Praesul

Just yesterday, after we were done practicing ne-waza at my Judo club, my sensei came up to talk to me. He was wondering why I always used my elbows to grind into people, and that I should stop doing it because it's dirty. Now, that day, I thought I was doing a fantastic job. I managed to submit one of the higher ranked people that I've wanted to submit for a while (it's been a goal of mine, I'm sure he went easy on me, though). I managed to buck off someone 100 pounds heavier than me, and I event went with someone almost 200 pounds heavier than me! (I didn't submit him, but I was so close. ) It was a bit discouraging to hear, after all that. I went home and looked up whether or not using your elbows was cheating, and from what I've seen, it's not. Some people see it as cheating, or unsportsmanlike, though. Now, the way I use the elbows is I'll dig them into someone's legs when I'm in their guard. It's the first method I ever learned on escaping someone's guard, and it's one of my favorites. I'm a very skinny guy, and I like to use these types of things to my advantage. People bigger than me constantly put all their weight on me to keep me down, and nobody looks down on that. How come they're allowed to use their weight to their advantage, but when I use my elbows it's unsportsmanlike, or cheating? (I'll point my elbows up at people when they try putting all their weight on me, so my elbows end up digging into their collarbone. They'll usually stop after that) And it's not like it has it's disadvantages. I'm constantly getting caught in leg triangles and armbars (I manage to escape most of the time, though). I could totally understand if people wanted me to stop because they consider it a bad technique to use (too many cons, not enough pros?) Hell, lots of people there dig their knuckles in, why are elbows any different? Anyways, sorry for the lengthy post...again. I'd just like people's opinions, and I'd like to be thorough so most questions are answered right away.

I wear my blue Judogi. When you first start out, you're allowed to wear a tshirt or a hoodie with shorts, until you order your gi. Once you have it, you're required to wear your gi...Otherwise... If you're missing the top, 30 pushups. If you're missing the bottom, 30 pushups. If you're missing your belt, 30 pushups. If you miss all 3, 100 pushups. So yeah, everyone wears their Judogi (Or Jiu-Jitsugi, some people from the BJJ class before us stay for Judo), no exceptions unless you're a beginner who hasn't ordered their gi. We also have nogi Judo days, you just wear shorts and a tshirt (Or a rashguard, which is what I wear) instead of a gi. Same for MMA.

I'm not sure about you guys, but I'd say tossing a guy to the ground on the hard asphalt/concrete is pretty damn effective. He'll definitely be winded, slam his head on the ground maybe, and he could break ribs. Then you fall on top of him and choke him for good measure.

In my class, we stick to people around the same size as us. The only time my sensei would allow going against someone significantly bigger is if you're more experienced.

Something else to add. At my dojo we've recently gotten another Judoka to come train with us. He's been doing it for about 2 years, and he stopped for 2 years for whatever reason, and now he's come to train with us. Well, he has long hair. He ties it in a ponytail, but even then the ponytail is pretty long. Whenever we practice newaza sometimes he taps out before I've even got the choke or an armlock...Because I'm pulling his hair on accident or something.

Years and years of training to learn to be able to defend yourself, only to find out you can't because you've had years and years of training. Bah.

Thanks for all the replies so far. Let me clarify a couple of things... First, I have a lot of free time. I'm in a homeschool program, I do most of my work online and go visit the office every Monday for 4 hours as a regular class setting. Second....I'm interested in MMA. It's not my MAIN focus or anything, but I see the possibility and I think eventually I'd like to give MMA a shot. The club I'm in, Rising Sun Judo, is very informal. Not how I imagined it to be...It's also pretty MMA oriented. The schedule is like this. Olympic Judo on Monday (Basically just tachi waza, randori, and a bit of ne waza towards the end.) Nogi Judo on Tuesdays, which is our most MMA oriented training of the week. Throws and submissions that would work without a gi, etc. Olympic Judo again on Wednesday, and then a day dedicated almost entirely to ne waza on Thursday. The instructor also teaches MMA on Saturdays and Sundays (I haven't gone to these though) Along with Judo he also knows Boxing and BJJ. I'm already in the type of mindset to do both a grappling and striking martial art at the same time... And these martial arts aren't something I just plan on doing for a couple of years and then stopping, no. I'm sticking with Judo for the rest of my life. I also plan on doing the same with Shotokan if I ever start, and I'd also like to do some Boxing too. Those are the three main things I want to learn, Judo, Shotokan, and Boxing. I think with all the years I have left in my life (I'm only 18 ) it can't be too difficult to become very good at all of them. Then again, I just started martial arts so I wouldn't know. Sorry if my replies are a bit wordy.

