How did you find Judo and how long have you been doing it?

Hi All,

Thought we might have a bit of an introductory post for those of us who have made the jump from the old forum. I thought it might be interesting to tell how we found this wonderfull art and how long we have been practicing. I found Judo three years ago as it was another style offered at the dojo I attended for my striking style. I figured I would give grappling a look as my striking style had very little in the way of throws or groundwork. I was hooked from the first class. As an older player (40), I find that this art is so much better suited to me personally than my striking style! Jump spinning kicks don't go well with older hips and knees, but grappling feels natural. I enjoy the grappling so much that I have taken a break from my striking style to add more grappling classes in. As the Judo club meets only 2x a week, I have added 2 BJJ classes in as well and have found that they compliment each other nicely. My oldest son (soon to be has been attending Judo with me for the last year and loves it as well. So how about you guys? What led you to this art?

OED

Was bullied a lot as a child, so brother enrolled me in 1999. That old thing.

Long-time wrestler, here. I wrestled throughout school and coached thereafter. I didn't want to be done doing (you know, those who can't do teach), so I looked for something to fill that particular void. Being in a small Oregon Coast town, judo at the local CC was the only option. Been hooked ever since.

My Mum sent me to judo, everybody else in the neighbourhood was going to karate classes because of "The karate kid", so thought that was too violent, she thought that the gentle way was more fitting. We still laugh about it when I struggle getting out of the armchair!

a karate guy knocked on our door and offered my little brothers lessons for 38 million pounds a year, the little brothers obviously nagged mum and dad about wanting to do karate and dad said no you can do judo instead...

dad learned a teeny bit of judo in the met police

I think I've forgotten most of my "origin tale". What I can remember is watching a guy assault a girl and thinking "gee, I wish I knew how to stop him". (She got away ok, as it turns out).

Around that time (1997), I was into newsgroups like rec.martial.arts. I recall several authoritative posters of the time being big on grappling (BJJ in particular), but as that had just started here, I ended up doing judo. Not bad as "consolation" prizes go :p

I had no intention of starting Judo, didn't even know what it was, but a guy I was working with at the time had been talking about a club he had just joined. He was 50 years old and was a complete beginner so I thought I'd go and have a look and see what he was up to.
I was invited on the mat straight away, and have hardly missed a session since. I have been doing Judo for 22 years now.

I started a JJJ class where they very occasionally let us do "Judo Randori". I thought it was brilliant and wanted to do more of it, however despite asking to several times it stayed rare. After maybe 7-8 months there, I asked about competitions and asked to compete, which shouldn't have been unexpected given that whenever someone new joined the club, the instructor spoke about how it was possible to compete in jujitsu if you wanted to. He never let me know about competitions, nor did anything that I could tell was in any way geared towards training for a competition.

So I found a judo club where not only do we do several rounds of randori each session, but competition is also encouraged for anyone who wanted to, any local competitions are mentioned and entry forms given out, and any competition appearances by club regulars are mentioned and applauded no matter what the result and no matter whether they compete under the club's name or not.

This year was my 50th judo anniversary. I retired from judo this year also so double celebrations. I started judo because I wanted to learn the 'judo chop' and be a better fighter at school. Odd thing is within a small time I never fought again at school! For around 40 of those 50 years I think I was OCD with judo and other budo.

Some years ago I visited a BJJ club and started that. Still visit to help out with the throws, and shime waza. I also enjoy attending budo courses where a number of budo are taught. I no longer teach the judo on such occasions though.

Judo is a very mixed blessing. I will always be indebted to it practice and education. Having my own dojo for 42 of those years was also a life changing experience.

Most important part of my judo training and teaching was traveling to other countries. I learned so much about life and cultures.

Mike

When I was a kid I was into swimming, but ear infections forced me to look for a sport outside of the water. At the age of 6 kids here were either doing football or Judo. Since I didnt like the kids that did football I went to judo and was hooked ever since. I continued all the way through till I was about 18 and a brown belt.

Distractions of life took over, and I became a little troubled, inevitiably running back into the arms of discipline and structure that I so much craved. On my second emergion of martial arts I was introduced to a broader spectrum, ranging from aikido to MMA. I had a few MMA fights, all amateur but prefered the grappling above anything else. So Judo and sub wrestling were my main goals.

