Judo Newaza vs. BJJ
Judo differs a lot from BJJ, but so does it have many similarities.
The main one is the ground game. To an untrained eye, both sports may seem to work the same when things hit the ground, but is that so?
BJJ is better on the ground
You know what they say, what you put in is what you get out, and when we understand that jiu-jitsu players spend most of their time on the ground, it makes sense why they would be better there than judokas.
It’s the same thing as comparing a BJJer’s throws to a judoka’s – it’s just nowhere near the same level, no matter how you cut it.
It’s the guard play
The thing jiu-jitsu players do so well where an average judoka feels like fish out of water is the guard work.
We, the judo people, most of the time only do a bit of it, and it’s very basic.
BJJ people live and breathe in those positions. Butterfly guards, spider guards, half guards, guards upon guards. That’s what they do.
I mean, we do learn how to play a bit in the guard, like pull a triangle choke from the bottom guard or whatnot, but it’s nowhere near as extensive.
And the reason why that’s the case in the sport of judo is that we don’t usually end up there during a match.
With that said, every club is different.
Some do more of that kind of ne-waza than others, but in my experience, vast majority of the time spent training in a sport oriented judo dojo is on tachi waza, a.k.a. throws.
Where I trained, we probably spent around 20% of the time just on the ground game.
I remember there was this one guy I trained with. At one point, he decided to join a BJJ gym too, to cross-train.
After a short while, I could not do much to him on the ground. He just knew all those intricate ways on how to attack me from the bottom position, or anywhere else on the ground really. I just felt out of my element.
Though judo still has some strong points on the ground
Turtle attacks. I don’t care how good you are at jiu-jitsu, you won’t be better than a judoka at this.
In fact, when it comes to newaza, this is what we usually practice.
The reason why turtle attacks are so important in judo, is because this is where an opponent normally ends up after an unsuccessful throw.
Getting stood up by the referee and letting the opportunity pass like that is just not smart of a move.
Armbars, chokes, you name it, if someone pulls a turtle on us, we will do our best to break it up and submit.
This approach to ground work is what gives judo players that fast and explosive label.
We can’t spend too much time there, as otherwise we will get stood up by the referee. Every effort and attack has to be calculated and done right for it all to work.
We also specialize in pins and holds.
Holding down an opponent on its back for a set amount of time will score points, and if done for long enough, win a match.
In conclusion
I’m not trying to hate on judo here, at the end of the day, I am a judoka.
But if we compare the newaza of both sports, it’s not a surprise who wins here. Jiu-jitsu all the way.