0:00 If you're just starting out in judo, this is what I wish I knew on day one because if you skip these fundamentals, you will literally spend years doing it wrong and stick around till the end of the video because we will give you an action plan designed to make you as much progress as possible in your first months of doing judo. Let's go. Now before you learn any throws or submissions you need to understand this. Judo and grappling in general isn't about strength. The point is to be able to beat a bigger stronger opponent with technique. And there are five concepts that we can use to do that. Ignore them and you will stay stuck. But master them and you will
0:48 become a problem for anyone. Number one is to use mechanics to your advantage. First we talk about leverage. You can't out muscle physics. You want control? Grab near the end of the lever, not where it begins. Look how much easier it is to pull out my opponent's arm in an arm bar if I grab in the end of the lever near the hand versus if I grab low near the inside of the elbow. Next we talk about structure. Structure is what we build to block, frame or trap movements. For the most part trapping a limb is easier than forcing it into place. And it is easier to keep your distance using a frame than relying on muscle force alone. Good mechanics and smart positioning beats muscles
1:37 every time. You need to use that. Number two is to create angles. To attack from a dominant angle is super important. The angle can make or break your technique. Normally it doesn't work to attack each other head on. Using our body position to cut off our opponent's line can make our technique feel twice as fast and much harder to defend. This means that our setups should look to help us achieve as much of a dominant angle as possible. If you're not creating angles, you are running into unnecessary defense. Principle number three is timing. Perfect timing is near impossible to defend. Attack when your opponent can't react. How? Catch your opponent mid-step or when they are defending an attack that leaves them open for the attack we
2:23 really wanted to hit them with. The right move at the wrong time can mean you're going home in the first round. The same move at the right time can win you the gold medal. Next is breaking balance. Your opponent must have a stable base to generate force. Break that base, your opponent lose their balance and you neutralize their power. We can do this by blocking a part of our opponent's base and driving the center of mass beyond that base and the opponent will fall. But in general, you should rely on momentum created by your opponent when they defend. If I push my opponent, they need to post and apply force in the opposite direction if they don't want to fall. That allows us to create reactions that we can predict. Look to break your opponent's balance as often as possible. Number five is tension.
3:10 Tension is the connection between you and your opponent. To dictate the fight you need to be able to move your opponent. And to move your opponent you need to create tension. With your arms and with your body. In general, if you move, you want your opponent to move too. If you move and your opponent don't, the tension is lost. This takes some time to master and is built from experience, but tension also works as a telegraph letting you feel what your opponent is doing before you can see it with your eyes. Your nervous system processes movements you feel 10 times faster than the ones you see. If you want fast reactions, you need to take advantage of that. If you grasp just these five principles, you're already ahead of most people. But now let's take it to the next level. We need to teach you
3:57 how to move. First, let's talk about our stance. Our stance is our base, your foundation. So you don't want to screw this up. You want your feet to be a bit wider than shoulder width apart. Normally, you will have a staggered stance with one foot forwards. If you are right-handed, you normally have your right foot forwards. Bend your knees slightly and keep your back somewhat straight. To move, the basic rule of footwork is don't cross your legs. That exposes you for a range of attacks. Instead, when we want to take a step, we want to step with the foot closest to the direction that we want to go. When we take that step, we disrupted our stance. So, we have to take an equal step with our opposite foot in the same direction. Just like a boxer, you need to keep your hands up
4:44 to guard. But you don't need to protect your face. You need to protect your jacket, your lapel and your sleeves. Your hands are there to block, but also to establish grip of your own. Now you need to know how to grip and hold your opponent. We won't go through every grip, just the most common ones. First, we have a classic grip. If you are right-handed, you hold your right hand in your opponent's lapel. And our left hand is controlling our opponent's right hand. This is a great grip for controlling the distance between you and your opponent. Second is the neck grip. If you are right-handed, you grab your opponent over the neck with your right arm. Your left hand is controlling your opponent's right hand. This grip is great for breaking your opponent's posture and gives you control of their upper body. The last grip
5:33 is the grip in the back, or the hip grip. Your right arm grips in the gi in the back of your opponent. Your left arm is controlling your opponent's right arm. This grip gives you great control of Uke's hips and is great if you want to close the distance and attack. The last thing we need to cover before we get into the action plan is a three-step framework that you can use to set up your throws. Start with establishing your grip. Create tension between you and your opponent. Second, disrupt your opponent's base. Your opponent needs to defend. Third, if you can predict the defense, you can use that to create momentum for your throw. When you're just starting out, you shouldn't focus on too many things. Here are the areas that we think that you should focus on in the beginning. First, leave your ego at the door. There is no such thing as winning in sparring.
6:21 When you get thrown, don't take it personal. If someone is more experienced than you, pick their brain. Second, and this might be the most important one. You need to master your stance and your footwork. Work on it every session and soon moving around with your partner will feel like second nature. The third thing is learn two to three solid basic techniques first. You don't need to know ten. dive into really understanding two to three techniques first. The last thing is show up consistently. Hard work done consistently beats talent every time. It's going to be hard in the beginning, but keep showing up and you will be surprised of what you can accomplish in just a couple of months. If you found this content valuable,
7:08 please help the channel out by hitting the like button below. And don't forget subscribe so that you don't miss our next video. Thank you guys for watching. Bye.
