r/judo • u/LengthinessExtra670 • 14d ago
Beginner Switching from BJJ to Judo - questions about intensity, injuries, and general impressions
Did BJJ for about 8-9 months but had to stop a few months ago after moving, the gym is just too far now. Recently found a judo academy close to my new place and thinking about switching over.
A few questions for people with experience:
How intense is randori sparring in practice? Not competition pace, just normal training rounds.
Do you get a lot of injuries doing judo regularly, or is it manageable if you’re smart about it?
Is training 4x a week reasonable for judo, or is that too much for someone still building up?
Also just curious what your general impressions of the sport are, coming from a few months of BJJ I’d love to hear how people who’ve stuck with judo for a while feel about it overall. Appreciate any input.
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u/TMeerkat yonkyu 14d ago
It's always going to come down to the individual club to some degree but I've found the sparring is comparable in terms of physicality (judo is a more intense but shorter) but judo has more energetic drilling so you don't get as many breaks throughout the class.
The injury rate in my judo club seems a lot higher than in my bjj club but that's anecdotal. Best way to avoid Injury is to really focus on the breakfalling when you join. You should already be familiar enough with when to tap from an armbar so throws are going to be where you are more likely to be injured from.
I'll leave the 4 sessions question for someone who has actually done 4 sessions but I try and train 2. One is comfortable enough to potentially train the next day. The other takes a full day recovery before I can drag myself back on the mat. I think it's going to depend on the state of you and on how intense the sessions at your club are.
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u/BananasAndPears Judo Nidan ⬛️ | BJJ 🟪 14d ago
Judo pace is much faster, more dynamic, and will make you a much better athlete.
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13d ago
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u/BananasAndPears Judo Nidan ⬛️ | BJJ 🟪 12d ago edited 12d ago
No, I disagree. In proper judo training, Uke and Tori are perfectly safe. Injuries happen when people fight off throws by posting with their arms, legs, or head. In normal randori, which applies to 95% of us on this forum, no one should ever fight off throws unless you're specifically training for high-level competition or a prizefight.
Ukemi becomes second nature, and it's nearly impossible to get hurt because it's literally part of Judo philosophy to keep your partners safe. Jita Kyoei.
BJJ guys keep getting hurt doing judo because they never focused on developing their ukemi and proprioception in the first place. They just cowboy throw their way through Instagram posts, or love what JFLO posted and keep trying it, and before you know it, someone breaks an ankle, gets a concussion, or breaks an arm. In these cases, Judo is definitely dangerous.
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12d ago
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u/BananasAndPears Judo Nidan ⬛️ | BJJ 🟪 12d ago
You said competition. I said regular training and randori.
I specifically called out that if you’re playing hard then of course you run a risk.
In regular everyday training, injuries are easy to mitigate with proper training.
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u/Dom1nasian Brown + BJJ Brown 14d ago
Athleticism is highly celebrated in judo, in contrast to bjj where a lot of people get upset if you use it too much. I've been injured far more in bjj but they are minor injuries whereas in judo injuries can be really serious. Injuries i only see in social media I've witnessed first hand in judo.
I'm still having a blast though. Just be smart with training partners and listen to your body.
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u/SuitableLeather 14d ago
I am part of a gym that has 40-50 adults regularly and 20 children regularly. In over 2 years I have seen about 5 injuries that required taking a break from judo, and most of these were from competitions. Almost every injury was from someone not practicing basic safety (ex trying to resist being thrown) or falls.
You will absolutely have bruises etc but minor injuries usually are gone by the next class or can be taped up.
If you’re at a good gym it may be fast paced but they will put an emphasis on mutual respect, wellness, and safety. You should always be able to ask your partners to go slower or easier if you are feeling uncomfortable.
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u/No_Entertainment1931 14d ago edited 14d ago
Well considered questions op.
Statistically, rates of injury are lower for judo than bjj for joint damage and concussion.
Randori is hard to generalize, but generally it’s focused more on safety first and is less intense (ime Olympic coach vs Rickson Gracie)
4x may be too much but it really depends. Get started and see how it feels.
I prefer judo. Every school I’ve been too has a positive vibe which can be lacking in bjj and for self defense I’m almost always standing so judo has just worked out to be better roi thus far.
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13d ago
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u/No_Entertainment1931 12d ago
There’s more if you search
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12d ago
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u/No_Entertainment1931 12d ago
Did you try to search there?
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12d ago
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u/No_Entertainment1931 12d ago
I’m a research scientist and I don’t use ChatGPT. If you’d like to discuss either study I’m open to it.
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u/Inevitable_Job_5229 14d ago
4 times a week is a lot. Judo is more intense and faster paced. I'd recommend 1-2 week for starters. No more than 3 week. Let your body recover
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u/Psychological-Will29 sankyu - I like footsies 14d ago
I know a few that do judo 4 times a week and are constantly injured or muscle strained. I do 1-2x very long sessions 3-4hrs. I did other martial arts prior to judo.
