Sport or MA?

I know that some of you out there will say that this should be in a different area but i just wanted to know the general opinion of everyone.

I've been doing judo for a few years now and i love every second of it. I've also heard that it is the most popular martial art practised in England (True or not?), but i get the impression that there is a lot of negativity out there towards it. So here are a couple of questions:

Do you consider JUDO to be a MA or a sport?

How do you rate JUDO in terms of : -

1. Self defense

and

2. Fitness


When you reply (if you do), state some reasons and also state if you practice judo or not.

Cheers

 

Yes, I do Judo. I'm going tomorrow night.
1.Self defence- gives you valuable grappling experience. You learn to fight on the ground, which is useful. Not to be sneezed at. It also mixes pretty well with the ol' karate.
2.Fitness- it's fighting. You have to be pretty fit to do it.
I don't see any real point going into the 'sport or MA' debate as I see Martial arts as 'merely' sports that are useful for fighting. Which is all they are. It's a kick-ass sport with proper rules, competitions and decent referees, unlike... {{shut yo sass mouth!}}

 

I only ask because officially (for insurance purposes/legal reasons) judo is a sport, not a martial art where as a lot of other MAa are actually recognised as MAs

And before i get gunned down (as if), I have not just answered my own question because i was asking for OPINIONS. :woo:

 

The definition of a sport is where two or more parties compete, each with a fair chance of winning.

I would think that the whole point in training for a non-competition based MA (unlike judo) is to drastically increase your odds in a fight - therefore no longer a sport.

 

You're saying that other sports don't have real-world applications?
Like sprinting (run for that bus!)
distance running (yomp over that damn island and shoot that argie!)
shooting (the obvious)
swimming (oh god, the ship is sinking!)
pole vaulting (oh dear.... this is a hard one...)
?

 

Ok, you've got me there.

Pole vaulting - prison breaks?

 

yeah, nice one
I look it up, apparently this one spanish conquistador managed to escape from the ambush at Tenochtitlan by vaulting over a gap left by a fallen bridge, using his lance as a pole

 

I do McJudo. Judo is a fighting sport. It was perhaps a martial art at some point, but appears to have been seriously watered down to be more appealing to the general public and politically correct.

For self defense, judo has great TECHNIQUES, but the way they train these techniques is in my opinion inferior (lots of emphasis being put on perfecting sissy little throws that win the match but would get you killed in a real fight)
The newaza does also need to be modified slightly in my opinion, remove the pinning techniques as winning moves and work submissions only. Would make the judo player more effective in real fights I think.
Overall, judo trained with fighting in mind is great for self defense, training only for competitions is less effective.

For fitness, judo and general grappling is without equal. Lots of training with resistance at full speed, and the ukemi is a great skill to have in many real life situations.

Judo is a good martial art.

 

Most track and field sports are developed from real world applications anyway. Weren't the original Olympics based on things that were either done in war or for hunting?

I practice TKD and consider it both a sport and a martial art. I'd never use a spinning/high section kick in a "street" environment. But in sparring there's no way I could take someones knee out to disable them.

 

I guess they could turn shooting into a sport where the combatants hunt eachother, both are given the same chance of winning, there for a sport... but also transferrable skils So sport or MA it really doesn't matter, depends how you learn i guess.

Personally i see Judo as both a sport and self defence, so it really doesn't matter

lol good story about the lance as a pole Fair play to him!!!!

 

I'm pretty sure that it was never a MA. It was "invented" by Mr Kano himself to teach disciplin and stuff at the school where he was the Head Master. (What a crude explanation - sorry). Judo was never intended to be used in a battle. Was it?

Jujitsu was "watered down" to make Judo.

 

it's always been an MA- and still is
Just because it has decent competitions doesn't make it less of an MA.

 

Judo is much more effective than most MAs. Why?

One word: Randori

 

Yeah. And I'd add another word: competition.

 

I disagree. While training with competition in mind is good, the competition rules in judo relate as much to real fighting as swimming does to mountaineering. If you tried fighting like in a judo competition, you'd get splatted.

 

Not entirely true. The competition rules, as far as I'm aware, just eliminate some of the more dangerous moves. If you can't fight within them, you can't fight without them.

 

*Applause!

VERY well put!

 

Adam: Perhaps there is some sort of disconnect here, so explain to me how kata gurama on the concrete is not Str33t lethal.

 

Buddy of mine - 5' 6" - about 165lbs - Judoka of some 20yrs - never done anything else - competition only Judoka (3rd Dan at the time) got attacked on T3H STR33T by big 6' 2" 250lb "Street fighter" of some local repute.

Script:

Baddie - Lapel grab for headbutt
Judoka - BOOM! Harai-Goshi, landed on baddies ribs, on concrete
Baddie - Unconscious, broken ribs, broken sternum

Dare I say it.... IPPON