judoblackbelt - I assume you mean L5. I do not know what S1 is. Anyway beginning judo is very safe realatively. The warmups,tumbling, breakfalls will give you an indication to how your body can respond. Uchikomis, turnovers will further test your body's ability to adapt to judo. Throws on the crash pads are safe even if the thrower doesn't rotate you properly. Just make sure he doesn't miss the pad like some do.
I think he means the disc between L5 and the Sacrum ;)
Anyways, I would say that if you are doing all the work you are doing, and not having a problem at this time, you should be okay doing judo. But I would at least consider running it past your physican first to be sure.
kind of depends on how mature the crew you are training with. That is true with BJJ to though. Depends on the egos of the guys. I think most of the serious injuries I've gotten when I still practiced Judo was while practicing against heavy white belts (guys who outweigh me by 70+ lbs).
You have to watch some guys in BJJ too though. I had to take 2 weeks off training in BJJ recently. I had popped my shoulder a couple days previous and was rolling with a decent guy and even though he knew I had the injury, he went 100%, he even went for my injured shoulder a couple of times. Some peoples egos make them only care about getting the tap. After that my shoulder was so sore I could barely move it several days. Sucked since I had hoped I could train through the injury but after that I realized I would have to let it heal before getting back into class.
So basically whatever you do make sure you are training with the right person if you have injuries.
Thank you for all the positive responses and advice.
I have gone and looked at 3 schools.
The first was quite nice, clean facility, friendly people and instructors. In fact the Sensei saw me peering in and invited me to come watch the class. The class was taught mainly in Japanese and it had a real nice dojo feel to it. The Sensei and I spoke after class and he seemed sincere, he brought up his Sensei and the lineage behind his belt.. it was fascinating. The students seemed really nice, no body gave me the "Stink eye" at all.
The second turned out not to really be a Judo dojo at all.. although they said it was. Pretty much everyone there was in a over-patched bjj gi with many varying belts, stripes and the like. The class looked unorganized and the facility was filthy. The attitudes of the students was sub par to say the least.. I don't want to say any personal things about them because I don't know their history and why they act the way they do. When I talked to the instructor (a guy who could not have been older than 25) he immediately told me "CALL ME SENSEI!". When I asked him a little about his history he told me he is a bjj black belt and was the "Equivalent of a black belt in judo". I asked him to clarify that and he would not. He told me to leave at that point before threatening me and challenging me to a fight as I was walking out. Needless to say he Had a low rank in judo but wore his bjj black belt and thought he could teach judo. I would not train there ever. Forgot to mention he hardly taught anything, nothing was in Japanese and it basically went right to sloppy sparring in where the students were so rough with each other. There was one young guy who the teacher just bullied and used for a training dummy. It was sad.
The last place I visited was one in a community center. The Sensei invited me in again. It was a really calm and respectful class. After warm ups they had a discussion on the history of judo, it was really informative for me. I wish I had a pen and paper to take notes! I was going to take notes on my phone but I did not want to look like I was texting or something. It was a traditional Judo class. Quite refreshing to see these days.. The Sensei was a quiet, short, Japanese guy. Very well spoken. When he spoke you listened. The technique looked flawless, he really understood that some people can do some techniques better than others due to body type. Everyone seemed to have a specialty. Overall it was the best one I went to. After class I spoke to the Sensei and told him that this Dojo was the best out of all that I had seen. He went on to say he is affiliated with the first club that I went to, he just moved far out of town and could not ever make it on time so some of his first black belts run the Dojo out there. They have more kids programs and more classes at that location. He told me if I train with him I would have access to both dojos. May cost a little more but the amount of training I could get in would be amazing.
I want to go to the third =]
When I get the ok from my doctor I will run out and buy my gi. Any suggestions on a gi for a tall skinny guy?