Judo is just a sport.

"Judo is just a sport"

What are your oppinions of that sentence?

A devastating combat sport? Operative word (combat).

It's a sport while rules apply.
However in the street ask the guy on ground that just got smashed the same question.

It's what you make it. In self defense a lot things happen off the grab. And judoka are expert at fighting from the grab. And can choke and armbar with the best of them. Plus you have devasting and fight ending throws ie o-soto gari.

Sport judo is a sport, in fact an olympic sport. However, it is not "just" a sport and Jigoro Kano is undoubtedly spinning in his grave at the implication.

An individual that is proficient in judo possesses deadly skills without question.

"The head hits the ground with a skull cracking sound". QR

Yo MM, you holding anything to ease earache pain? If so I may have to take a cruise cause I'm a hurtin'.

My opinion of that sentence is that it's a marketing slogan of GracieCorp Industries.

I take it about as seriously as I take McDonald's ads claiming that "they love to see me smile."


i must admit, i lost a lot of respect for royce when i found out he was quoted as saying "judo is a sport, bjj is for the street" or something to that effect.

bjj for the street??? lmao. have fun trying to omoplata a guy when your on your back on the pavement in a cold puddle with broken glass around while the guys friends are approaching to curb stomp you. yeah, just go for the clock choke. ;)

judo is nothing more than a sport.. when you are in a tournament.

judo is nothing more than a form of self-defence.. when you are in need.

judo is nothing more than a way and philosophy of life.. for everybody who has dedicated themselves to it.

thats what judo is. to me at least.

-resnick

Funny, it seems to me the people that say that about judo come more often from the ranks of traditional jujutsu. The condescending and denigrating attitude that often accompanies this statement is typically pretty clear - especially when they mention Kano made jujtusu "safe" by "taking out all the dangerous moves."

What is even funnier is how these same people, when trying to convince others of the (unproven) fighting effectiveness of their art, their teachers, or some great teacher of the past, frequently mention that the teacher once "beat a judoka."

I have seen one or two claiming their teacher beat three or four 5th dan judoka, all at the same time, and yes, once saw a posed photo of a guy throwing two guys in judogi at the same time as "evidence" of the art's effectiveness against judo.

All are correct.

OK thanks guys, I just wanted to make sure I was not losing my mind..

Osaekomi, pick your poison champ..I got some....Give me a call..

Lol. Catch 22: I'm too grogged out on rum and Alkazeltzer Plus tabs to make the journey! Have to rise from my slab too early also. Thanks a bunch anyway. Maybe I can get to the saw-bones tomorrow if not I'll give ya a p/c.

Maybe it should read "Judo is just a way"

Actually, after what I've seen to be presented as "martial art", it is quite comforting to think of judo as "only a sport". Running is "only a sport" too, yet it is much more usefull in a selfdefense situation than most "martial arts" especially those that have "self defence" and "combat" in their name. Weird world.

Tomas

On another forum, a simlar question was asked - i.e., Is BJJ a martial art or a sport? Here is an edited version of my response:

It's a fair question, but with all due respect, it's not something I really care about categorizing. Whatever it is, I love it and am happy to leave it to others to debate the category under which it belongs.

-David Jacobs

T-Man is right.

Best quote I ever heard about pulling gaurd.
When a russian sombo player was asked what he would do if someone pulled gaurd on him he said " I"d gouge out his eyes and puke in his dead skull"

Joe

Well IMHO Judo (like all martial arts) are essentially physical activities, meaning, something one does with their bodies.

As a physical activity it has many functions: sport, recreation, self-defense.

I agree with Resnick in that at any given moment Judo can function as a sport or a recreation activity or self-defense.

I tend not to think Judo or any martial art is, in and of itself, a philosophical or religious thing.

In that regard I agree with what one writer/martial artist had to say about what martial arts represent:

"people make martial arts, martial arts do not make people... a martial arts is going to be influenced by the beliefs, temperment, ideas, feelings culture, mindset of the individual who participates in them".


So if a person happens to be a philosophical individual he or she is going to put into or interpret Judo or any martial art as some type of philosophical thing. And what ever philosophical/religious leaning that person may have Judo is going to reflect that. So if that person is a buddhist then that is what is going to come out of their Judo experience, Buddhist rhetoric and philosophy. That doesn't mean Judo, in and of itself is a type of Buddhist religion, it just mean to that individual who happens to have buddhist leanings Judo is interpreted as such.

Even though Jigoro Kano develop and founded Judo, his interpretation and view of it was influence by his cultural/religious/philosophical mindset. And since he was an educator alot of the philosophy find in Judo can be directly traced to that. This doesn't mean that Judo in and of itself is those philosophical ideas, it just means that was Jigoro Kano's ideas of what he FELT Judo SHOULD be (Judo isn't those thing in my opinion. It can't be. Judo in and of itself is just a physical activity, something one does with their body).

Martial Art - Any of several Asian arts of combat or self-defense, such as aikido, karate, judo, or tae kwon do, usually practiced as sport. Often used in the plural.


Sport - An activity involving physical exertion and skill that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often undertaken competitively.


There are many things taught in judo which are illegal under the rules set aside for the sport aspect. There are also secondary practices learned which relate to neither the self defense aspect, nor the sport aspect of judo, such as etiquette. Therefore by contradiction, judo is not just a sport. (I knew the all that predicate logic i learned was useful for something!)

for anyone who downplays the impact of throws, I just had a good week of 4 good training sessions on the mats. Then I fell out of a bed about 3 ft off the ground and hit cement covered by minimal carpet. My hip bone says concrete hurts... a lot. There is a lot of concrete out there in real life. The world isn't covered in mats. Those are my thoughts about it.

both...always was and always will be..