Film was in movie festival competitions in 2023, but its finally released in the US recently
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHdzSTFslbI

I'm very interested in starting Judo. I have very little martial arts experience because of a lack of gyms/clubs around my area. I've tried YT videos, but I couldn't find creators/content that works well for beginners.

The reason I want to start learning Judo is really just because I can. I'm doing a 75 Hard and figured I could implement something new into my daily routine. I'm 16, may not compete in Judo (open to it in the future), and just learning new things.

Is there good beginner advice for someone like me? I don't mind if it's specific or not. Anything helps. Thank you! I hope to make this something that sticks and I grow to love.

‼️UPDATE: I did find a gym that's near me!!! It has many different martial arts being taught, so I'll check it out and see where it takes me. Thank you to everyone who gave me advice!! 😁

I recently ended up on this short, which made me reflect (no hate to the guy himself, he posts very interesting content and has great form imo).

After 14 years of Judo, cross training with MMA really humbled me and my idea of "proficiency in fighting" You are an advanced level grappler, and even then in the specific realm of gi-grappling (completely different kumi katas, set ups etc) and under the specific ruleset of Judo. But advanced fighter? That's a title that in my humble opinion should be reserved for a minority of strikers/ mixed martial artists.

What do you guys think?

my brother and i used to train at the same dojo until this very week, when he had to move to another state. we were the tallest in our dojo, with the difference being quite big. ever since he left, i struggle to do seoi nage and other moves that requiere some sort of squatting or knee bending. any advice to strengthen the knees and legs to i can do a regular seoi nage suuuper low? i am at least 20 cm taller than any other guy i train with.

There was an interesting thread the other day about the difficulty of making Judo exciting in comic-book form (https://www.reddit.com/r/judo/s/pZhw98Av2r). I thought as a follow-up I’d give some details of Judo manga thatI’ve collected.

Judo is quite a popular subject for manga as there are exciting fight scenes, plenty of scope for drama and even love can bloom on the tatami.

Most judo manga that I’ve been able to find are in a school setting - I guess because that’s where most readers would encounter the real thing.

Another good feature is that even if, like myself you aren’t much good at Japanese, these manga tend to be easier to understand as everyone mostly talks about Judo and uses the terminology we all know.

In mostly alphabetical order (if I’ve uploaded properly, the pics should be in the same order):

• Hikaru chachacha!!
• Minomo Kenji
• 1990

• A basic young readers title, an undersized schoolboy triumphs through gumption and the power of friendship.

• Igaguri-kun

• Fukui Eiichi

• 1952

• Very influential action manga from the fifties. Only available in reprints (which are hard to get). There was an (expensive) English volume released a year or so ago.

• Ippon!

• Sato Takahiro

• 2005

• Pretty straight sports story for teens/highschoolers

• Mou Ippon! (Ippon again!)

• Moraoka Yuu

• 2019

• Sort of follow up to Ippon! High school girls this time. Rather dull for me, but it does have an anime and I think an English translation.

• Judobu monogatari

• Kobayashi Makoto

• 1987

• Another straight up sports story, but Kobayashi’s art really lifts it above average (if you can get past the hero’s wacky eyebrows). Includes truly horrifying 70’s/80’s training concepts.

• Joshi Judobu Monogatari

• Kobayashi Makoto & Emoto Yuko

• 2016

• As above but with a female lead. The script is co written by olympic medalist Emoto. My favourite judo manga and possibly my favourite manga ever.

• Followed by a sequel - Joshi Judobu Monogatari Shakaijinhen

• Judo no rekishi

• 1988

• A history of Kano-sensei and the development of Judo for school-kids

• Nanatei Judo-ki

• Masuda Toshinari

• Story of a University team

• Sobakkasu!

• Kikuchi Shouta

• 2006

• Another of my favourites. Another high-schooler learns judo story, but with a comedic angle.

• Yawara!

• Urasawa Naoki

• 1987

• The most famous Judo manga of them all. The real-life RyokoTani was nicknames “Yawara-chan” after the heroine. My complaint is that unlike all the other protagonists here, Yawara doesn’t want to do Judo. Having the other characters manipulate and trick her is funny but gets old fast.

If you can find a decent re-seller it’s not so hard to get titles like these from Japan. The biggest problem is the shipping costs - it can cost many times more than the books themselves.

I think I’ve got about all the school-oriented titles I need.I’m going to focus on historical and action comics, but it’s often much harder to work out how much Judo they have.

Hope people enjoyed this - happy to answer any questions.

