Judo is a competitive and fun sport. It is the only martial art that is an Olympic event. Judo teaches you how to walk and move with balance, how to fall and be thrown without injury, and how to upset an opponents balance with speed and skill instead of strength. Judo promotes physical fitness and is an excellent form of self-defense. The internal benefits that you can realize are many; self-discipline, anger control, improved concentration.
Falling is the first skill that you will be taught. Later, you will learn many throws and wrestling-like maneuvers to control and off balance an opponent. Youths will learn chokes. Arm bars are taught to adults, and the more advanced youth. There are no kicks or strikes allowed in competition judo. This allows you to spar against one another without holding back and with minimal risk of injury. According to the American College of Sports Medicine, Judo is the safest contact sport for children under age 13.
Judo training has many forms for different interests. Some students train for competition by sparring, and competing in tournaments. Other students study the traditional art and forms (kata) of Judo. Other students train for self-defense, and yet other students play Judo for fun and fitness
Judo originates from the ancient Japanese art of jujutsu, a system of hand-to-hand combat. What is unique to the art is that one did not use brute strength to overpower an opponent, but rather skill, finesse and flexibility. Economy of energy, balance, and grace were the outstanding hallmarks of the good jujutsu practitioner. Unlike the Western hand-to-hand fighter, the jujutsu fighter was expected to be soft and pliable, winning by appearing to yield. Jujutsu had many types of schools, which differed in emphasis and strategy. Some specialized in throwing, others in groundwork, and others in striking.
Dr. Jigoro Kano, founder of modern Judo, was born in the town of Mikage in Japan, on October 28th 1860. In his youth, Kano studied Jujutsu under a number of different masters and styles to him, only techniques that kept practitioners from spending much physical and mental energy should be incorporated into the system. One should use the energy of one's opponent to defeat his or her aggression. He called the resulting body of knowledge Judo (the gentle way). To propagate his art Kano founded the Kodokan (the "school to learn the way") in 1882.
Kano built his system around three major sets of techniques: throwing (nage waza), groundwork (katame waza), and striking (atemi waza). Groundwork is organized into holds (osaekomi waza), strangulations (Shime waza), and joint locks (Kansetsu waza). Judo's striking techniques included upper (ude ate) and lower limb blows (ashi ate). Among the striking techniques were those utilizing fists, elbows, hand-edges, fingers, knees and feet as striking points.
Kano utilized four teaching methods in his dojo: Randori (free practice of all Judo technique), kata (pre-arranged forms, considered the more technical rituals of the art), KO (his systematic lecturing), and mondo (periods of question and answer). His extensive use of Randori as a teaching tool was a departure from many of the teachings of the jujitsu masters. Judo retained many jujitsu techniques. Many more were not included as they were difficult to practice without injury.
As Judo spread throughout the Western world, it slowly changed from being primarily learned as a martial art to being played as a sport, however, without the inclusion of the striking techniques. Its eventual popularity in World and Regional Games and inclusion in the 1964 Olympic Games led more and more to an emphasis on the physical and competitive aspects of the art.
Judo is becoming extremely popular. Judo is the most practiced martial art worldwide. In its popularity as a sport it is second only to soccer in number of participant’s worldwide.