How NOT to take a judo class.

[Blade96]

Just my judo story just to warn people.; I went to another judo class for beginners on thursday, was paired with this sensei who was so unfriendly didnt even bother to ask our names. anyways for me and a friend, Michelle, who I went with, it was pretty much her first class and my second time i tryed a judo thingy. anyways the sensei right away had us doing rolling breakfalls. He gave us no instructions not even teach it little bit by little bit except to say that we had to have our legs up high enough so we didnt land on our back. Anyways I couldnt (im shotokan and we dont do that) so my legs werent high enough and so i did fall on my bqack several times, hard. So now my back is injured and I need to go to the doc and my chiropractor to have it fixed. It hurts in my neck and back and i know its injured. I also have scoliosis in my back and one shodan who i knew said he didnt have any business teaching us like that nor did he ask any of us if we had back problems. but shodan couldnt do nothing cause this particular sensei was his senior.

 

[teekin]

Ohhh Blade I am sorry. Learning to do breakfalls correctly is tough to learn for most adults even with excellent instruction. I still suck at a front falls and straight rear falls. Everybody I know still practices like crazy. There are AssHats in every walk of life and in every sport. :mrtoilet: I am sorry you found one in Judo, I have found a few there as well but I am happy to report the good guys heavily outnumber the bad.

Lori

 

[jks9199]

That instructor's bad day or bad attitude led to injury. He was irresponsible and reckless with new students. I'd encourage you to make the senior instructors there aware of the problem before he really hurts someone...

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

Balde I am in agreement that the instructor appears not to have been teaching well based on your info. However, I personally would have concern for you practicing a hard throwing system like Judo if you already have serious back issues. I know many judoka and almost all of them had to give it up later in life due to the pounding stress of practiticing it. They all seem to have moved from Judo to another system that did not mess as much with their knees and their backs. Just some food for thought!

 

[Bruno@MT]

Balde I am in agreement that the instructor appears not to have been teaching well based on your info. However, I personally would have concern for you practicing a hard throwing system like Judo if you already have serious back issues. I know many judoka and almost all of them had to give it up later in life due to the pounding stress of practiticing it. They all seem to have moved from Judo to another system that did not mess as much with their knees and their backs. Just some food for thought!

Yes. I know several judo sensei, and while they don't like to talk about it in public, in private most are willing to admit that they have significant chronic problems problems. Judo is definitely not a good choice if you already have back problems. The back and the knees seem to be hit very hard.

 

[Makalakumu]

Judo is a great art for younger folk. I am going to be taking my six year old son to classes as soon as soccer is over. I know of very few people, if they haven't learned under someone who really embraces the "ju", who don't have chronic problems from long term practice.

Right now I train in Dan Zan Ryu Jujutsu along with my karate and that pairing is excellent. It's not a sport, so many of the throws that are practiced are taught in a way so as to not bust up your body.

I have a back injury and I am able to do these breakfalls just fine. It's a matter of learning them and scaling them so they don't cause injury. Look for a different teacher and see what happens.

 

[Bruno@MT]

Judo is a great art for younger folk. I am going to be taking my six year old son to classes as soon as soccer is over. I know of very few people, if they haven't learned under someone who really embraces the "ju", who don't have chronic problems from long term practice.

The big problem is that people are taught to resist, as well as making sure that they never land on their back. After all, that's an ippon and game over.
So they try to twist out of their fall and land in ways that are destructive to the body, but for which no or less points are awarded. That, combined with resistance, can cause significant joint damage over time.

Also, learning breakfalls as a youngster is easy because your body will recover much faster, and you will be much more supple and flexible, and not as heavy. So you can fall and get up without doing damage or hurting too much.

However, if you are older already, and have a bad back, then it will take you much longer to properly learn breakfalls, just because the initial hurting will last much longer.

 

[Makalakumu]

The big problem is that people are taught to resist, as well as making sure that they never land on their back. After all, that's an ippon and game over.

This is one of the reasons I won't train in judo anymore. If you fall properly, you lose. As far as self defense training, this is absolutely counter productive when attempting to defend against gravity.

When I do randori with my students, we go for the throw and counter, but if the other guy gets it, you go with it and fall correctly. I don't want to see any of this crazy twisting in the air to prevent landing on the back.

 

[zDom]

When I do randori with my students, we go for the throw and counter, but if the other guy gets it, you go with it and fall correctly. I don't want to see any of this crazy twisting in the air to prevent landing on the back.

Yep, that's the way to do it.

Judo's (the sport's) rules are flawed, IMO.

 

[Blade96]

Hi. I just got back from my doctor. She said I have torn muscles in my lower back and neck. I also spoke to the shodan

anyway I told the shodan to speak to head sensei if he is at judo tonight that i will go see him when he gets to the next class, when he goes so i can speak to him in person. I had the doc write down on paper what happened so I would have something to show him.

also found out the guy with the crazy teaching methods was certified but it was a very long time ago and with a completely different assiciation/organization that really didnt screen potential coaches very well.

 

[ArmorOfGod]

Did you sign an injury waiver? I am not suggesting sueing him, but if it happened like you stated, then it wouldn't hurt to scare him some.

Then, on the other hand, there is some amount of personal responsibility. After the first fall/throw (when the alarms went off in your head), maybe you should have stood up and walked out the door.

Still, that is easy for me to say on this end, not knowing how the events actually went down.

AoG

 

[ArmorOfGod]

Hi. I just got back from my doctor. She said I have torn muscles in my lower back and neck. I also spoke to the shodan

anyway I told the shodan to speak to head sensei if he is at judo tonight that i will go see him when he gets to the next class, when he goes so i can speak to him in person. I had the doc write down on paper what happened so I would have something to show him.

also found out the guy with the crazy teaching methods was certified but it was a very long time ago and with a completely different assiciation/organization that really didnt screen potential coaches very well.

I did my last post while you were posting, so I didn't get to read it before posting, but I will respond to this one though:
Why are you going back? You said he injured you and there are some certification issues, so why would you walk back into a building where things are not safe?

AoG

 

[Blade96]

There was no injury waiver. Maybe there woulda been one if I actually signed up and paid money to do Judo, but I hadnt, so there wasnt. I was just trying a class because my friend had no self confidence (being a rape victim) and i knew MA would be good for her, and she felt comfortable with me so, I did it with her. She didnt have enough confidence to do a class on her own with a room full of strangers.

Going back to talk to the head sensei to let him know what happened.

 

[ArmorOfGod]

I would just write him a letter since he needs to know what is going on, but I would never set foot in there again, much less take another class there.

AoG

 

[xJOHNx]

I know you try to do some good in the world by taking your friend to a self-defence class.
But if you knew you had back-problems and still went for a very "back"-intesive sport, you are kind of looking for problems.

If the teacher is really to blame, than blame him. If you are just mad because of what came out of it, talk to him about it and see where it goes.
Could be that communication was flawed and he really thought he was giving good instructions.

Best of luck with your recovery!!

 

[Blade96]

I know you try to do some good in the world by taking your friend to a self-defence class.
But if you knew you had back-problems and still went for a very "back"-intesive sport, you are kind of looking for problems.

If the teacher is really to blame, than blame him. If you are just mad because of what came out of it, talk to him about it and see where it goes.
Could be that communication was flawed and he really thought he was giving good instructions.

Best of luck with your recovery!!

:angel: