>I think that the most important skill in judo, as in MMA, is your ability to adapt to what your opponent gives you.
One meaning of Ju 柔 (soft, pliant, yielding, flexible) is “adaptable”. You can try to force your style of Judo in a match but more elegantly you use the force and weaknesses of your opponent.
On ambidexterity – I know only one high level Judoka, who was really ambidextrous:
It’s interesting that in a recent interview with the IJF, Ono Shohei claims that he hardly ever watch his opponenents’ videos or his own. (He claims that he “don’t just adjust to my opponents”. (I wonder if this video got you thinking.) His goal has always simply been to improve his own style of judo that fits his own attributes. I wonder how true is that? May be this is only possible if you have the talent to be the best of the best, when your throws are pretty much unstoppable, and for most of us mortals and those competing at lower levels, such a mentality might not work?
I find that apart from Naohisa Takato, most Japanese players tend to be pretty standard in their gripping and throws, nor particularly ambidextrous in the sense that they have a strong forward throw to the opposite side of their stance. Of course, all of them can throw from a variety of grips, but I don’t feel that they are anything particularly extraordinary and is true of any serious competitor.
At first I thought this was going to be about adapting your judo to neutralize strikes.
I’m a big fan of ambidextrous development, and if I understood him correctly, so is Neil Adams. But it’s not the prevailing philosophy, because it does not bring results in high level competition (the example you give is an exception, not rule). I’m not even sure you can make the case that ambidexterity will help you in MMA. You will however, tilt odds in your favor if you can play lefty (because your opponents are less likely to practice against a southpaw).
Artofbalancedojo
How do you develop your judoka? Or what is your ideal development?
fleischlaberl
>I think that the most important skill in judo, as in MMA, is your ability to adapt to what your opponent gives you.
One meaning of Ju 柔 (soft, pliant, yielding, flexible) is “adaptable”. You can try to force your style of Judo in a match but more elegantly you use the force and weaknesses of your opponent.
On ambidexterity – I know only one high level Judoka, who was really ambidextrous:
Angelo Parisi
https://www.reddit.com/r/judo/comments/313ttl/angelo_parisi_an_ambidextrous_alltime_great_of/
Philo722
It’s interesting that in a recent interview with the IJF, Ono Shohei claims that he hardly ever watch his opponenents’ videos or his own. (He claims that he “don’t just adjust to my opponents”. (I wonder if this video got you thinking.) His goal has always simply been to improve his own style of judo that fits his own attributes. I wonder how true is that? May be this is only possible if you have the talent to be the best of the best, when your throws are pretty much unstoppable, and for most of us mortals and those competing at lower levels, such a mentality might not work?
Link: https://youtu.be/yPjdjOVXJik
I find that apart from Naohisa Takato, most Japanese players tend to be pretty standard in their gripping and throws, nor particularly ambidextrous in the sense that they have a strong forward throw to the opposite side of their stance. Of course, all of them can throw from a variety of grips, but I don’t feel that they are anything particularly extraordinary and is true of any serious competitor.
wuj
At first I thought this was going to be about adapting your judo to neutralize strikes.
I’m a big fan of ambidextrous development, and if I understood him correctly, so is Neil Adams. But it’s not the prevailing philosophy, because it does not bring results in high level competition (the example you give is an exception, not rule). I’m not even sure you can make the case that ambidexterity will help you in MMA. You will however, tilt odds in your favor if you can play lefty (because your opponents are less likely to practice against a southpaw).