The subject really states the question. Curious if Judo is a good form of martial arts for self defense. Any and all comments and suggestions would be appreciated.

Any martial art, martial "sport", or fighting system that teaches you how to control your opponent (and yourself) is worthy of adding to your arsenal.   Just don't let it be the only thing you know and trust, and remember there are no rules in a real fight.

Took it when I was younger got to purple belt,FYI next is brown then black. Got bored and quit. Great martial art if you have a good teacher.Most of throws can help you if someone lunges at you or try's get you in a choke hold.There are some good grappling techniques on the floor too.

First post.  Again.  Seriously, I learned a few judo techniques pre-teen and have used them many times throughout the years when grappling.

Well BJJ, which dominated early MMA, was based upon judo.

BJJ competition rules  make it a better self defense choice, but if I couldn't do BJJ, next best is judo or wrestling.

Yes Judo is excellent for self defense, you need a good instructor and lots of uchikomi drills to build the muscle memory to become effective with any of the throws or other techniques.

Judo is a fine starting point for a comprehensive self defense strategy.

take-down defense and safely falling is highly practical.  Grappling is outstanding for controlling a single opponent, often w/o injuring them.  Body awareness, mental training, coordination, sensitivity to the opponent, and physical strength are all boons to self defense.  Its often touted that most fights end on the ground, so there's that too.

In my opinion, you don't really want to be on the grappling ground if there are multiple opponents, so thats one strike against judo.   Also for smaller people working against a larger opponent, it takes a lot of skill to overcome a larger person's body mass and brute strength (but it can be done).  

There are other martial arts that are better for learning striking techniques.

Judo should be very effective for smaller people. As previously posted, I'm studying BJJ (derived from Judo, and very similar), and small people can be very effective.

Judo is a really good martial art for self defense. I am going on 5 years now training in judo and about 2 years for BJJ. Look for a sensi how is self defense oriented. Alot of sensi's are sport oriented. Which is geared for throws say 80% throws and 20% ground work. My Sensi does throws and ground work 50/50.  

I have my judo as LEO a few times in the past few years and believe I prevailed because of it. I like the grappling martial arts because it does not look violent on video vs some of the striking arts such as karate, Kung Fu, or tang so doo. On video if I was punching or kicking someone it just looks like I am beating them up. With grappling it looks like I take them to the ground and gain control of that inmate. That being said I do alot of support side techniques due to a majority of techniques where you turn your strong hip into your opponet. Which is no good if you carry a sidearm.

What I always say about judo throws, take what ever you weigh and ask do you want (enter your #) lbs of concrete hitting you, because that's what happens when you get thrown to the ground. That's not taking into account of the force that is generated from the throw and my weight falling on top of them after the throw.  

Hope that makes sense and good luck with your training.

Any martial arts training is better than no martial arts training.  I'm lucky because there is a Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu dojo near my house with an excellent Sensei!
http://magiccitydojo.com/

I think Judo is a good adjunct martial and an amazing way to get in great shape.  I say adjunct because in all honesty you are practicing NOT to harm anyone.  If you are taking Judo for self defense, then you need to get together with others in your class that are similarly minded and practice with the focus on combat.  Learn the moves for sport then figure out how to use them in the street.  Some instructors will be willing to go over the self defense applications if they know them.  I have not progressed past my brown belt in judo despite my having 8 years in rank, focusing instead on my black belt in a more fighting art and more recently in a weapon based art, but often find myself going back to Judo techniques when things either go to the ground, or FOR take-downs.  

Judo is full of great tools for your tool box.  The Japanese knew their way around Joint locks and Chokes and there is only so many ways to do them. With a strong base in them from Judo, if you transition to something else later, you will be able to focus on subtleties in techniques you know than learning them from scratch.  

Just like "What's the best gun" threads, everyone has their opinion that their Kung fu is strongest, but the reality is that YOU are the most important part of a martial art.  If you want to win, you will find a way.  If you aren't cheating then you aren't trying hard enough.. (in a fight anyways...)

jim

Judo is freaking brutal!  I think Judo and Bjj would be a great combo, I have to say i get beat up a lot more doing judo throws.

I think judo is fantastic for self defense. I do BJJ also, but prefer Judo. Judo will teach you how to control another person, possibly preventing a fight from actually happening. You can't have ALL lethal techniques in your arsenal... If you do need to jack someone up, slamming them on the ground will probably do the trick.

I recommend a competition-focused school, contracting an earlier poster. Competition is the only way to find out if your techniques work "in the real world." Same thing with any other discipline. If you hear that "our art is too deadly for the ring" that person is chock full of bull pucky.

With all due respect to competition focused schools... does your competition school compete to see if you successfully pull off a gun disarm or get shot?  Do you compete with knives?

