is Judo or BJJ Easier? (8 Questions w/ a Judo Black Belt)

BJJ was harder for me to learn, Judo was harder on my body. There's a lot more technique in BJJ as a whole. You're on your feet more in Judo, also hitting the ground a lot more more.

2nd Dan Judoka and Purple BJJ here. Grapling for over 25 years, ill have a shot at some of these: 1. How to develope and effienct foot sweep, I feel its about repition and consistently trying them out during sparing. you need to be aware of the foot sweep you want to do and learn the one you want. Also be mindful that footsweeps should be quick low effort throws, foot sweeps are one of the hardest things to master in Judo and therefore theres no easy answer other than keep trying them. 2 Whats easier: From a physical toll on the body BJJ is easier, as im getting older BJJ certainly feels nicer for me to do. Judo is more explosive and due to the falls and gravity more can go wrong in terms of injury. Judo is all about muscel memory and fast dynamic movement, but as long as you are good at grip fighting, can do foot sweeps you basically only need to be good at like 2 maybe 3 throws. In BJJ however you need to have a much wider array of moves to know, and you will likley chain together much longer sequences of moves. In Judo the combos tend to be 2 maybe 3 moves at most. Finally id say the learning curve for judo is longer, in BJJ you can start to see the benifits of training sooner. in Judo you suck for longer lol. 3. Countering wrestling vs Judo: for me it depends on if its gi or no gi, In gi its all about getting a strong good grip which I use to kill single or double leg attempts as I know vs a wrestler thats going to be their go to, or trying to get around my back. Once I have some strong grips the effectiveness of all of this is massively reduced. from here focusing on foot sweeps is my general go to as this is less common in wrestling and generally low risk from my point of view, any big throws I go for will generally be forward throws as again these are less common in wrestling, if they do get a single leg the counter I use is sumi Gashi. In no gi the wrestler has a massive advantage and generally they should be taking me down vs an equal skilled oppoenent. but my game plan would be aiming for a forward throw like drop seio as soon as I can try one. 4. How to train throws without getting hurt: during drilling this shouldnt be a major issue as long as people are being tought correctly, during sparing you need to accecpt your going to be thrown sometimes, and often times the key is to know just to go over rather than to fight tooth and nail to not go down. when you start just go in with the mind set of you want to move around and feel how take downs agaisnt you feel, always make sure your trying to put attacks in as well, but really avoid just being defesive and trying not to be thrown. 5. how to take down a defesive BJJ player: my go to is snap down if they are that bent over, just keep spamming a snap down, eventually it will work or they will bring their head up get closer in. I also find that Yoko-otoshi with a katagurma style grip works well on people with hips well back. and I also combine this with an ankle pick/grab 6. how to properly fake a throw: I think to do this you need to be able to do the throw you want to fake first and you need to put in some genuine attacks with it as well so your oppoent knows its a real threat, there needs to be a full body movement in the direction of the fake so they feel it. I dont even bother doing fakes with most BJJ guys as they just dont react anyways, fakes are needed for people who know more stand up 7. How do you get the most from comp matches: These days I treat them like simply having a hard spar at another gym, I go with the mindset of trying to have some fun. 8. Worst Injury from Judo: Snapped ACL due to tani otoshi

Judo is unquestionably harder for older people. We do takedowns regularly at my school but if I was getting ragdolled from standing at every class I’d need cortisone to get out of bed.

The MMA gym I train at offers BJJ and Judo. I joined mostly for the BJJ, and thought I might train Judo at the same time. Turns out I don't think I can sustain doing both (I'm 62 yr old BJJ blue belt) right now, but I did do a few Judo classes. The instructor is a Judo coral belt and BJJ black belt. The warm-up was a different kind of brutal and took some adjustment. Lots of break-falls, both back and side, front-rolls, and back rolls. Oh, and learning to count in Japanese. Helped me now feel even more comfortable and capable with these. I really liked the throw instruction, the emphasis on lots of set-ups ( they called them "fits") and reps. The setups are very thorough, to the edge of completing the throw. Improved my Ogoshi, Osoto Gari, and Uchi Mata (forgive my spellings) right away with just a few classes, and learned a couple others I don't remember their names. And you also get a lot more reps in hitting the ground relatively hard. Good break falls are your friend. The instructor is very "old school", and I've been told sometimes he teaches the Judo approach to ground work to supplement BJJ. The pinning is pretty brutal. He's also very thorough, and has a high standard for learning the technique details, constantly commenting and correcting students, which I appreciated and didn't mind at all. Oh, and the first class where there were upper Judo belts sparring was a bit horrifying. Those guys throwing each other, flying through the air, landing with perfect break-falls effortlessly, yelling their "ki ya" or whatever they call it was very impressive. Wow. I hope to build my training back up to where I can consistently make it to at least one Judo class a week, but right now I'm focused on re-habing an injury and getting back into my usual BJJ class schedule.

We're focusing on takedowns/throws this cycle at my gym so perfect timing for me!

For me Judo is way harder. Requires more speed and athleticism and coordination (which I don't have). And getting thrown sucks.

Great video. I am a judoka that transitioned to bjj. Its the best of both worlds!!

Who knew Dominic Cruz was a Judo guy!? Crazy..

Judoka go into BJJ post retirement . That says a lot about the physical difficulty. Judo requires more athleticism and understanding of timing whereas BJJ’s “chess aspect” gives you a much longer window to hit a sweep. You have sometimes a second to be able to actually throw someone otherwise your technique doesn’t work. Yes most judoka get good at 2-4 throws but throwing someone means you’re able to stop a human being who has decades of experience standing up to be thrown flat on their back. In BJJ u could learn an armbar and someone else only has drilled the defense for maybe a month or two. Hence judo being harder to implement and harder physically. BJJ has a lot more systems of techniques

Great video. I love that both are learning from each other. In my opinion, for your body, Judo is great for <20-25 year olds while BJJ is better for 25< and beyond

From a former collage wrestler that has trained in both judo and bjj, I found judo easer to learn and incorporate into collegiate wrestling , but bjj more effective in Greco Roman and free style wrestling.

I trained judo for bout 2 years now and (touch wood) havent ben injured, and im 35. I did bjj for the same amount of time and damaged my rotaor cuff, its healed now but still causes me pain on a daily basis.

Thanks for the video

As a judo player who has recently started BJJ this is GOLD!

Another great video my friend. TY

I miss training at Dreby City MMA, one of the best gyms ive ever been to

I think Judo is harder. I struggle trying to throw someone that knows what's coming and I get gassed much faster in Judo.

Jiu jitsu as a grappling sport is the final stage of grappling. Most everything that is allowed in wrestling or judo is allowed in jiu jitsu. So you get cross trainers coming in all the time. So depending on your pool of people jiu jitsu is gonna end up being harder because of the wide backgrounds of the person next to you.

In my experience Judo is definetely harder on the body

holy crap, that judo guy is like a wizard