He did it again. This time with Judo.....

[Hanzou]

This video is really something..... I don't know where he found this Judo brown belt, but man this was hard to watch. I know that Judo takes a long time to learn, but that was a really bad display of the art.

I know this guy is trying to promote a journey through martial arts, but stuff like this just seems like style bashing. And while I can enjoy a little style bashing now and then, stuff like this seems..... cringe. I seriously have to ask, are videos like this good for the martial arts?

Hopefully some better Judoka can message him and do this video again.

 

[Tony Dismukes]

I don’t think the judoka did terribly, considering that he was giving up 40 pounds against his sparring partner. I also don’t think it’s really art bashing. Rokas does display some bias towards his chosen art, but he does his best to point out the things he likes about Judo and mentions that he thinks there is a lot to learn from the art.

What I do think is that the video isn’t terribly interesting or informative. Rokas is still a relative beginner along this path and he’s over generalizing from a small sample set. By the time he reaches black belt, he should have sparred with a lot of judoka, wrestlers, jiujiteiros, and representatives of other arts. Sometimes he’ll get his butt kicked, sometimes he’ll do the butt kicking. That’s how the process works. Right now he’s making a grand experiment out of one sparring session between relatively junior representatives of two arts who aren’t even matched up in size.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

Tony hit most of the main points, but there's even more. Let's make the assumption that the two were in the same weight class, and somehow sparring one person from another style is enough to determine which style is better/make judgment calls about the styles. Neither are true assumptions, but would need to be in order to make this video work.

He still was the wrong choice for that. One of the first things Rokas says is that the guy has been training for over a year in BJJ. Around here, a year in BJJ from someone who came from another grappling background, is probably when that person would be getting there blue belt. Which is the rank that Rokas says he is.

So basically it becomes a video of two BJJ novices, one who's a master in Aikido and the other who's an intermediate in judo, are sparring in different formats, and that's supposed to say something about the differences between BJJ and Judo.

If that wasn't odd enough, I skipped forward a bit to one of the formats, and saw that in the instance where the judoka won, they decided his throw wasn't 'judo' enough (despite seeming to be a perfectly legal judo throw), and he needed to go at it from a more judo standpoint. Then he gets in trouble for giving his back because he is acting like he's going against another judoka, despite them acknowledging that this is something most judokas realize their first time sparring against someone in BJJ. Sob y the time most Judoka have reached that level they should have learned (I hope) how to adapt to people with a ground specialty, and learned to adapt, yet this guy is not allowed to adapt his game.

There really doesn't seem to be any actual information that can be gained from this, and if there was, it would be a comparison of Aikido and Judo combined with BJJ rather than BJJ vs judo.

 

[Hanzou]

Tony hit most of the main points, but there's even more. Let's make the assumption that the two were in the same weight class, and somehow sparring one person from another style is enough to determine which style is better/make judgment calls about the styles. Neither are true assumptions, but would need to be in order to make this video work.

He still was the wrong choice for that. One of the first things Rokas says is that the guy has been training for over a year in BJJ. Around here, a year in BJJ from someone who came from another grappling background, is probably when that person would be getting there blue belt. Which is the rank that Rokas says he is.

So basically it becomes a video of two BJJ novices, one who's a master in Aikido and the other who's an intermediate in judo, are sparring in different formats, and that's supposed to say something about the differences between BJJ and Judo.

If that wasn't odd enough, I skipped forward a bit to one of the formats, and saw that in the instance where the judoka won, they decided his throw wasn't 'judo' enough (despite seeming to be a perfectly legal judo throw), and he needed to go at it from a more judo standpoint. Then he gets in trouble for giving his back because he is acting like he's going against another judoka, despite them acknowledging that this is something most judokas realize their first time sparring against someone in BJJ. Sob y the time most Judoka have reached that level they should have learned (I hope) how to adapt to people with a ground specialty, and learned to adapt, yet this guy is not allowed to adapt his game.

There really doesn't seem to be any actual information that can be gained from this, and if there was, it would be a comparison of Aikido and Judo combined with BJJ rather than BJJ vs judo.

I think the issue with the Judoka taking him down and him saying it wasn't a "Judo throw" is because in sport Judo you wouldn't be allowed to do a takedown that low. Everything else you said is spot on.

I don't know, the video just rubbed me the wrong way. I will say that stiff arming and be overly defensive being capable of stuffing Judo is an interesting thing to consider.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

I think the issue with the Judoka taking him down and him saying it wasn't a "Judo throw" is because in sport Judo you wouldn't be allowed to do a takedown that low. Everything else you said is spot on.

I don't know, the video just rubbed me the wrong way. I will say that stiff arming and be overly defensive being capable of stuffing Judo is an interesting thing to consider.

I went back and looked into that throw, and it does seem to be low. Having trouble finding if imanari roll is legal in judo or not, but you might be right about the reasoning. I'll nix that part of what I wrote until the end.

Regarding the stiff arming/being overly defensive; something to consider but only up to a point. The below is based just on my personal experience.

For most of college I trained with judoka and samboists as a striker. Depending on the day in question, we did an hour or two of either striking sparring, randori, or mixed. When it came to mixed, a strategy that worked very well was being defensive/stiff arming/putting my butt out to prevent a throw and create space. Then get back to my range. That worked basically up til judo black belt. At that point, playing defensive wasn't as useful, since they'd get me either when I stuck my butt out, or while I was stepping back.

To add an extra element to that, the guys that were decent strikers (and had trained there long enough to incorporate the two together), could also do a good job of using striking to open up their throws. So ultimately, at least in my experience, it only works on those that don't have striking experience, or aren't good enough at judo yet.

 

[Tony Dismukes]

Yep. Defensive stiff arming with the butt back (the “angry crab” as some of us call it) is common among lower level BJJ students who haven’t spent enough time working on takedowns. It works up until it doesn’t anymore against more skilled takedown artists. I don’t let my students waste time in that position because they aren’t really learning anything, especially if both sparring partners do it at the same time. I’d rather they try for a hundred throws and get countered 90 times than just hold each other at bay for 5 minutes and not even try anything.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

Regarding the stiff arming/being overly defensive;

Your opponent's stiff arms just give you a chance to break his grips apart. When you have 1 grip and your opponent has no grip, you will have advantage.

When your opponent starts to play defense, it's time for you to play offense.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

Your opponent's stiff arms just give you a chance to break his grips apart. When you have 1 grip and your opponent has no grip, you will have advantage.

When your opponent starts to play defense, it's time for you to play offense.

Agreed. Up until a point, judoka don't know how to do that. Once they get good enough, it no longer works.

 

[drop bear]

Your opponent's stiff arms just give you a chance to break his grips apart. When you have 1 grip and your opponent has no grip, you will have advantage.

When your opponent starts to play defense, it's time for you to play offense.

The issue is in training you are not training anything. Even within the context of that video. You are not showing anything.

It becomes pointless.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

The issue is in training you are not training anything. Even within the context of that video. You are not showing anything.

It becomes pointless.

When your opponent starts to move with you, you will have a lot advantage.

 

[Hanzou]

When your opponent starts to move with you, you will have a lot advantage.

Yep, then it's time to pull Guard!