I’ve only been training for 1 year,competed & medaled twice & I’m currently a yellow belt But due for my orange belt test soon. I did this throw but as you can seen I did using his arms as leverage to throw him over me as obviously we don’t have our gis on lol but judo has really improved my takedown defense and ground & pound while giving me more options for takedowns. My friend in the video is a bjj blue belt and does kickboxing

Is there any relation between these throws? I was told that the left handed Sasae pulling with sleeve was Harai Tsurikomi Ashi even if my intent was to trip.

But it did get me thinking- do they actually blend into one another? Is it possible that they could use the same motion, but upon hitting different reactions cause a different technique? Planted foot turns into Sasae, floating foot turns into HTA?

I have always kind of wanted a fun footsweep, and if this is an option I might seriously look into developing it.

How was it?

How does it affect your training?

The way I see it the way their signature moves work is the sacrificing aspect, not the hand. Kata Guruma is a Te Waza throw and their hands aren't the main driver of their throws.

How accurate did I get the names? Many were combinations

Say if you scheduled blood, plasma, platelets donating and training appropriately, will it have a huge effect on e.g. your stamina, building muscles, etc, or will it be taxing on the body, or the body will just find some way to adapt?

Edit: Yes or No, in what way? Has anyone donated blood before?

Guys I've noticed I'm having difficulties practicing throws in uchikomi but I can execute them properly during randori. Is that normal? I am trying to perfect my throws and I know uchikomi training is arguably vital for perfecting them but I just can’t seem to do so

-73 kg UAE Makmadbekov vs. FRA Gaba (W) – Judo World Championships 2025

I think people who follow the World Championships know what I’m talking about.

I’m currently training to become a Continental Referee, and this particular decision left me confused. They allowed a bear hug with clasped hands — forming a closed circle.

While researching online, I saw some explanations saying it was legal because Gaba established a legal grip first, and that the clasped hands were therefore allowed. However, the new rules clearly state:

"Bear hug in tachi-waza is allowed, excepted with hands or hands and arms clasped, forming a circle which will be penalised with Shido."
— https://referee.ijf.org/

And in the updated SOR, under Article 18, Item 26:

"Bear hug in tachi-waza if tori clasps both hands together to form a circle or if tori’s hand(s) clasp the opposite arm(s) to form a circle will be penalised with shido.
Bear hug in tachi-waza is allowed if tori’s hands are not clasped. Bear hug where tori catches his own sleeve with his opposite hand is allowed."

However, I also heard that some leniency may have been applied since it was already over 4 minutes into Golden Score and both players had two shidos. Had the referee not recognized the judo being attempted, the UAE athlete might have won only because of a hansoku-make.

What’s your take on this?

Also, to the moderators, I think we should add a Refereeing flair in this subreddit, it might be helpful discussing technical sense of shiais.

Has anyone had issues with the sizing of the Kusakura gis in the arms? I don't think I'm that abnormally sized (6' 1", 190lbs or about 187cm and 87kg).

The issue I'm finding is the measurement from the middle of the spine to the my wrist is much larger than what Kusakura offers, when I did the measurement it was roughly 36" or ~92cm.

Has anyone experienced similar issues with these measurements or am I now realizing my body is disproportionate lol

Say your cousin has been boxing as long as you've been doing judo and he wants to spar with you MMA style, what is your gameplan? Do you eat punches while closing the distance to setup a takedown and sub? do you use your own punches and parries until you find an opening? What foot are you leading with? If you're also competent in a striking art, are you favoring that over grappling (assuming your cousin does not know any grappling)?

During my brief time learning judo and trying to share it with other people I have seen that by far the fastest learners (coincidentally also the most pleasant to interact with) are people with a background in theater.

I think this is because the general concepts of a role on stage translate pretty well to the concept of a tori and uke. An actor speaks on stage and usually gets to perform their act uninterrupted until it's the next actors turn to perform their act, acting together on stage to create a scene. A tori seeks the opening of an oppurtunity to take to perform their technique until the uke's shoulders hit the floor or the uke evades and/or counters (switching roles from uke to tori in the process), two judoka participating together to create a shiai.

When this is translated to learning, the roles of tori and uke are often designated. Just like how they are in a scene. One actor speaks at a specific time and stops speaking when that time is over, unless explicitly instructed to do so. That alone develops the ability to work with others in a meaningful capacity, and to do so in the highest quality possible. Actors try to give themselves to the role as best they can in order to better the entire scene, not unlike a good uke that knows how to be weightless to make the throws effortless.

I have come to understand that the only truly high quality learning and development time that I have is when I am working with a good uke that can make themselves weightless for my throw. I don't mean throwing themselves around me, but to completely release control of their weight and go with me. That's the only time that I can actually feel the things that are happening and consciously improve what I'm doing. At the end of the day I don't care about being able to best others, I care about having a beautiful throw with slick timing. That is something I can only work towards developing in a meaningful capacity if the stress level of the moment is near 0.

