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Whether viewing websites or MMA, Judo, and BJJ forums, the subject of Judo vs. BJJ has become yet another classic debate, akin to that of the old "Gi vs. No Gi" debate. However, the question of Judo vs. BJJ is much simpler to answer because it is simply the wrong question in almost every applicable context. In short, an Olympic level Judoka would benefit from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as much as a world-class BJJ player would benefit from Judo.

And at the top level, there are multiple examples of this beginning to happen. GB's Winston Gordon trains with Gracie Barra and holds a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Ray Stevens, former Olympic silver medallist, has been known to train with Roger Gracie. Dave Camarillo, Rhadi Ferguson, and Lloyd Irvin have become vocal advocates of cross-training these arts and have all enjoyed considerable success in both sports. Therefore the answer is Judo AND BJJ. Most top level players are starting to know this fact and rarely ever involve themselves in the nonsense of the forums.

However, trawl the forums and you will frequently see this very discussion taking place. Comments range from the petty such as a "judoka" commenting about BJJ players wearing too many patches on their Gi's to the erroneous "BJJ player" commenting that "judoka's are easy to double leg". I also recently read from one judoka that "either never seen anyone in BJJ show me a move that didn't exist in Judo".

Such comments are harmful because they slow our progression to be the best that we can be. It is a fact that within the "Gi sports" that the average Judo club will have a far higher degree of stand-up skill per person, and the average BJJ club (who out there thinks they are in an average club - Ha, that's another story and I'll be shot if I go there!!) will have a far higher degree of skill on the ground. Assuming that the respective coaching levels are held constant then anyone wishing to balance their skills would surely want to practise stand-up at the Judo club and BJJ at the BJJ club. And this is why comments such as "I've never seen anyone in BJJ show me a move that didn't exist in Judo" are so unhelpful and completely miss the point. Neither art is really about knowing the greatest number of "moves" and anyone who has trained in the competitive environment knows this is the case. However, such comments promote ignorance and division rather than learning and integration.

There are a multitude of benefits to training both Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Judo, from greater all-round skills, to the cross-over benefits of learning different approaches to training (e.g. speed and power to slow and technical). There are simply too many to list here. However, anyone in doubt or uncertain should consider this: the learning curve in both arts is greatest at the beginning and therefore you stand the most to gain from the early days. When I first began Judo, I found that it was much easier to throw non-Judo players at BJJ. However, some months after, my BJJ friends began training Judo and learned to stiff-arm. All of sudden, I couldn't throw them as often (until I overcame the stiff-arm).

Therefore, forget the ancient texts, the "who tapped who" in the 1920s, the lineage charts, and the other nonsense. To compete optimally in either sport, you need BOTH Judo and BJJ and some wrestling as well won't harm. My website "JudoBJJ" is seeking to promote the integration of these sports for the benefit of Judo AND BJJ alike.

Glyn Powditch
BJJ Purple Belt
Judoka
MMA Instructor

Copyright 2007 Glyn Powditch

Knife defense STAB review by Nathan Leverton taken from:

http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1828

Karl Tanswell S.T.A.B. Program Video

Review by Nathan Leverton

Most ...   more »

Knife defence is a topic that continually appears on the martial arts forums, Youtube, Facebook, Myspace, and search engines. New DVDs and videos continually appear from various experts. From Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and MMA to the traditional martial arts such as Karate, Aikido, and Wing Chun; every martial art offers their own approach to this popular and controversial topic.

For the purpose of this article, the early UFCs demonstrated quite clearly that traditional martial arts simply do not work in an "alive" environment involving one resisting opponent versed in a competitive combat sport :- BJJ, Judo, Sambo, Thaiboxing, Greco and Freestyle Wrestling, and Boxing,. From this, two further conclusions can be made:

1) Traditional martial arts do not work against in what was almost a truely "anything goes" environment.
2) Traditional martial arts would therefore be completely useless against someone armed with a knife and intent on stabbing you.

From here, we are much closer to our goal of practicing and preparing for defending a realistic knife defence situation. Two mechanisms are now required:

1) A realistic delivery system for knife defence.
2) A theoretical syllabus taking into account the specific dangers of defending a knife attack.