I learned a whole lot of dirty tricks from Israeli schools.  Go down the list of the competition rules for MMA... we learned techniques that violate most of 'em.  Eye gouges, groin strikes, breaking necks...

The eye jab was one of Bruce Lee's favorite moves.  

Kelly McCann talks about how his students had a "Black belt burning" after they found out how ineffective their traditional martial arts skills were in streetfighting.  (IMHO judo and ju-jutsu are some of the most practical martial arts)

Nope, there is no weapons training. I don't see this as a deficit though. Learning how to control another person's body works with and without weapons. Wrist control is wrist control with and without a knife. In the chaos of a fight, fundamentals are what's going to be important, not some trick disarming move. (Unless you've drilled the exact scenario 1000's of times) I've rolled with people that are really into fighting with weapons, and in my experience, they are terrible fighters. They focus on training for extremely low probability fight events, like someone running at you with a knife raised over their head. I believe that it's better to train the fundamentals of unarmed combat, and improvise the low-probability events, like having to fight a midget with a chainsaw. (I'm sure some dojo out there trains for this.)

As for dirty tricks, they are good to have, but you must be careful that you aren't developing a collection of only dirty tricks, without strong fight fundamentals. Finger manipulation is cool, and possibly useful, but if you can't take a person to the ground and stay in control of them, what use is breaking a finger? Breaking necks? Would you seriously do that to somebody you got into a fight with? Realistically, I see no value in training in that. Rendering someone unconscious with a choke does the same thing, without the life-ruining legal aftermath.

The advantage of being in a competition-focused school is that you know how to apply all of your techniques to a resisting opponent. Competitions are as close to a real fight as you're going to get, it will help you control your adrenaline, breathing, thought process, etc. Those are benefits you can't get from drilling lethal moves at a self-defense focused school. A person in completion will have actually choked out people, applied joint locks, and scored takedowns, while under a high level of stress. A knife fighter cannot practice actually cutting someone, or taking a real knife from someone ACTUALLY trying to stab them. (The gun stuff you can kinda practice with gas powered airsoft or simunitions, it hurts pretty badly.) I'll put my money on the person with competition experience when if comes to a real fight.

And that's my opinion, worth every cent you paid for it.

lol krav maga

This is why I liked Russian Systema as the instructors only used what actually worked (they had real world experience in the use of the art in military situations) and taught you to make your own system of martial arts based on how you naturally moved. It teaches efficiency and economy in motion and is very similar to Jeet Kune Do in philosophy. They used real blades without an edge and a rounded point and they tried to actually stab you. Yes, it hurt! You did learn quickly as they started slowly and sped it up so that you would understand and be able to follow it. It also...was not done with any anger or aggression. They believe that the student and teacher are both learning here. A lot of laughter too.

In short, HELL YES it is good for self defense.

if you could get proficient in judo and boxing, you'd PWN 99% of the meatheads out there that might try you.

Good luck to you, sir.

Kelly McCann is a joke.

Would you mind elaborating?  This is not a flame.  Seriously interested in your thoughts, and whether you've had direct training with him to formulate the opinion?

I'd rather learn to actually beat another unarmed person then pretend to disarm someone with a gun.

i did judo for awhile as a young teen. only got to green then had to stop due to family issues. i have had some tussels in my life and my work as a firefighter paramedic as caused me to need to control a person from time to time in the back of a ambulance. judo has stuck with me and the methods and skill i think are far better than karate or tekwondo would have.

Breaking necks. I doubt they actually break any necks in training. It might not be quit as easy as you might think.

Old school catch wrestling used neck crinks and other "dirty" techniques not practiced anymore. But they actually used them, like, for real. In competition.

Its real good for learning to break fall, tearing your opponent's balance down and redirecting the energy of an attack. Learning to break fall is worth its own merit alone.To be an excellent technician, it takes a long time to master some of the techniques where you can apply them effectively. A few of the throws are easy to learn, very effective and easy to implement. The holds, locks, chokes and bars are fairly easy to apply.

I did a judo hip toss to a friend when he was trying to grab me, and i also was able to prevent being thrown using a defense underarm judo technique. I never learned judo, but i have watched a lot of mma fights. So yes learn it and then learn the other like jiu jitsu,wrestling, kickboxing, etc...

Judo is VERY effective.  In many Japanese police departments, newly hired officers are required to obtain a black belt in Judo and Kendo within a reasonable time period if they want to keep their job.  I worked out with a number of them, and the belief was that use of baton corresponded with Kendo, and Judo corresponded with ALL hands on techniques.  

In most fights, I found that I was more comfortable when someone put their hands on me, because then I knew exactly what that hand, and most of their body was doing.  I didn't need to look for what I wanted to grab.  The Japanese jujutsu I studied has judo techniques as a large component of study.  As a result, any time someone NOT familiar with judo grabbed me, I felt they had put themselves at a horrible disadvantage.  And I was always right...  By grabbing me, they gave me an appendage to manipulate without me having to look for it, or struggle to obtain it.  I always felt like "That was really stupid on your part" when they reached to grab me. It always worked so well that it felt like I was cheating.