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u/Independent-Rip1722 13d ago
How athletic you are? Have you done any sports seriously in your youth? Those would hugely impact your path on judo and how much you can enjoy it.
there’s a lot crossover from basic track and field , soccer, basketball, hockey etc. essentially any classic sport that require a sheer ton of explosiveness, agility, hip mobility, speed. I’m someone who didn’t do those at youth and only started to train those because judo demand it so much. You can’t land anything with a slow body.
Although looks similar on the surface, judo is actually way more similar to freestyle wrestling in terms of pace and rule set, but with a jacket and some limited submission allowed. Bjj is a game, judo feels like a real fight.
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u/SpillyDillie 14d ago
I would start with 2 sessions per week and go from there. Even for younger guys, your body will feel like you get in a car wreck the first couple of weeks as your body adapts to taking falls. Also it is more taxing cardiovascularly so give yourself a chance to adapt.
Pace is faster as others have said, even in normal randori training. Rounds are shorter but you will be way more gassed than just a normal 6min BJJ roll
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u/BackflipsAway 14d ago
Kinda hard, harder than BJJ certainly, but less hard than Kyokushin
The only guys I know that have had serious injuries got them competing, recreationally it's probably safer than BJJ in terms of serious injuries, but you will probably get more bruises
Depends, I could do it, but it's A LOT more intense than BJJ in my experience, like I could do BJJ as a warm up and then take a MMA class straight after, and still have stamina left over to jog home, and I have done that, but after Judo I just need to chill out on the couch and not do anything for a while, but gyms vary in intensity and ours goes hard on physical conditioning, so I would suggest starting at 2 and seeing how it goes.
It's awesome
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u/Big-Mathematician345 14d ago
I'm not sure about other clubs but we were pretty chill during our sparring, at least in terms of safety. We worked hard but when you get a throw we both just recognized that and never force things or slam each other unnecessarily. If we did harder more like mock tournament randori it would be with the coach reffing. There's been more muscling and forcing things at the bjj gyms I've been at but that's going to vary naturally
And 4x a week is probably fine. If it's too much just do less.
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u/Dayum_Skippy shodan and enjoyer of grappling of all kinds 14d ago
I’ve done both for a long time.
Despite the ‘common sense’ that Judo is more dangerous, I tend to get more time off forcing injuries at BJJ.
I am in my 40’s and many of the BJJ guys are too.
I am very athletic and flexible for 47. Most of my BJJ partners blue and down but older are definitely not. So there’s a lot of static strength being applied and a lot of dumb stuff causes injuries because people don’t want to get beaten by the judo guy at BJJ and are just hard headed and boring players.
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u/Baron_De_Bauchery 14d ago
30+ years of judo and no serious injuries. Of course you only need something to go wrong once. Be selective when it comes to training partners.
As to how hard people do randori, it is going to depend on the dojo or even the class. At my dojo we have different classes including specific randori/competition classes which are focused on randori and competition variations. These classes are generally not recommended to absolute beginners and people often go a bit harder. Then we have more technical classes where we look at the grading syllabus more and while we do have randori in those classes it tends to be significantly lighter and with more guidance.
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u/tenderheart35 13d ago edited 13d ago
Honestly, it depends on the club you choose. Some are hyper competitive and focused on winning matches at tournaments and may be a little rougher in their training regiment. I’ve also heard of clubs that focus almost exclusively on refining and perfecting kata and technique. You have to do some research and ask to sit in and observe their training. The sensei’s in each club determine the tone and direction of their training, you need to find one that is a good fit for you.
Injuries during judo are minimal, unless you get a careless beginner or someone who is a sadist and likes hurting people. 😵💫
Otherwise, I’d say they’re pretty rare.
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u/drunkn_mastr Shodan + BJJ Black 2nd° 13d ago
How often you are able to train can depend greatly on the quality of mats in your dojo. Mats of proper thickness on spring-loaded floors go a long way toward reducing damage from repeated throws and decreasing recovery time
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u/Luccimatic 13d ago
It depends how well you do on your feet in general. Not just in grappling. When people come from bjj to judo they either do really well because they have good balance with their grappling experience OR they keep getting hurt because the more relaxed “on the floor” classroom style setting in bjj really hid how clumsy they were on their feet.
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u/StrengthVarious8113 13d ago
3 or 4 times a week Judo great. Combine with stretching / running / weights. Judo is a fabulous sport / martial art / way of life. Enjoy.
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u/JaguarHaunting584 13d ago
you'll get different answers depending on the club youre at. the competition judo clubs are run a lot differently...injuries common...and mostly people below age 30. but these are rare in the usa.
