BaffledExperts by Adam Norman

12: Newaza (groundfighting)

A little history
Judo fighters used to be among the best wrestlers in the world. Now, and with few exceptions, we’re middling or worse on the ground. Some competitive judoka can apparently ignore ground fighting entirely. Many others do it only very poorly. Thus, it has come to pass that a martial art that that once appeared miraculous and terrifiying now only elicits ridicule.

I am almost positive this has been because of changes in the judo rules. Here’s a short history lesson based entirely on hearsay:

Jigoro Kano, the inventor of judo, thought that ju jitsu was pretty good, but he realized that it was too dangerous. In ju jitsu, they poked eyes, broke backs and grabbed throats. And, since you can only be the uke for an eye-poking drill twice, Kano toned it down. He figured that a self defense style needs to be practiced, and because it takes a lot of skill to poke someone in the eye, strike their throat or break their back, especially in the heat of a fight, the arts that rely on such techniques (as ju jitsu did), are really quite impoverished while appearing very deadly.

Kano thought that a good martial art needed to be practiced at full speed with full power, so he took the deadly(est) stuff out of ju jitsu and left in the effective (but not invariably lethal) moves. Because they could train over and over again, judoka were able to get good. Kano emphasized throws and self-defense and achieved a  measure of recognition in Japan.

While I am not sure Kano meant it, regular practice on unwilling opponents limits martial inbreeding. Kung fu and capoera fighters will know what I’m talking about--like a fire extinguisher, a martial art needs to be periodically tested to ensure it works. Without that testing, arts tend to get overly stylistic and dancy. Fighters sometimes think they are developing themselves into ninja killing machines, when in fact they are developing skills of no use at all in real combat. [1] Real fights are nasty nut kicking and strangling affairs, not high kicking and ones.  Kano had the right idea. Judo worked, and it could be proved to work.

Kano’s school dominated Japanese competitions for several years--until they competed in newaza (wrestling) with practitioners of what was called fusen ryu. The fusen ryu fighters took judoka to the mat and submitted them. Fusen ryu players  would simply refuse to stand and fight, as the judoka were expecting them to, and once the judoka were off their feet, they were slaughtered. Kano, the clever bugger, promptly hired the chief fusen ryu teacher and incorporated newaza into the judo curriculum.

Unfortunately (in my opinion) judo soon became more sporting and competition-oriented, and throws are more exciting than grappling to unsophisticated spectators.  So, in 1925, Kano changed the rules to penalize fighters who worked on the ground. By this time, however, a judo fighter had travelled to Brazil, where he taught the Gracie family. The Gracies preserved and improved upon what they learned. (Basic Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and very good newaza remain very similar, which gives some indication that the Gracies improved on, rather than reinvented, what they were taught.) Had the newaza techniques not been preserved in then out-of-the-way Brazil, I suspect they would have been lost altogether.

There is a most remarkable series of videos online (called Kosen Judo) that show the incredible skills that judo fighters used to have. They also show our remarkable similarities to BJJ. The old judoka pull guard, fight a lying opponent from standing, and use the knee-on-belly position, among other things. These techniques are all more-or-less lost to judoka now, but remain in BJJ.

In the middle twentieth century, judo stupidly continued to become more and more focused on sporting competition and television appeal. It became inbred, in other words, and lost sight of Kano's very great insight: artifice destroys effectiveness. The rules and the prejudices of judges make ground fighting a fairly insignificant part of televised judo. What remains of newaza is practiced almost entirely only in judo clubs, not in fights. Newaza, it is thought, is too boring to watch on TV.

So, while we worked ever harder at making each other fall down better and better, BJJ fighters completely dethroned us where technique really matters and where most fights are won or lost: on the ground. They did so by preserving newaza, improving upon it, and constantly testing it in the ring. For a comparable amount of training, a BJJ fighter is much better on the ground--and, indeed, a much better fighter. And I, for one, am nothing but grateful to BJJ practitioners for showing us how much we have fallen behind.[2]  I seem to be in the minority, however; recent rule changes have again penalized ground fighting--Kano’s philosophy of adoption, integration, and improvement has been abandoned.

Let me be clear: what I will present here is basic judo ground fighting. I love and admire BJJ, but I know almost nothing about it. I wish I did, but this is judo, plain and simple.

How to fight
There is a kind of culture to newaza fighting. Good fighters do not merely win; good fighters win well.

Good grapplers are gentle. This may seem strange, since we choke, crush, and break our opponents’ limbs. Yet in a well-fought fight against an unskilled opponent, it is possible to win without causing pain, and none of the most brutal techniques is necessary. A good fighter escalates proportionately to the danger she feels.

Having been strangled many times, I can tell you that it just about the nicest way to lose a fight. It is bloodless and painless. One falls asleep without any real discomfort. Hold downs, too, can allow both parties to collect themselves, or, if this is not foreseeable, for friends and authorities to arrive to separate them non-violently. Even joint locks can be applied slowly; on the ground, your opponent really cannot fight back or escape from most locks, even if they are applied very and slowly.

All of this makes judo well-suited for modern life. In a real fight on the street, it is very possible to keep your wallet but lose your fortune. If you fight, you take your life and your opponent's into your hands. Things escalate quickly, and a hair separates life from death. Even if you ’win’ a fight, you can lose everything important to you: your house, your lover, your friends. The ’loser’ in a fight can ruin the winner through lawsuits and criminal cases.

I do not bemoan this. I do not think that this is unjust. Violence is a foaming, wet and warty beast. It deserves no mercy. It is, despite everything I say through the rest of this book, completely abominable, and it must be extirpated.  Grappling offers the best chance to defend oneself without jeopardizing all that one values. It offers very good total self defense, taking the long view of ’self’ and ’defense’.

It seems to me that this makes judo a martial art that is particularly well suited to 21st century life.


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[1] I don't want to disparage the arts. Capoeira and kung fu are beautiful and athletic. I am sure they are a delight to practice, and I am sure their practitioners love their arts as much as I love judo. I just don't think that they're much good for fighting. And look, fighting is stupid. Fighting is awful, and an expression of our basest natures. What decent person would want to be good at it?

[2] I’m not sure how they feel about us. In Mastering Jujitsu, Renzo Gracie is extremely gracious. He says many nice things about judo and traces his art back to our shared history. To be honest, I think he gives us more credit than we are due. However Helio Gracie, the grand patriarch of the Gracie clan, is much less decent. He says that Esai Maeda (the man who brought judo to Brazil) was a jiu jitsu practitioner, when in fact he was a judoka. It is not clear to me why he will not acknowledge the very, very small debt judo is owed.