Yes BJA will say that, in a sense they are right, but only in one thing, fighting, randorri. What does this mean? At lower grades randorri is far superior to BJC, because BJA fight all the time, there is less emphasis on techniques, more on grip fighting in BJA. In BJC it is true they fight in a more circular motion,, BJA are more liner, there is more emphasis on knowing the names, doing the throws correctly in BJC at lower grades, and no grip fighting is taught till later on. So this leads people in the BJA to think they are better at randorri, well yes they are but it is it judo. Well yes it is a type of judo, but the emphasis is on getting the strongest grip, hold the grip, then use it to pull the opponent off balance, so fighting a BJA Judoka is like fighting a brick wall, (they are like this all the time even with just practicing throws ) they just do not move, less fluid, more strength and less dynamics, not many counters, basically its is borderline wrestling with a gi on etc. BJC totally different, light holds, after all your practicing not fighting to win, your not in a competition, so everything is more lighter more free flowing more dynamic, no stiff arms, no strength is used except when pulling off balance, the aim here is to go with the flow, the use of your opponents weight and movement against him. In BJA this is much harder, as it all about the strength /grip and your size, so in essence, if your smaller, you cannot never beat a bigger or stronger a person, till you get really good at techniques and grip fighting. in this context most BJC will get plummeted at lower grades because they are taught differently but in my view their way of doing the throws, is fair superior, in other words their techniques are better but their randorri is not , because they are not taught grip fight too much later on. This is why you get very good dan grades from BJC who can fight very well and are good are technical stuff compared to BJA. In essence both organisations are trying to do the same thing, but with different routes and aims. BJA is more focused on competitions, BJC is not, they go for knowing judo inside out and then move on later on. Oh in BJC kata is taught as well. I believe in BJA it is start be coming in and to be fair to the latter, they are now trying to correct the technical gap, but they are still a long way off. BJC is more Judo in my opinion, while BJA is more sport of wrestling variety.
Hi Darren, good to see someone contributing to the discussion. I wanted to ask what your background was/is in judo and how much exposure you have had to the different versions of each organisation here in the UK? I am a relative novice and I have to say that I was surprised at your comments because, coming from originally a freestyle wrestling background, I thought that your comments about BJA judo were unfair to both BJA judo and wrestling. (Neither are like fighting a brick wall and both are quite different to each other :' ) I do understand the different approaches although in my limited experience you seem to have reversed the approaches. I suppose that it might be the quality of the practitioners that each of us observed or it might be that the club in particular was unique. One reason I asked about your experience as I understand that grip fighting changed in recent years so more grip work is allowed but the time for it is restricted to this curtails a lot of what might have been done in the past- ''As of December 2016, the international judo federation has just lifted all bans on gripping. So now like BJJ, judo is a free for all. You can grip two on one, pistol grips, cuff grips, and one-sided grips for up to 45 seconds before attacking.'' Are you familiar with this Darren? PowChoy
hi yes i am i come from a BJC back ground, now in a BJA club with some zen judo back ground. I did judo in the 80s and came back in the 2000s. I find allot of the rules very well restrictive, no leg grabs, have to be careful on time holds, its a nightmare, also cost is prohibitive, no sacrifice throws, you cannot do this cannot do that etc. I train with an Olympian etc, its very competition originated, I have also trained at more than one BJA club, where people were boosted up to orange belt after starting judo only for a few weeks so they can do completions, they did no break falls, black belts hammering ungraded and low grades a alike. Some people got injured, there is a lot of strength needed in BJA judo, is more wrestling with a gi on, it is changing slowly but at a crawl space. Allot of clubs are closed down since the 70s. I know allot of BJC clubs are gone, and not many BJA clubs are there now, well since the 80s it was wall to wall judo. There are too many rules, too many banned techniques, you cannot do this or do that, i just get a feeling of stagnation, there is no strategy to deal with the rise of BJJ, soon i fear that art will take over. The karate world is responding and looking back to their basics of kata, why it was formed in the first place, its it for self defence or a sport can it be both, or can one separate it, to keep the both sections alive. This is not happening in Judo, its just sport sport sport, win win win. When i did judo in the 80s getting thrown was part of the training, i am not talking about getting hammered, but losing was not a bad thing as it is now. No self defence is taught no kata, nothing like that. I do not do competitions etc, i see them as pointless, but each to their own. I go to the BJA club now as its the only one and i like the people there, plus lots of food eeh after some times. However BJA are kidding themselves, the standard of Judo is really down i have asked high ranking fan grades and they agree, i spoke to foreign people who come here to train and the same. One high ranking instructor told people to learn the throws off u tube, one Dan grade did not know break falls, this has been echoed by other Dan grades who have seen this. When this happens there is something wrong.