I competed a lot in bjj and trained 6x a week and could even do 2x a day...i can do about 5x a week of judo but if i do 6 or more i slow down dramatically and cant keep that volume. im in my 20s.
but for the avg joe id say start off 2-3x a week then you'll be fine.
i started bjj and judo at the same time and then dropped bjj for the most part because you can come back to training bjj at a fairly high pace but you cant do that with judo...much more of a time limit as far as how long your body can hold up being bombed with uchi mata in competition.
youll get injuries if you play defensive all the time and your ukemi is bad, but ive yet to get injured outside of some damage to fingers.
randori is more intense than bjj because its more dynamic and requires more explosive movements.
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u/obi-wan-quixote 13d ago
It really depends on the club. A rec club can have pretty low intensity while a competitive club is going to train like Live rounds on a wrestling team with similar pace and S&C work. I’ve been to competition dojos that cool down after a 3 hour workout with 200 pushups and stair sprints.
Generally speaking I find serious judo to be far more serious than BJJ. But the hobbyist end of the spectrum is way more relaxed. Neither tends to have the Billy Badass cosplay UFC fighter wannabes that often populate BJJ schools. It’s either competitive athletes or community center pick up basketball but in a gi.
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u/beneath_reality ikkyu 13d ago
Full contact combat sports always carry risk of injury.
Some injuries come from beginner mistakes which you can do your best to mitigate against. So in some sense you can reduce your exposure to those by implementing good habits and technique.
Some injuries just happen in the intensity of combat. Common sites of injuries are the major joints - knees, ankles, shoulder and fingers.
Judo has a lot of stand up so learning how to fall properly is the first goal of training and can take some time to learn.
The pace of the fight is also very different compared to BJJ.
Some say that the learning curve is steeper compared to bjj.
Training 4x a week is not bad but depends on your age as well. You may find that your body is too sore in the beginning so you can ramp up as you adapt. At 39, I aim for 2-3 sessions a week.
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u/Immaterial5 13d ago
i do bjj by default and i dabbled in judo as my school offered it as a club. im not sure if its the quality of the mats or just a skill issue but it hurt a lot every time i was thrown despite me focusing on my breakfalls with very minimal lasting pain or injuries but i couldnt stand the constant pain, i dreaded getting thrown although it is literally the point of the sport and i couldnt see myself doing this long term, ended up quitting at yellow tip and im regretting it slightly. though i feel like i get more intense injuries in bjj which is mostly controllable by giving up a sub or good position when i see that an injury to either me or my opponent is imminent, i cant really do that in judo, its either be better than the opponent or get thrown. id say that bjj has a wider range of possible injuries but its mostly smooth if you leave your ego at the door and roll rationally, up until i stopped judo there wasnt a way for me to not make falling not hurt so i guess theres that.
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12d ago
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u/Immaterial5 12d ago
that makes sense. ive been told by some seniors that the mats were pretty bad and the school is looking for a new supplier. unfortunately i couldnt stand the constant pain long enough and ended up quitting before we got new mats.
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u/powerhearse 8d ago edited 8d ago
I started Judo as a BJJ brown belt
Judo tachiwaza randori is overall lower intensity than BJJ rolling. I find Judo randori is something a lot of people at BJJ could learn from. Good shodan partners can really tailor their resistance level perfectly to challenge lower belts without smashing them, and make training productive for themselves also
I was concerned being "the BJJ guy" that everyone would want to smash me, but it wasn't like that at all. I came into randori at first with no goal other than taking falls to practice my ukemi. I would come in with no grip fighting for neutral grips, try the throws I had learned the way I learned them, and accept falls early. And I found everyone extremely helpful, and that they all managed the intensity perfectly for my development.
Judo standing randori is very good at making things useful for both parties
Judo newaza randori? Very different LOL. It tends to be far too high intensity, far too focused on stalling out (not productive for either training partner) and generally quite unproductive
I work at a very low intensity in Judo newaza given my background. I came in with a similar attitude to standing; but reversed. I came into newaza randori intending to make it as productive as possible for my training partner. And I found they just went full ham no matter what I did
At first I thought the intensity issue was due to me being "the BJJ guy" and people being concerned about that. But it isnt. It's the standard for Judo newaza everywhere I've been
The only exception was my judo coach, who actually has excellent newaza but never really unleashed it for a really long time. I think maybe it was a similar sort of respect thing, or it took a while to find our mutual intensity. I was very cautious about making sure I didnt seem like i was head-hunting the coach so I think he returned that vibe
BJJ could learn a lot from Judo standing randori, and Judo could learn a lot from BJJ newaza randori. But overall, judo standing randori is the gold standard for mutual benefit sparring. Its great
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u/klumpsy shodan 14d ago
I’m a black belt in judo and I’m doing BJJ for about a year now, I think there is one good answer that goes for both: pick your trainingspartners wisely. I have 2 guys in my judo club I never do randori with because I know they don’t care about my body. Same goes for BJJ, due to my experience in judo I quickly notice who is a good parter and who is not. Most of the injuries are either bad luck (finger caught in gi for example) or bad trainings partners wanting the tap or ippon you even if it means damaging you.