Hi all,
I have been looking for the art that would fit me best for more than a year on and off. It recently came down to Judo or Brazilian jiu jitsu which are fairly similar. I recently found the perfect school for me, the Serei Martial arts Academy in Montreal -- very big, clean, professional, affordable and friendly, plus it offers training in more than 10 disciplines, each with its qualified instructor. In the past week I attended a class of Judo, BJJ and Aiki Ju-Jitsu, a style I had never heard of before and the in house speciality. I thought narrating my experience could be helpful as you experts surely could give me pointers on each art.
First was AJJ which has a pretty bad rep around here from what I understand. Thing is, the instructors are the Serei father and brothers who founded the school and the specific style (nintai ryu AJJ, ding ding this can’t be good). A quick look at their curriculum assures me they’re legit though (can't post links yet, BB in AJJ, Aikido, Judo, Karate, Kobudo, Goshin Jutsu Certified Personal Protection Specialist). For the class itself, there were about 25 people --your average joes, some fat white belts, two skinny Asian girls, many fit blue belts and up. Mostly throws, some very Aikido-like wristgrab defense and one even against a sprinting two handed wristgrab that had me cringing. Medium cardio at the beginning, than all exercises were at 20-30% resistance. Some groundplay near the end but no randori, even though their website says they put a heavy emphasis on it. Despite the relative ineffectiveness of the whole thing, this seemed to be the most fun class and I hope they do have hard practices once in a while, I’ll ask one of the senseis on next week.
The BJJ practice was on the other (and much smaller) room, simultaneously. There were only 12 people, half of them purple belt or higher, and only one girl. Not a lot to say about it, this was your typical high level BJJ class. The instructor is Nobuya Shinamoto, black belt under Koji Murakami I believe. Little actual warm up (mostly squats) but the exercises themselves were very intense as expected. ‘’Make it hard for him, you’re not dummies!’’ were M. Shinamoto exact words. There was about 20 minutes of free sparring at the end, all belts mixed up. Even though people were a lot more serious about their art, most of them 30 years old athletes, the atmosphere was very friendly. No problem to report, except that I clearly didn’t fit in the mold of these guys.
Last was Judo, which I thought would be a relaxed version of BJJ with an inversed ratio of throws to groundplay. Boy was I wrong. I caught them during the last week before the Canadian championships. The instructor is a multiple times national champion of Haiti, was a Canadian Olympian etc and God did he drill them. 10 brown belts and up out of the 30 people attending, mostly aged between 18 and 25 years old. Insane cardio for 1/3 of the mat time. All of the exercises were at 100% resistance, I was shocked by the brutality of the sparring, the violence used to grab and shake the opponent’s sleeves, the bandages every one of them had. A fight almost erupted between two BBs when a ground exercise went on for too long. Even the five 10 years old kids where fighting like if their life depended on it. I hadn’t realized how competition could alter an art so much, how the sport could invigorate practice; it plainly scared the hell out of me. I swear BJJ looked like a walk in the park compared to this, much more finesse and technique involved.
A huge wall of text to ask you this: is Judo always that brutal at high level? Is there such a thing as relatively effective AJJ? I’m mainly looking to get fit and have fun -- Judo from my limited experience was completely overdoing it but AJJ could be a complete waste of time self-defence wise. BJJ has this UFC meathead stereotype clinging to it and ground grappling isn’t very… homeric. From your much broader experience, how accurate were my descriptions? What are your general thoughts on the differences between each art?
I’ll be honest and admit my preference for the pansy AJJ since I myself am not exactly the roaring alpha male (more like a book rat, ex athlete who used to compete in badminton and volleyball, you know the type). Then again getting out of your comfort zone is a good thing once in a while, when it’s worth it. Thus I expect a sh*t load of ‘’don’t be a girl, do BJJ’’ responses.
Many thanks, and congratulations for reading all of this (yeah, like you really did).
I have been looking for the art that would fit me best for more than a year on and off. It recently came down to Judo or Brazilian jiu jitsu which are fairly similar. I recently found the perfect school for me, the Serei Martial arts Academy in Montreal -- very big, clean, professional, affordable and friendly, plus it offers training in more than 10 disciplines, each with its qualified instructor. In the past week I attended a class of Judo, BJJ and Aiki Ju-Jitsu, a style I had never heard of before and the in house speciality. I thought narrating my experience could be helpful as you experts surely could give me pointers on each art.
First was AJJ which has a pretty bad rep around here from what I understand. Thing is, the instructors are the Serei father and brothers who founded the school and the specific style (nintai ryu AJJ, ding ding this can’t be good). A quick look at their curriculum assures me they’re legit though (can't post links yet, BB in AJJ, Aikido, Judo, Karate, Kobudo, Goshin Jutsu Certified Personal Protection Specialist). For the class itself, there were about 25 people --your average joes, some fat white belts, two skinny Asian girls, many fit blue belts and up. Mostly throws, some very Aikido-like wristgrab defense and one even against a sprinting two handed wristgrab that had me cringing. Medium cardio at the beginning, than all exercises were at 20-30% resistance. Some groundplay near the end but no randori, even though their website says they put a heavy emphasis on it. Despite the relative ineffectiveness of the whole thing, this seemed to be the most fun class and I hope they do have hard practices once in a while, I’ll ask one of the senseis on next week.
The BJJ practice was on the other (and much smaller) room, simultaneously. There were only 12 people, half of them purple belt or higher, and only one girl. Not a lot to say about it, this was your typical high level BJJ class. The instructor is Nobuya Shinamoto, black belt under Koji Murakami I believe. Little actual warm up (mostly squats) but the exercises themselves were very intense as expected. ‘’Make it hard for him, you’re not dummies!’’ were M. Shinamoto exact words. There was about 20 minutes of free sparring at the end, all belts mixed up. Even though people were a lot more serious about their art, most of them 30 years old athletes, the atmosphere was very friendly. No problem to report, except that I clearly didn’t fit in the mold of these guys.
Last was Judo, which I thought would be a relaxed version of BJJ with an inversed ratio of throws to groundplay. Boy was I wrong. I caught them during the last week before the Canadian championships. The instructor is a multiple times national champion of Haiti, was a Canadian Olympian etc and God did he drill them. 10 brown belts and up out of the 30 people attending, mostly aged between 18 and 25 years old. Insane cardio for 1/3 of the mat time. All of the exercises were at 100% resistance, I was shocked by the brutality of the sparring, the violence used to grab and shake the opponent’s sleeves, the bandages every one of them had. A fight almost erupted between two BBs when a ground exercise went on for too long. Even the five 10 years old kids where fighting like if their life depended on it. I hadn’t realized how competition could alter an art so much, how the sport could invigorate practice; it plainly scared the hell out of me. I swear BJJ looked like a walk in the park compared to this, much more finesse and technique involved.
A huge wall of text to ask you this: is Judo always that brutal at high level? Is there such a thing as relatively effective AJJ? I’m mainly looking to get fit and have fun -- Judo from my limited experience was completely overdoing it but AJJ could be a complete waste of time self-defence wise. BJJ has this UFC meathead stereotype clinging to it and ground grappling isn’t very… homeric. From your much broader experience, how accurate were my descriptions? What are your general thoughts on the differences between each art?
I’ll be honest and admit my preference for the pansy AJJ since I myself am not exactly the roaring alpha male (more like a book rat, ex athlete who used to compete in badminton and volleyball, you know the type). Then again getting out of your comfort zone is a good thing once in a while, when it’s worth it. Thus I expect a sh*t load of ‘’don’t be a girl, do BJJ’’ responses.
Many thanks, and congratulations for reading all of this (yeah, like you really did).