Was able to get a black belt before I moved to a different town. The judo here wasnt of as high a level as my previous school and I missed the hard training. I was able to find similar hard training in BJJ close by. Nowadays Im a purple belt BJJ as well as a black belt judo with experience in MMA and aikido. With all this knowledge i still compete in BJJ and no gi competitions and I coach MMA fighters and I teach to a little group of BJJ/no gi fanatics. Actually have produced my first blue belt recently. And of course training and competing hard to improve, lately I have grown more fond of wrestling.

I dabbled with Judo for a few months when I was only 7 years old but gave it up as it didn’t resemble anything Bruce Lee was doing. Years of Karate and many years of Kung Fu followed before Royce Gracie made me, and a lot of other people, realise that there was more to this grappling game than meets the eye. In the absence of any local BJJ club I started Judo at the age of 30 but that only lasted a few months as I badly injured my shoulder and chest.
7 years later, at the tender age of 37 I took a more gentle approach to my Judo training and left my ego outside the dojo. I’ve been training solidly for 3 years now and am about to start grading for my blue belt (2nd kyu). I absolutely love Judo and so wish I had never given it up. I blog regularly about my Judo training and hope that my experiences help others who find themselves in a similar position to me.

I didn't find judo, judo found me!

no but seriously. I started judo as a teen when my karate school moved into a new dojo that also had a judo program. the membership was run like a club; if you were a member you could attend any class you wished, so I started doing judo. but since I was doing it in my karate gi, it didn't last long. I quit after about a year (probably less than that, actually) when my karate gi ripped and my parents refused to buy a new one.

I picked it back up again on a whim when someone in my calculus class asked if I wanted to check out a judo club with him before we got together to study. he got the bright idea to train for free by going around to a bunch of different MMA and BJJ schools to take as many free classes as they'd allow him to attend then moving on. so he didn't stick around, but I fell in love, and started training 3-5 days a weeks since then. that was about 3.5 years ago. and since I've been training 5 days a week and winning a lot of local comps (I'm an exceptionally fast learner), I got promoted to shodan back in May, and I have no intention of even thinking about nidan for many years to come.

Started when I was about 10 - because my parents suggested it. They'd both dabbled when they were young, and it seemed like a good idea.

Did reasonably well for a few years (represented the country at 15 - highlight of my achievements!) - then when I got to university, fell badly on my wrist during a line-up, and that was it for many years.

Got back into it, when I felt the need to take up a sport, and a friend suggested I golf with him (I hate golf - pointless, boring, etc) - and my wife asked what sport I actually enjoyed. (I think she regrets it now ...)

So I went back to judo, having forgotten a) how hard it was, and b) that I was no longer a teenager, and that I don't recover all that fast.

Managed to get qualified as a coach (BJA) and ran a dojo for a bit, but hated the admin side of things - and then got ousted politically (which whilst unpleasant, was a lesser of evils - I will not do politics in Judo.) Stopped for a bit, as there was no sensible time I could train at any dojo near enough.
I now train occasionally, and drag my children along betimes - with very limited support from the wife, which makes logistics tricky.

Whilst I'd love to be more involved, and do more, I get injured far too easily these days - that black belt makes you a target for the fit young brown belts - and I don't get up as fast as I used to.

Considering seeing if I can enjoy refereeing .... someone's got to do it!

I had done Shotokan karate since I was about 10 or so, went all the way up to sandan upon entering uni...... Dont really train it anymore since the whole ineffectiveness thing brought about by MMA, etc... (Machida doesnt count but thats a side story... Anyway one of the senseis was also a BB in judo as many from japan are and would show us throws and sweeps (ashiwaza)... I fell in love with the ideas and concepts but didnt have access to a proper dojo in the area.. come existing college and moving to CA i was glad to see numerous dojos all over the place... went to a few to try it out but eventually found my home dojo and have been in love with the art ever since! Recently moved away from them though and train in my new home in Socal BUT my home dojo is my family and I make it up there every few months to get humbled and reconnect with the people that I love and that taught me the art....

BTW great idea for a post and reboot thread!

My mom did judo in high school as PE, in Mexico. She has some good judo stories. One about throwing a guy who was taunting her while wearing roller skates, I guess they were at the park. He got thrown, tomoe nage, in his roller skates and all.

I was never interested in judo. In fact, I was never interested in PE and I took a D in the last PE class I had to take for school purposes. I did like to swim when I was little, but I didn't compete or anything.