Neck breaks ARE taught in some jujutsu to higher ranking students.  There were some advanced kata we did that had them as a component.

Yeah, what I mean is that actual neck breaking isn't done. Once upon a time I was taught "neck breaks" but we never acually used 'em in a full contact setting.

Obviously, there is a great reason that neck breaks aren't actually done.   We used to have one throw that I hated to even do to other people.  The throw was designed to use against someone grabbing you around the middle from behind.  As they are thrown, they land on the ground, with you landing on top of their rib cage.  In the real world, such a throw and landing would break their arm in two places, most likely either break the collar bone, or dislocate the shoulder, and crush the ribs in the side where you land on top of them.

Even when doing this throw as gently as possible to people I liked, someone usually ended up with their feathers rubbed the wrong way.  I didn't even like being the guy doing the throwing.  I would most certainly use it if needed though.

These sorts of techniques are the difference between true battle field jujutsu, and sport judo.  In one, the techniques are designed to do a tremendous amount of damage, in the other one, the techniques are designed so you can continue to practice without fear of grave bodily harm.

My issue is that anything you don't practice full force has an element of theory built into it. It is actually making it work in a full force competition setting which proves its effectiveness. If the battle field techniques worked so well, why didn't they dominate early MMA?

i'm looking to study judo to supplement bjj training.  i see judo as specialization in standing take downs with handles available.  wrestling is standing take downs with no handles available.  judo is a great system to study but it's only applicable to one specific area of fighting which is when you're standing against your opponent and he is wearing clothing that can be gripped.   i'd break it down like this....

- standing open guard = boxing, kickboxing
- standing clench with handles = judo
- standing clench with no handles = wrestling takedowns
- entangled on the ground = bjj

if i were just starting self defense, i'd start with the striking or the bjj and focus on the takedowns later once i had a solid foundation on how to deal with before and after the takedown.

Jui-jitsu would be a better option if you can.

I'll throw in that BJJ tends to use the wrestling leg takesdowns a lot even in actual GI BJJ. Judo throws can be powerful but require more of a set up.

I don't believe in one system approaches to self-defense. Your first line of defense should be avoidance. To willingly go into situations which you know are dangerous is really just asking for a bad outcome, even if you prevail. Learn sweeps and take downs for people who get too close. Learn to use your feet to attack from the crotch down. Use your feet to establish and maintain your opponents distance. Knee kicks, done right, will end a fight. Wrist and arm locks are a mandatory skill. Boxing hand technique is the best when you are able to cover ground quickly. It's your feet position and balance that allows you to punch with power, if you are using any of your arm muscles your technique is flawed.

I'm old now and know for a fact that I will be at a severe disadvantage against anyone that practices any form of self-defense. This is especially true because the overwhelming majority of people interested in honing these skills are under 35. I fought for three years (19 - 21 yrs. old) and have been punched well over 10,000 times in my life. This explains manner things, which up till now had remained a mystery.

I learned some Hapkido, Tang Soo Do, wrestling, but mostly I boxed daily three to six rounds full contact. If you want to fight and win competitively against other young men you have to run full speed a minimum of three miles every day. You have to do a minimum of 300* sit-ups every day. Over a half hour of stretching twice each day. Total gym time, not counting shower, was two hours minimum per day plus whatever time was spent running first thing every morning. At least 25 minutes was devoted to running each day not counting 10 minute warm-up and 10 minute stretching thereafter.

A commitment of 3 hours each day, seven days a week, was the minimum level of commitment I needed to "feel" fully competent and actually "be" fully competent. Then I got a full time job and that lifestyle dissolved inside of six months.

Take from every discipline the tools that fit you, become comfortable free style and use them. All martial arts are related and the skill sets cross over and can become a living part of you only when you maintain them at a very high level through daily discipline. Once lost, they remain only in your mind, the body can't follow.

* Floyd Mayweather Jr. reportedly does 600 upside-down sit-ups daily.

The key thing you need to have for self defense is grappling. Wrestling, judo, bjj or sambo. Absent that no style of striking can be considered effective on its own.

Fitness is great, but the skills involved in grappling will work even if you are not in top shape.

Self defense judo with a legit instructor is fucking scary. I honest to god would rather fight Mike Tyson in a bar brawl than the Combat Judo instructor I had in college.

Take some Krav Maga or Muay Thai to learn how to use your hands, knees, elbows, legs.

Basically in a street fight the last thing you want is to be on the ground. Bad things happen on the ground.

Shop around though and talk to the instructors about what you want . If you're willing to dedicate the next decade of your life to a Martial Art good on you, I have and it's the best decision I ever made.

