Judo and BJJ

I am a great fan of the judo game. I love working to gain a strong grip and take the opponent down and then work my jiu jitsu to find the submission.

There are many judo sceptics nowadays who say that you have to train wrestling, muay thai and bjj to be a complete fighter, but in my opinion unless you want to be a professional fighter in MMA then you should do what you love and have the passion for.

BJJ in the gi is a great art that teaches you all you have to know about ground work and working for the position before submission. I believe this is the most effective martial art for ground work and yet there is so much more in gi grappling than just ground fighting.

Takedowns make BJJ this great. Yes, you have freaks like Roger Gracie who lose the stand up game only to defeat each of his opponents, but you have to remember that all the great BJJ fighters like Roger Gracie, Ronaldo Jacare Souza, Saulo & Xande Ribeiro, Terere, Fabricio Werdum and many others are very good judo players and this is not a coincidence.

Getting taken down by a proficient Judo fighter can be demoralizing for one thing. If you have a strong Judo back ground you are immediately at an advantage over other guys. You can take them down at will and gain an attractive starting point from where you can work your jiu jitsu.

If you don't believe it, test yourself against a black belt in Judo or master Sambo practitioner. If you stand with these guys, it will take them less then a minute to through you to the ground so if you never trained in this, take a grip and fall down.

Your opponents however may not want to collapse or jump into guard and here you may find the difficulty. Failing to jump into guard you may already be at a disadvantage facing a judo player.

Practice both. There is a lot to learn from Judo players even though some of the techniques you may need to modify. Guys like Jacare were so successful because not only they had amazing BJJ but also they could hold their own standing.