, that if you don't know what you're looking at, judo matches are very often really, really boring. Two dudes walk out (it could be two gals as well, or a guy and a gal, whatever) and the ref starts the match, and they circle each other for what can be an interminable time playing slappy-hands (I know it's kumikata, grip-fighting... but the average know-nothing has no clue what they are doing or why) then they get a hold of one another.... someone does something and they both stumble to the ground and start to roll around on each other grunting and groaning and then the ref gets bored, stands them up and it starts all over again.


The above is about 80% of a typical juniors judo tournament. It's bad TV, lemme tell ya. If you know what's up, the experience is way different.

So, Freestyle Judo was created, to sort of get things sped up, more lively, etc. That's the explanation I got, anyway. It's a change in the rules, witht he underlying judo almost exactly the same. Throws, armbars, chokes... but the hold-down win goes away because that's the "bad TV." Of course, it's a significant portion of the curriculum, but hey. You don't win with osaikomi-waza… but you can use it to work to submit your opponent, much like a BJJ match. Pin 'em, hold 'em and they get tired because you're cutting off air, and meanwhile work for a submitting choke or arm bar.

The rule system we were playing with was expiremental, it was a timed round, with nothing being the "Winning Technique" like the Ippon in a traditional match. What would have been an Ippon was, for another example, a 5-point technique, but you still had to fight to submission to get the actual "Win." So, you didn't throw a guy to win, you had to submit him to win if you didn't want to face the scorekeeper for the decision.  Like I said, experimental, and we didn't do it a lot. I don't think it ever got much traction because we stopped hearing abou it.


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