BUT Technique Overload can get you killed or put in the hospital. If you don't want to read that the premis is, too many choices slows reaction time. Perfection is the enemy of good. A true self defense curriculum will provide 1 or 2 options to the various scenarios you will likely encounter in a fight. You will then drill them until you don't have to think anymore. Those options will be the most basic and have the highest probability for sucess balanced against the lowest possibility of getting yourself into a compromised position.

TL;DR Make sure your self defense instructor teaches you K.I.S.S moves first and you drill them most frequently. Judo works IRL

REALLY? Damn dude think about that for a second and get back to us. You know what here let me help you, why didn't Krav Maga techniques dominate early MMA?

Still don't get it? Okay, self defense moves where permanent injury and even death can result or are meant to result, are generally fucking frowned upon in sporting competition. A ring/cage is not the street or a battlefield (despite what some people might like to think).

IIRC, in UFC 1 you could use any unarmed technique you wanted, except biting, eye gouges, and groin strikes. One guy did bite, he lost anyway.

For UFC 2 through 5, groin strikes were allowed.

You are correct that the ring is not the battlefield. Weapons and buddies are not allowed, and you have to stop pounding the guy when the ref says so. That does not mean unarmed MAs that fail in the ring do better in the street or battlefield.

Lots of weird nerd fighting going on here.  First post nailed it.

judo is great for self defense. It,s one of the few arts you can practice all out. full effort in trying to take a person down and in defending. you will find out what works for you and what doesn't. Ive been training in the martial arts for twenty years now, kempo was my first art i got a shodan in. I started judo 7 years ago and it has changed the way i think. It doesn't matter if you know how to fall or not if you get thrown on the concrete it's going to hurt real bad. you should train all ranges for self defense, kicking, punching, clinch,and the ground. bjj is great but a lot of bjj guys don't work the take downs they just want to pull guard which can get you hurt real bad on the street as a beginner.

I agree completely. If it wasn't for my judo there is no possible way I would have won my division at my last BJJ tournament. My opponent weighed in at 400 pounds. He had 150 on me and if he got me on the ground I would have tapped just because of the weight.

The only path to victory I saw was a throw that would take the fight out of him. Luckily his lack of Judo made him play right into it. Check out the throw and submission at 1:40.

http://youtu.be/aqGe79feVS0

That ultra heavy weight division life lol

nice throw right into mount. throws like that are hard on the bid guys, especially when they don't know how to fall.

Judo is highly effective technique-wise. Its biggest advantage though is actual practice against a resisting opponent. Since the end of WW2, Judo has emphasized safer sporting techniques but the old school stuff can still be found. Look hard at techniques like Ippon seionage. Turn that throw around and do it from the outside, rather than the inside and what happens? Broken arm/shoulder and a fall that is a face plant rather than a back roll is what happens. Early Judo emphasized strikes as an entry to a throw. Look at the kata. lots of elbows and knees. They don't seem to have emphasized it to the point that Karate does because the throw is considered the haymaker. Judo is an infighting method where as Karate tends to be a 'stick and move' outfighting method.
Personally, I wish these things were more widely taught, if only for "what if" purposes, though you'd have to back down practice intensity or just teach kata if you wanted to keep your students healthy. On the street, using methods that kill, maim or disable your opponent for life are going to be really hard to justify to a judge.
To those who say don't go to the ground against multiple opponents, just about any Judoka agrees. But Judo is great for learning to stay on your feet and not go to ground when you don't want to. Understanding/practicing balance and body dynamics is what it's all about. Your practice partner will be trying to take you down the whole time after all. Never forget, the enemy gets a vote too. If you do go down, you will try to land in an advantageous position so you can rapidly finish your opponent and/or disengage quickly. Practitioners of striking arts are usually helpless once you break their balance. I've thrown lots of Karate/Taekwondo guys by getting inside their preferred range and taking them off balance. BJJ probably does a lot of things about as well as Judo and does practice striking but also seems less refined and a slightly more dangerous practice. That could be my bias showing though.

Judo is excellent for self defense.

Take down defense, throws, chokes. Its great stuff.

Judo is a complete system. The reason you think it's only throws is that in competition one good throw ends the match, so many schools focus on that at first. Judo has lots of ground fighting techniques, no gi takedown techniques, and even has a couple weapons disarms.

Judo is a fantastic martial art because it introduced the practice of randori, which is fighting against a fully resisting training partner. He is fantastic for self defense. One of the best ways to end a fight is to put them on the ground so hard that they don't want anymore. Then if you tie it in with Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, you are absolutely golden. BJJ after all, was born from Judo.

Throw in some boxing, and you're a damn machine.

Wow.  You could have just stalled him for another minute and he would have dropped dead from exhaustion.  Nice throw.  You showed him mercy by doing it.