Bringing some Judo back into Jiu jitsu: When most Jiu jitsu players look to improve their standing skills they look to wrestling for inspiration. There are good reasons for this. Wrestling is of course practiced without a gi, so the grip fighting and controls translate much more readily than judo, which is practiced in a gi. In addition, most people find the leg tackles that dominate wrestling generally easier and faster to learn than the foot and hip takedowns that are the mainstays of judo. Thirdly, wrestling is much more culturally dominant here in the US than judo is, so there are many more people to teach it, the standard is typically much higher (compare the number of Olympic medals American wrestlers have won versus American Judoka) and it is much more accessible to students. Nonetheless I am a big advocate of the great value of judo skills adapted to no gi Jiu jitsu and constantly get my students to use them whenever possible. The close upper body contact that is used to initiate most judo throws means that after the throw is completed you usually have a much better position to control scrambles than you do when using leg tackles and also makes it more difficult for opponents to counter your takedowns with upper body submissions. Too many people see wrestling and judo as an either/or choice as the basis of their No Gi standing skills and too many dismiss judo as too time consuming to learn – study them both and use them both – your standing game will benefit immensely. Here, 2022 ADCC Gold Medalist Giancarlo Bodoni launches the previous world champion with a beautiful foot sweep that merges sasae tsuri komi ashi with de ashi harai after defending an initial leg tackle that demonstrates well the possibilities of interplay between judo and wrestling skills
