Been looking at a WJJF club in regards to some grappling training. They do loads of drills and the usual locks and throws, but no sparring on the night that I watched the class (the instructor said that they were checking the students techniques out before selecting candidates for grading). Is sparring a major part of the WJJF syllabus? Do they take the groundwork that they teach and apply it in a similar way that judo/BJJ does by rolling and applying the techniques?
Ah well I think I will give it a miss then, I will take their free trial lesson to see if I like it and ask a few more questions. If they don't then I will have to look else where. It's a pity that mine and my daughters karate class is on at the same time as our local judo club.
My son has just left the WJJF after he tried judo. They tend to get a bit expensive due to the weapons seminars that you need to attend for your B/B, that's all kata based and you don't learn anything that isn't taught in the lesson. Your club may be different but I doubt it.
The class that I watched was pretty good, the stuff they were doing was impressive but against compliant partners. There is another club that is WJJF but it has a fighting class that they role and do mma stuff in. May give that one a go instead. I've had a look online and they seem to have a lot of anatomy work aswell, is this part of the WJJF grading as it doesn't mention it in the sylabus books that I've seen. In fact the belt sequence from the manuals are different to those I've found on the websites of many of the clubs, does this meant they are not sticking to the WJJF syllabus or have the spread the techniques over extra belts to even out the work load?
It proberly differs from club to club depending on the instructors prior experience. If they spar and you can find time to perfect the individual techniques taken from the original arts they were borrowed from in a way that the original arts trains then I can see it being a very effective martial art. I think I've confused myself here. For example they use the low kick alot but I've never seen a WJJF member perform a decent low kick. Take the time to learn how, say the thai's kick and it's very effective. The same for punching - looks at boxing. Practice them all on a heavy bag, the grappling is easy - randori judo style or even MMA if you want hardcore. Like the other club you mentioned. My son has used what he learnt at jujitsu to good effect in defending himself once but he cross trains which makes it effective.
It all depends on who is teaching. For example, there's a WJJF 3rd dan by the name of Lloyd Gordon in Kensington, London who has students do an hour of randori before starting on the syllabus techniques. Very effective technician.
did Lloyd train with Tony Siong at one point ...if its the same chap his throws were awesome ...through the mats and 2 foot into the floor was the norm .. Smurf
I used to train with both Lloyd and Tony for a number of years and know that once Lloyd was a pupil of Tony's. Never found out the details of their fall out, both cited different reasons, but I think it was due to Lloyd introducing elements of other arts to his teachings. They were both excellent Ju-Jitsukas and I have to say that learning from both benefited me enormously.