A realistic delivery system needs to relate directly to the range and nature of combat that will take place. With knife defence, we are really discussing the skills, techniques, and attributes developed through the art of grip fighting. Two combat sports stand out as specialising in these areas: Judo and Greco Roman wrestling.

Although there has been much debate on gi and no gi training, training in either of these arts will improve your grip fighting more than any other martial art. Both arts typically require long periods of grip fighting during competition and competitive sparring. The hand-eye co-ordination, hand reaction time, strategies, movement, amongst other attributes will be honed. And the control required of the knife-wielding arm would surely be best achieved by a two-on-one style position? From my own experience in Judo, it is often extremely difficult to make any clear hand contact with a high level judoka during randori; my best efforts at punching a grip through to the collar or even the elbow are often deflected shortly before being forcefully thrown to the ground. From my observations of greco roman footage and Randy Couture in the UFC, the hand control and gripping in evidence is clearly of a synonymous level to Judo.

However, neither sport will regularly deal directly with the very specific needs of a knife attack. A syllabus and theoretical blueprint is clearly required to deal with such instances. Having viewed numerous DVDs relating specifically to this area, my own personal recommendation is Karl Tanswell's STAB (Strategic Tactics Against Blade) DVD. Karl utililises the positions of Greco Roman wrestling in order to provide this framework. Whilst I must admit that Karl has been my Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu coach for a number of years, I can honestly state that I have not seen anything that compares (please contact me if you believe you have seen a better DVD on this topic and I will gladly review it on this site and my other websites and blogs). There are a number of reviews of this work which remains on the internet and I will not repeat them here.

In conclusion, combine regular Judo or Greco Roman wrestling practice (freestyle wrestling would also be an excellent substitute) with the theoretical framework of the STAB knife defence DVD, and I believe you have the best knife defence training protocol available.

Glyn Powditch

Copyright 2007 Glyn Powditch

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu players and competitors are continually seeking new and innovative ways to improve their BJJ skills and techniques. A huge library of BJJ skills, BJJ instructional DVDs and books, and online resources are now available. However, supplementing your BJJ training regime with a visit to your local Judo club represents a very simple, affordable, and many would say, cutting edge way to improve your BJJ performance.   more »

From www.judobjj.com:

For BJJ:

Saulo Riberio Freestyle Revolution - no gi but some excellent fundamentals applicable to Judo, BJJ and Sambo.
Saulo Riberio's Gi sets - absolutely brilliant.
Dave Camarillo - Position Impossible and Dave Against The Machine - ideal for Judo and BJJ.
Mark Shultz Headlocks - some great tips on clubbing the head, ideal for no-gi submission wrestling and BJJ. Shultz was an olympic gold medalist in freestyle.
Demien Maia's new instructional - unrivalled except for Saulo Ribeiro's sets.
Anything by Straight Blast Gym.
Marcelo Garcia's sets are often popular. I find them a mixed bag personally. Not as universally applicable or as fundamentally focused as Riberio or Maia. His latest DVD is very good though.

For Judo:

Camarillo as above.
Anything by Rhadi Ferguson if you can afford it.
Jimmy Pedro's Gripping Like A World Champion - former world champion in Judo and a brilliant set on Judo gripping.
Mike Swain is worth a look.
Igor Yakimov's Russian Judo set - avoid his 100 lessons set

I generally find Judo dvd's to be of a lower instructional quality.

Hope this helps,

Glyn
www.judobjj.com

Wanna stay standing in MMA (Mixed Martial Arts)?

Karl Tanswell has just released his new MMA DVD "Keep It Standing".

Visit : http://www.karltanswell.co.uk/index.php?page=shop.product_details&category_id=6&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=22&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=128

This hour plus dvd covers the revolutionary curriculum developed by SBGi Coach Karl Tanswell and the SBG-UK Coaches.

The SBG athletes have been using this material for the last several years to help dominate in the cage, and now for the first time it's available to the public.

The entire curriculum is designed solely to allow you to stay on your feet within the MMA cage, and/or a self defense situation.

Visit : http://www.karltanswell.co.uk/index.php?page=shop.product_details&category_id=6&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=22&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=128

Jimmy Pedro Grip Like A World Champion Review
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