So, I just started my daughter in Judo before the whole coronavirus lockdown, because I remembered when I used to train that Judo guys were always motherfuckers to deal with standing up (~20 years ago).
I came from a wrestling background, and my top control tended to be better than the guys who came from a Judo background, but they were a bitch to take down, and they would hit you with all kinds of tricky shit on feet, and you’d find yourself on your ass when you felt safe.
So, when it came time for my daughter to do a martial art, I wanted something that would work IRL, and I’ve long felt that BJJ only folks don’t train takedowns enough to be really proficient at them. (the BJJ-only guys I trained with would always just fucking sit down in the standup, or start from the knees).
So I figured, I want my little girl to be able to stand up for herself, but really, to throw somebody on their ass and then run away. Sitting on her ass and doing leg grapevines isn’t going to do her a ton of good.
She really enjoys the Judo (loves it, actually), but I have to think that getting rid of knowing how do defends a basic ass double leg is a pretty big hole in her martial arts training, no?
I get people’s argument that “if it’s more attractive, more people do it, and the sport grows, and becomes more vibrant”.
Like, really, I hear that, but do you ever worry that if you continue to make the shit that works not part of the art anymore, and so you stop learning how to defend it, at what point do you become Tae Kwon Do? An art that everybody does, but doesn’t do shit martially?
Like, obv my girl is better off having trained Judo than NOTHING, but it kinda sucks that there’s no art out there that teaches her how to scrap in clothes, concentrate on launching some unsuspecting asshole, can deal with a regular ass schoolyard double leg takedown, and then get away.