Judo as a martial art 柔道
A personal perspective
Judo's effectiveness as a martial art in combat has been long established by people who were far more skilled than me from its founding period to today. As a lifelong martial art ethusiast, I thought perhaps my potential students could benefit from reading about judo from a personal perspective to decide if it suits their goal.
As a young boy, I had always been fascinated by martial arts and dreamed to become a strong fighter myself some day. Growing up in China with a father who was a boxer and part of the national boxing team, my first introduction to combat sport was boxing. However, I always had a preference for the martial arts. I had a very brief introduction to judo around the end of my elementary school and then I moved away to the United States. As a teenager, I studied several years mainly in striking styles. I was a minority in a school with a prevelant bully presence. It was my fighting skills that kept the bullies away, but that was not without few fights to defend and establish myself.
As I grew older, I became interested to become a more complete martial artist and wanted to study a grappling art. I ended up with judo for its balanced approach to standing and ground wrestling. It is commonly said during my early adulthood that "many fights end up on the ground". While it is true, the corrolary is that "all fights begin standing". Judo allows a skilled person to decide how to control the fight, whether to keep it standing or on the ground. It has many universal skills from gripping to distance control, changing angles against a striker or an attacker welding a weapon.
The goal of a judo match is "Ippon", or instant win. It is achieved by throwing an opponent with a powerful technique, with control, speed and force, mostly landing the opponent onto his back. One can also achieve a win by immobilising on opponent with a pin, or submitting them with a joint lock or strange. Ippon symbolizes the control over an opponent in a battle field when the opponent is either unable to unwilling to continue to fight.
Judo's focus on realistic practice with control allows people to practice with full force and resistance without permanently damaging their partners. After all, on the proper training mat, no one gets hurt from the throw as it is necessary to protect people from each fall. However, on a much thinner mat or the floor, a fall is a different story. It can instantly finish the fight. That's why in competition when an player is thrown with speed, amplitude and force largely on his back, it is given an ippon and the match terminates. That is why in judo beginners must learn to fall properly with time. Even with a proper mat, people who don't know how to fall can get the "wind" knocked out of them or worse. Besides the throws, judo has some very effective standing joint locks and strangles which could be used to finish a fight standing. It has even more on the ground to immobilize the attacker either by making him unable to get back onto his feet or to submit from a joint or strangle hold.
Through many randori, or free practices, against resisting partners of different height, weight, build, strength, flexibility, one really can gain rich experience about realistic close grappling combat. As one's skill increase, his control over his own movement and his opponent increase, as well as his confidence in physical or psychological confrontations. The regular confrontation under controlled setting allows practioners to not panic and be able to respond with a clear mind under stress.
Judo's use of leverage allows a smaller and weaker person to overcome a bigger and stronger person, given that the smaller person is better trained, or more technical. I realized this lesson many times in randori against bigger opponents, even black betls. It was in the 2013 U. S. National Championships Master open weight category that I had successfully applied this in competition to win the gold. I was the smallest person having just competed that day at 73 kg (161 lb.), with my lightest opponent outweighing me by 20 kg. In the final, my taller opponent in outweighed me by over 50 kg. If I can overcome my much bigger and stronger black belt opponents in a match, against person untrained in judo is going to be even more more effective. Of course, in training, I had been on the receiving end of many throws and pins by smaller judoka who were more technical or prepared than me.
As I experienced over time, judo skills can be effectively used against skilled opponents from other styles when applied with intelligent adaptation. Whether it is a boxer, kickboxer, wrestler from other jacket and non-jacket wrestling styles. A skilled judoka can control the distance and position of a fight. I don't say it is the only effective self-defense system, but it is a highly effective one that because of its training method and wide range of realistic techniques; also because it can leave you in a much position of control consistently. I have won medals at international tournaments in various displines such as kurash, shuai-jiao, san-shou, sambo using just my judo skills.
What judo teaches beyond effective techniques, is the mental aspect which is just as important in a self-defense situation. As one makes progress and becomes more skilled, the training becomes tougher, and one has to be mentally tough to get through the training day to day. From thousands of randori sessions, one can gain a true confidence of one's ability and techniques. Because every randori is a physical confrontation (within rules), one acquires the habit to be decisive, calm, and aware in a stressful situation. Above all, the confidence gained from years of practice allows one to remain cool in the face of threat. By remaining cool, one could think rationally to use mental judo and diffuse the situation. Afterall, the best outcome in a self-defense situation is not needing to fight.
