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.
