Thoughts on judo's effectiveness for self-defense

Judo without a doubt.

 

After the first 20 seconds of a street fight a big guy will grab the smaller guy and try to slam him down. If the small guy can throw him... He won't get ouchied.

 

I can't agree with this more. The things that you get out of Judo (balance, an understanding of leverage, a sense of what functional strength is etc) are useful in all other sports. As important for kids though, it MAKES SENSE in a way that loads of other martial arts don't. Watch kids wrestle around on the playground and you'll see a lot of "judo-esque" stuff there. Also, a key aspect that works into kids not being scared of contact, you practice falling over and over and learn how to do it safely.

For someone as young as 8, striking martial arts always seem silly to me. It's a different type of coordination that kids that age just don't seem to have yet and it seems like a pretty big waste of time.

Anyway, my plan is 100% for my son to get into judo when he's old enough, as in my experience it's the perfect first martial art.

 

Look, I'm not disagreeing with everyone that Judo is a good "safe" and semi effective martial art for a young child to take up and many good reasons have been posted for that and BJJ already.

However, there is alot of utter bollox being spoken in regard to young kids taking up striking being non productive or a waste of time.........

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFAcVnn5ZmA[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB6EIMI3F70[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA9H8_kNJA4[/ame]


Notice all the happy under eights in the background of the 2nd clip. And interms of my son (named Buakaw by the way) at age 6, I'm gonna start training him myself and then at 7 or 8 put him a few days a week in a gym in Thailand.

 

Judo is good because you can spar everyday if you want at full force and nobody gets hurt very badly at all.

I was at a bar once and I was drinking with a few other guys that I did not know and they offered me a ride home instead of of me having to pay for the bus.

They drove me to a part of the city I did not really know that well and said If I could help them move some things out of their shed before they took me home. I got out to help them and they locked me in the shed in there with them and pointed a crossbow in my face,and wanted all my money. Using my Judo mostly, I was able to destroyed them pretty quickly.

 

Sounds like a helluva a situation to be in.

Can I ask what "finishing" moves did you use to stop the guys getting up and coming back for more? As a striker and non Judoka I'm ignorant to Judo's "finishing" moves or the kind of moves that'll do enough damage the guy won't come back for more.

 

I finshed them with my steel toe black work shoes, but before then I did a quick side step and open hand swat to the cross bow and used a kosoto gari or foot obstruction and sent his head hard into a vice that was on the work bench. The other two I Demolished with my blend of Judo and Karate. I have been in many fights and Judo works well.

Elite Judokas are a little hard to manipulate, but anyone else I can pretty much send them flying into anything I want head first. If I get someone down I pretty much have my way with them. I had freakish strength back then also. I did not look that big and could not push that much weight in a gym, but I worked in hard labour all day and trained in fighting all night.

 

Not sure how to reply to that really, other than to say it all sounds very painful.

 

Yup, Judo can be very painfull in street fighting if you want. You can break arms, send people into hard surfaces or edges. And if you don't want to hurt them you can just hold them down till they get tired out.

And once you get good nobody is going to manhandle you, it does not matter how big and strong they are. For one you will have the pure grappling strength over anybody, but you wont even need it because you will be so skilled at using their movments and weight against them.

 

No doubt. I did not mean to completely write off MT or boxing as self-defense martial arts for an 8 year old. I do think that Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is better, though.

I took Tae Kwan Do as a kid and it helped me deal with a bully who was picking on me (at an after school rec center, so I never got in trouble) and it taught me discipline and gave me an outlet for all of my energy. Most martial arts can do these things and most martial arts, assuming you have good caring instructors and not some crazy kobra kai ****, will help children to gain discipline and deal with bullies.