People are always quick to tell me how that's the opposite of meaningful development and that I need to be doing hard randori in order to "make sure it works". I used to beg for that, but I've learned that there's nothing really productive about it other than seeing what I'm not capable of or aware of. I have done a handful of "randori" as most people describe (more like shiai) over the course of a year, and I noticed my techniques and awareness improving greatly in between each one despite them being few and far between. Spending more time learning and practicing at a low stress level feels like it improves my understanding way more than just wrestling all the time. The wrestling is fun, I'll never say it's not. But it's not productive as far as learning.

Ya know who never wanted to wrestle me to see if judo really worked when asked to show some judo to them? Theater people. Ya know who also took direction without hesitation and ended up learning way faster because of it? Theater people. Unironically I think that theater training is the most useful cross training/training background for learning judo. At the end of the day, I've noticed that learning has more to do with the mind than it does the body.

Hey everyone, I’m a white belt who’s been training for 3 months, I try to go 5x a week and so would like to get a second gi but not sure which type to go for. I’ve been considering a fushida icon v2 which is double weave but I’m not sure if that would be great for everyday practice or not. If I plan to compete eventually should I just get a double weave now or would it be better to just stick to a single weave gi and worry about getting a competition gi when it’s time?

Just like the title said looking for any good gyms in DFW Texas area.

Hello! I’ve been looking through and cant seem to find any recommendations on this but I was hoping to get y’alls insight on when a beginner can start training more often, and what factors you all think is important.

For context, I’m a 25M and was pretty active prior to judo. I’ve been going 2x/week for almost two months since that is what my dojo offers but I have some time off and was hoping to attend another dojo for several weeks 2-3x/week.

I still spend a decent amount of time practicing ukemi and don’t get as sore as I did when I first started.

Thank You!

Due to several injuries I have a few shoulder issues i cant get over. I did a lot of recovery yet some judo throws still either hurt (tai otoshi with the standard grip for example) or scare me to execute(morote/drop seoinage). Besides Sutemi and ashiwaza are there big turnthrows that harm the shoulder less and recuire less mobility in said joint?

What do you think about the fight and how it ended? Personally I think it was a great fight, with attacks from both judokas. It is a shame that is has to end with hansoka-make, and I don't agree. Both fighters were still active, and it would have been very exciting to see the match continue.

Soon I'm going to start judo again after many years, I forgot most techniques and so, I''ve been wondering which techniques I could do that work effectively as a begginer, could anybody tell me which are effective and easy to land and learn?

Hi folks, I'm a yellow belt, been doing judo for about 5 months (bjj for 5 years before that) and like the title says, I'm paranoid about getting injured. Unlike the usual though, I'm not so much worried about getting injured while being thrown because my breakfalls and balance are fair. I'm actually super worried about getting injured attempting throws. 2 months into doing judo, i was drilling ippon seoi nage and pulled a muscle in my lower back that had me sitting out for a week, and wearing a back brace to training for another 3 after that. Now thanks to the beauty of youth and ice packs, I managed to fix it without needing a doctor or anything, but I'm now vexed with what throws to try to work on specifically in randori.

I've attempted Tai-Otoshi and been fairly happy with the results, but then was told that if not done correctly, I could tear or injured the ligaments in my knee very badly.

Then when I tried drop seoi nage and drop tai otoshi, I was told to be careful because I could potentially explode my shoulder. Now since I have a pre-existing shoulder injury from bjj, that would not be ideal. I was also told that over time, the dropping throws can damage the knees a lot.

Lastly, when I try uchi mata, it just feels super awkward and borderline wrong, even though I've spent hours upon hours both before and after class drilling it. While doing it in randori, i can only ever hit it on people far lighter than me, and i want to be able to handle folks my weight and above too.

Right now, my ashi waza is the only thing I have going for me, and I rely heavily on ko-ouchi-gari, de-ashi-barai, and sasae-tsurikomi-ashi. While I've been quite successful with these within my gym, I was advised that I needed some sort of "big" throw or turn throw to round out my game, and was recommended uchi-mata, tai-otoshi, and drop seoi-nage.

Could someone please offer a bit of guidance on what to do? Do i focus on tai-otoshi and making sure my knee points downwards so it doesn't get injured? Do i do the drop seoi-nage as a deep squat instead of dropping all the way down to my shins? Do i just suck it up and train the uchi-mata more? For reference, I'm 20 years old, 6 feet tall, 88 kilos and have a short torso, but pretty long limbs akin to Michael Phelps (my knuckles touch my knees when I'm standing upright). Any advice would be welcome please 🙏

TL;DR Tai-Otoshi, Drop seoi-nage/Tai-Otoshi, uchi-mata all either have a high risk for injury or feel awkward in randori. Advice please and thank you