BaffledExperts by Adam Norman

4: The basics of fighting

The Kodokan, the home of judo, lists 67 official throws. I’ll let you in on a secret: nobody really knows them all. Of course, any good black belt will know their names, but nobody can do them all well.

Most good fighters know only a few throws but can do them marvelously. You, as a newcomer to judo, should follow their example. Pick a few throws, maybe six, and practice them often. I can almost guarantee that you will never need more than those. My teacher, a former national champ, says that you only need one throw—one you can do in any situtation, perfectly, each and every time. I think he’s probably being excessively rhetorical, so I’ve included descriptions of more than six good, effective, popular throws later in the book.

The stance

Traditionally, martial artists are said to take ‘stances’. Stances are stupid. They makes your opponent’s job much too easy. You should move. Moving is the easiest defense of all: to never get beat up, never stop backing up.

Judoka start their fights in a very sensible way. While we only grapple, we stand in a way that lends itself to real fighting—fighting that includes strikes. We stand quite upright with our shoulders slightly hunched, our chins down, and our hands open and up. Our legs are slightly bent and our weight is on the balls of our feet. I think it is good practice to bend the knees in slightly to discourage kicks to the gonads, even though kicks are illegal in judo. Keeping the shoulders hunched and the chin down helps prevent punches to the jaw. Keeping the hands open and up allows for good defense and offense. The placement of our legs allows us to move quickly and fluidly.

A right-handed judoka will tend to start with her right hand and right foot forward. This is a little odd; strikers generally prefer to have their weak hands forward. I’m not sure why this is, but it doesn’t matter much, as the tussling of a grappling fight makes any fighter move her feet back and forth between left and right.

As most people are right-handed, and as almost all judo fighters like to fight with their dominant hand forward, two judoka will tend to start fighting with their feet parallel to one another’s, since each person’s right foot is forward.

There is no good reason to fight like this. If you happen to be left-handed, or if you simply want to make things interesting, switch your feet around and fight southpaw. It makes life harder for your opponent. She will need to move much farther to get some of the basic throws, and there are only a few right-handed techniques that work against a off-stance fighter.

The grip

Once the fight begins, most judoka simply step forward and attempt to take a grip. The most desirable one is one where you hold your opponent’s lapel with your dominant hand and grip his sleeve with your weaker hand.

This is a great grip. It is strong enough to let you to move your opponent, and flexible enough to leave you many different options for attacking. All the other grips are inferior.

Ideally, you should take your grip and immediately throw. This rarely happens in the dojo, however; it is just too hard to throw an experienced judoka.

An experienced opponent will make you work for your grip. She will push your hands off her gi and neutralize your arms by making it impossible for you to bend them to generate power. While this can be very frustrating, there is no magic to it.

Principle 2: If they can’t grab you, they can’t throw you.

Do not go willingly into any fight. Rather than simply bowing, gripping and struggling, block your opponent’s hands, fight her grips and neutralize her arms [1]. When your opponent reaches in, smack her hand away. As you do so, be sure to take the initiative and get your own grip. If your opponent gets hold of you, peel her hand off. Push on her thumb following the line of your lapel or pull her fingers away. (Judo rules dictate that you pull all of her fingers at once, as if she were wearing mittens. Don't break her fingers)

This kind of fighting may feel cheap. Me, I have always felt that this was dirty and sleazy. Whatever I feel, it really works. A savvy judoka, though, will soon expose your weakness, perhaps by faking an approach and then taking a different grip.

Alternate grips

There are a few grips other than the lapel-sleeve grip that are great to have, among them the high collar grip, the double lapel, and the clinch.

The high collar grip works best on opponents who are your size or smaller. With it, you can force your opponent into a hunched over and defensive position. You can also prevent him from getting close to you, and you can make him fight with his weak side forward. As he twists about, he will be opened up to all sorts of nice throws.

Unfortunately, your opponent probably will not want you to keep this grip, and it is an easy grip to defeat. If you get grabbed like this, reach just inside your opponent’s arm and take a grip that closely mirrors your opponent’s. If you press your arm against his, you will effectively eliminate his ability to pull on you. This means he cannot get you moving (to get what we call kuzushi, or off-balancing), and therefore cannot throw. He won’t want to release his own high collar grip, though, because doing so would leave you with one. Mirroring his grip, then, will tie up his hand—and yours.

While this will beat his grip, you will find yourself at a small disadvantage. Your stance will, in all likelihood, switch to an off-hand stance, as your left arm will be fighting his right arm.

Oh, and when you take the high collar grip, there is a danger of having your arm broken. Your opponent may try to grab your right hand with his right hand and swing his left arm over your straightened right arm. He will try to hyperextend your arm and break your elbow with his armpit. It’s a move called wake gatame. You can usually prevent this by keeping your elbow bent.

The high collar grip gives you excellent control over your opponent’s torso. With it, you can bend him over easily and expose him to big hip and leg throws. The double lapel grip or double pocket grip is quite nice, too, and it affords quite a bit of control. I don't favour it to the same degree, though, because I find it hard to move my own body when both of my hands are close together. Hip throws don't come as easily because there is less space. With the double grips, though, you can move your opponent left and right very nicely. This will let you adjust the weight he places on his legs and therefore leave him vulnerable to foot sweeps and reaps.

Finally, if you are feeling quite aggressive, try a clinch. Even very experienced judo fighters tend to be totally unprepared for it, and they will often allow you to get even the king of clinches: the Muay Thai clinch. While the full Muay Thai is disorienting and unpleasant for your opponent, it is actually quite hard to throw from. Don't let your opponent know that, though—the clinch is terrifying. It tells your opponent (rightly or wrongly) that you have trained somewhere else and possibly at an advanced level, either in Muay Thai or no-gi Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. This will make them afraid of you, even if you have no idea what you’re doing.

A hierarchy of grips

If it were up to me, I would choose grips in the following order, from best to worst.

• Lapel and sleeve
• High collar and sleeve
• Double lapel
• Double armpit

The other grips are inferior. It’s hard to throw someone with these:

• Double sleeve
• Belt

I feel most comfortable with the good strong grips at the top of this list and less comfortable with the others. The best grips offer the most opportunity for offense and defense; those on the bottom are generally good for defense, but have limited offensive potential.

Exercise to practice gripping and breaking grips

This is the easiest exercise going. Stand across from your opponent. Each of you tries to take the best grip you can get. Pulling and pushing are allowed, but don’t throw each other. It’s harder than it sounds.

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1. As usual, the judo administration has tried to ruin everything good. The International Judo Federation has now restricted grip fighting, even though it's a perfectly sensible defensive technique. They've done so, I imagine, to please the TV cameras.