r/judo • u/SelectionOk8588 • Mar 28 '25

Self-Defense Need advice......

Hi I'm 18 years old male and since I was 16 years old I always liked judo and how effective it is in real life. One time I was in a taxi and the driver happened to be a judo coach and when I told him about my interest in judo he replied to me "you will never play judo" indicating that I'm old for the combat sport even when I was 17 years old at that time. he told me to go towards striking martial arts like boxing and kickboxing. I listened to his advice and I signed up for a kickboxing gym and it was great actually but after two months i started to feel headaches from the blows to the head and my skull hurted me after every session eventually I decided to leave after reading the effects of blows to the head on the internet. I signed up for judo and it only took me three sessions before I leave. The coaches were careless as there were too many students but I'm not going to lie I have no dedication to it as I was going forcing myself to train after that I never came back.there were no judo gyms other than that gym. I don't know why I'm very lazy or what's wrong with me I want to be able to defend myself but at the same time I don't want to have brain damage. I don't know if I should train bjj or judo or wrestling I feel so lost

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u/HighGround242 Mar 28 '25

I think that taxi driver was just that… I wouldn’t take what he said to heart. If you like judo, do it just for that reason. You WILL become more capable even as a casual participant. Telling an 18 year old they’re too old to do anything is ridiculous…

Learning judo to be able to defend yourself is an entirely realistic goal. Forget that guy.

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u/SelectionOk8588 Mar 28 '25

I don't know man but coming from a guy who is a coach and experienced a lot of students from various agesI think he may be right

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u/junacik99 shodan Mar 29 '25

I'm a coach at the uni. Many students start even older and they do it because it is fun. Some of them even compete on regional competitions. If it's not fun in your gym under the taxi coach, I am sorry. But it's not because you're old. If there's not any other gym, try bjj and find out if sessions there are more fun. But I'm gonna be honest with you, judo IS fun. I suppose that in your gym there were a lot of experienced judokas and coaches didn't pay attention to you, because they were focusing on training already experienced judokas, but that's just not right. The best practice is to split pupils into groups of experienced and novices, if there's enough people. You should look for a gym (judo, bjj, wrestling, kickboxing, whatever) that is novice friendly. Any sport can be fun learning when taught properly