When I was in my third year at university, I decided I needed to take up a sport. I needed to do something. Something fun. There was synchro, which my friend was in, but I couldn't do that, there is no way I could have that much control over my body. Water polo looked fun, but I never tried it and I don't think they had a girl's group anyway. I picked taekwondo first, and then I picked BJJ a couple months later. I did both for a few months, then just stuck with BJJ for about two years. Then I tried judo, and now I just do judo. I've been in judo for five years, I don't attend very frequently - usually once a week when I'm not in school, and I don't compete.

Another wrestler-turned-turned-judoka here. There was an inner-city program that utilized our highschool as a hub for a "community school" program. They ended up having a judo club that used our wrestling room in the evenings. I found out about the club from some MMA fighters that started coming to wrestling (Olympic styles) practice...one of the weird parts of living in Vegas in the late 90s...Anyway, they convinced me to stick around and see what the crazy guys in pajamas were doing. Continued to wrestle and do judo throughout highschool. Took a break from judo while I was wrestling in college (no dojo anywhere around.) Picked it back up several years ago and was going non-stop. Moved to my current location about a year and 1/2 ago and there was no judo for several hours drive in any direction. Ended up starting up a club and have been finding out how little I really know about judo while trying to teach others!

I started judo in April last year, after years of doing fencing and wanting to pick up a martial art that was a little more practical. So far I'm loving it, despite only being able to attend one session a week.

I've always been aware of judo and I developed a love of throws and submissions from spending hours perfecting King's and Nina's combos in Tekken II.

However, I didn't take up judo until many years later in my late twenties when I decided to do something to improve my mental health and quality of life. I have now been practising judo for just under five years. I just recieved my blue belt after a concerted period of sandbagging.

I've always wanted to do Judo as a kid, but was not close to a club. I recently took it up (6 months ago to be exact) and I'm thouroughly enjoying it!

I'm also doing a blog about my progress, so feel free to have look

http://ghostofkano.blogspot.co.uk/

sydvicious wrote:I've always wanted to do Judo as a kid, but was not close to a club. I recently took it up (6 months ago to be exact) and I'm thouroughly enjoying it!

I'm also doing a blog about my progress, so feel free to have look

[url=http://ghostofkano.blogspot.co.uk/

http://ghostofkano.blogspot.co.uk/[/quote[/url]]

A fellow blogger!

I hope you keep it up

[quote="JudoStu"]

sydvicious wrote:I've always wanted to do Judo as a kid, but was not close to a club. I recently took it up (6 months ago to be exact) and I'm thouroughly enjoying it!

I'm also doing a blog about my progress, so feel free to have look

http://ghostofkano.blogspot.co.uk/[/quote]

A fellow blogger!

I hope you keep it up

I remember you from the old forum and it was actually after I read your blog that I decided to create my own!

I'm obviously new to it, so I would really appreciate any comments/critique/tips. I can also put a link to your blog if you want.

Not a beginner but...

My story begins when I joined a karate club in school. Being female, the instructor ignored the girls because he didn't think women belonged in the martial arts. Because of Title 9, he had no choice but to let us participate.. but wouldn't let us take our belt tests. All the girls quit.. except for me. I'm very stubborn.

I decided I was going to take karate at a local martial arts academy. By pure chance and luck, I just happened to walk in on a judo class. I had intended on taking judo for a month, and then returning to karate, but from the moment I stepped on the mat, it was instant love for judo.

I loved judo so much, I joined two schools and worked out 6 days a week. I ate, drank and slept judo all through high school and college. Eventually, I was competing nationally and internationally. But I blew out my knees three times.. and sadly realized that my body wasn't allowing me to compete anymore.

I was competing during the "pioneer" stage of women's judo. That's when discrimination against women was rampant. We were forced to wear that awful white stripe on our belts, and were banned from many big tournaments as well as the Olympics. I often wondered what would have been had I been born ten years later... but.. wait... I'm a leg pick specialist... so I guess I would have been disqualified.

I've been involved in judo for 40 years and teaching for 26 years.

Started way back in'67 Near Glasgow Scotland.Came from a tough area and was not very big,so jumped at the chance to learn judo when a club opened nearby I have been doing it ever since then moving over into coaching about 30 years ago I have made lots of great friends, and have to say that judo has played a major part in my life. I hope to continue to do it as long as my body will allow, and beyond if my mind is still in one piece!!

I have been watching my daughter, for the last 18 months, and finally plucked up the courage 3 weeks to join in. After 33 years of sitting on my backside it has been a shock to the body, but worth every second so far.

Currently sitting in my office with my sock off, with the muscle rub nursing a foot injury from last night lol

I took Judo as PE when I was a third year college student. Then I decided to join the judo club after that semester. It's been 8 years.