Well, since my post last week kicking off my weight loss goal, I am currently down 4 pounds.  Not much, I know.  But it’s a start.

My main strategy thus far has been to really cut back on soda, and be more physical.  I have been attending Judo and working hard there, but have also just tried to really be more active at home… moving around, doing stuff in the yard that needs to be done.  I think Judo is the biggest part so far though (plus the soda thing.)  I come home two nights a week with my shirt so soaked with sweat you’d think I had been running through the sprinklers.

The other thing that has been really neat to watch is my son.  Ty has gotten so much better at Judo.  But I see it in him in so many other, non-Judo ways.  He has more confidence.  He is so much stronger and more coordinated.  It’s just really neat to watch what a huge change it has made in him.

You know, I have trained in a wrestling, Karate, and Judo over the years.  One of the questions I have always had in back of my mind is, “How well does this really translate into real life.”  Just as examples, Wrestling translated very well.  I fought a lot in high school.  I found I used my wrestling moves very often in these fights.  The problem was, that wrestling was great for taking a fight from an on the feet, punching fight, to an on the ground position where you were dominating the person.  The problem is that it stopped there.  Wrestling really doesn’t give you any “fight enders.”

Karate was interesting.  It was nice to learn to be more comfortable wit kicks, and in a real fight, I think I might use one or two.  But by and large, in a real brawl, no rules, I would have been willing to fight anyone in that class even before I learned any of the karate.  Not only that, I really didn’t feel that I was any more lethal in a fight after having been in karate for a year.  It’s not that I didn’t learn anything… I would have done better in a competition, but I think the typical “no head strikes” sparring style in karate doesn’t really prepare a person to fight.  If I had to choose to fight a karate blackbelt or an awesome wrestler I’d rather fight the blackbelt.

Judo however has brought a few things that wrestling didn’t.  One of the main ones is Kazushi.  Now I know you might be thinking that the main thing in Judo is throws, and you’d be right… half right.  The way to throw someone is to manipulate their Kazushi… their balance.  But, it is also all about controlling your own kazushi.  So learning to throw someone is really also alla bout learning not to be tossed around or thrown down by someone.  A downside of Judo, at leas for real-world brawling, is that you train so much with a Gi.  Note here, that I did NOT say because it is so reliant on the Gi… because I don’t think it is.  Most of Judo can work fine without it.  But that’s not how most Judo classes train.

Other key factors of Judo are that it helps a person unlearn” some of the bad habits of wrestling (such as turning your back to someone.)  Additionally, it has “fight enders.”  Judo has many moves that can be used to cripple a person or black them out.

Now, one thing you might be thinking is: What about Jujitsu?  Isn’t it tougher than Judo?

Okay, so here’s my take on it… it’s sort of like rock, paper, scissors… In my opinion, in a fight between a Judo guy and a Jujitsu guy, the jujitus guy wins.  So, if you are going to be fighting against other martial artists in a cage all of the time, I’d really choose jujitsu.

But, in a brawl against Joe Shmuck on the streets, I would give  as slight edge to a Judo guy facing him rather than a Jujitsu guy.  This gets more important if Joe has a friend.  Street fight, multiple opponents, Judo over Jujitsu, hands down.

Of course, throw in a little Mui Thai, and I think it could be mean as hell.  A question I have however, is how effective is “a little Mui Thai?”  As a said, in my experience, a year or so of karate really didn’t seem to help that much.  Does a year of Mui Thai?  Anyone have experience and care to comment?

Posted in: Uncategorized