In the world of no gi grappling and mma, wrestling is seen as the key to controlling a fight. If you are a good striker you use wrestling defensively to keep the fight up on its feet so you can bang it out. If your a super slick submission expert then wrestling is what will get you to the ground and let you work your game. And if you just like to ground and pound people into a bloody mess then wrestling will get you into that top control position that you need to finish the fight.
Now something that sucks major ass in the UK is that we dont have much in the way of wrestling. Yeah we have a couple of good clubs dotted around the country and a British team but compared to the Americans who spend most of their high school days shooting double legs we aint got much!
Something we do have, and have to a high level in this country, is the traditional Gi based sport of Judo. Judo or ‘the gentle way’ is very similar to jiu jitsu as most of you will know. Judo came from the traditional Japanese style of jiu jitsu and focuses on the throwing aspect of a fight, the main aim being to land a perfect throw on your opponent and score ‘ippon’ to win the match.
Alot of people seem to write off Judo as innefective for no gi grappling and MMA as it uses the gi and doesnt seem to work as well as the double and single leg shots of wrestling. This my friends is not the case.
Learning to shoot a double and single is definitely on your A list of things to do, but with the right modifications, Judo can become a very dangerous weapon in no gi grappling as The Asylum team member Dane Mitchell has been proving for the last couple of months. He has won gold in the last 3 no gi comps (these are the first no gi comps he has ever done) winning a total of 14 matches and taking the Grapplefit.com Absolute division belt beating 2 guys well over 100kg, not bad for someone who walks around at 77kg eh?
Now Dane is a 19 year old Judo black belt who has spent most of his time throwing people in the gi. But recently Dane began to work his Judo for no gi and also work on his ground skills and submissions. With some minor grip changes, many of the throws of Judo work perfectly for no gi and even set up submissions instantly in some cases.
With the help of our resisdent Judo coach Ian Johns and with Dane assisting him we are slowly introducing Judo into our fight team, and we are starting to see positive results already. Like I said before, wrestling is important, you need to be able to make those shots and hit those sprawls, but remember theres never a Judo club too far away……..
Check out some videos of Ian Johns and Dane Mitchell below 
This is an excellent blogg, thought I’d share this,
taken from A-Z of judo (2006), Syd Hoare,
THE ESSENCE OF JUDO,
“Judo is a combat sport and everything technical relates to that key word combat. The essence of combat is the knockout, taking the opponent out of action. In judo the knockout is the ippon, in particular the ippon throw since judo is mainly a throwing art. Anything less then ippon is failure. Three or five point scores (koka, Yuko) are meaningless in combat terms. A good ippon is where the thrower stays on his feet, and throws his opponent crisply and abruptly to the mat with impetus. The value of a throw is judged soley by the question whether the opponennt could have stood up from that throw if it had been done on hard ground. To throw in this way the attacker must come at his opponent like a punch with lightening speed and impact with suprise and from any and all directions. It is the ippon that lifts the judokas soul. Nothing less is satisfactory.”
With this in mind a judo throw can be effective if adapted right for MMA. As the throw is meant to prevent the opponent from continuing. My one disagreement with It is it mentions about not getting up if you hit hard ground. Having been thrown on a mat by someone who’s technique for this particular thrown was spot on I didn’t get up in fact didn’t trian for 3 months. The flooring of a ring or cage is less then a mat. So my point is judo is about throwing but if done correctly it is as, if not more effective then a punch or a kick.
Someone who refers to it being ineffective in MMA is lacking in imagination. Having drive is one thing. Having drive with no imagination is restricting and prevents progression.