Hi, I made a post on this forum before about starting Judo, and Kyokushin I couldn't find a place here in Las Vegas which offers Kyokushin lessons, but I did find what I ASSUME is a really good place for Shotokan, all their senior instructors have received their instructor's certificates from Osamu Ozawa, who is one of Gichin Funakoshi's student's. http://www.lvshotokan.com This is their website. Anyways, on to my question..... What I'm wondering is, would it be a good idea to start Shotokan when I'm still learning Judo (and am still very new). Would it make things difficult for me? Should I wait? (Oh and before anyone assumes anything...I'm perfectly fine with Shotokan instead of Kyokushin. I'm not "settling" or anything, I like both. Thanks for your concern though. =D) Looking forward to your guy's advice.

I had this problem recently. Well, mine was long enough to tie into a ponytail...But...Ponytails and me...We just don't get along, you know? I just ended up cutting it really short. I look really weird now, still used to having long hair. Ah well, totally worth it.

For the price of the iPad I could upgrade my current computer to a more high end model. Sure, I can't take it anywhere with me, but it does everything the iPad will be able to do and much, much more. The only portable device I'd need is a Tmobile Sidekick LX. It has the best physical keyboard for texting. I'm a textaholic. =D

Alright, I will. Hopefully I'll luck out and be able to take both Judo and Kyokushin without leaving the comfort of my state, eh?

Thanks, but as far as I know they don't offer Kyokushin anymore, they used to. Now they only teach Aikido.

Makes it sound nice, doesn't it? Anyways these first few paragraphs are just a dumb little story of why I got interested in martial arts, feel free to skip this and go to the most important part of this thread, my question (Which you will notice because of the LOUD BLACK BOLD TEXT ) Anyways, sometime last year a friend of mine became interested in MMA fighting. He's not a fighter himself, just a big fan. And of course, somehow, somewhere along the way he managed to rope me in and then I got hooked too. So this friend decided to start taking Muay Thai and BJJ lessons, and he wanted me to take some with him. I thought, why not? I need to get in shape, and it wouldn't hurt knowing how to defend myself, right? Fast forward a bit to this year, and neither of us has started. Problems have popped up that have kept us from going at it, but now I think we're both fed up with waiting. I've decided I want to learn Judo as my first martial art, and I've looked for places in Las Vegas and as far as I knew there was only one place in Vegas that taught Judo. Fortunately I got in contact with some guy training for MMA fights and he recommended to me another place that teaches Judo, Team Mica jiu-jitsu. Apparently the instructor there has national Judo champs training under him. I haven't confirmed that for myself, but seeing as how Team Mica seems like it's MMA oriented it doesn't seem like a bad place to learn Judo, right? I gave the instructor a call, he told me their location, and he told me they offer the first two weeks of classes for free, which I thought was great, you know, to give me time to see if it's what I really want to do. I'm going down there tomorrow to observe and see how it works there, get all the info I need and whatnot. I'm pretty sure that's the place I'm going to go with, though. And now, on to my Karate question I plan (keyword: plan) on sticking with Judo for good and never giving it up, but eventually I'd like to learn other martial arts too! I've decided that Karate will be the second martial art I want to learn. Here is where the problem arises. I specifically want to learn Kyokushin Karate. Unfortunately there are no places here in Vegas that teach Kyokushin Karate. Should I go with a different style of Karate because I can't find a good place for Kyokushin or what? And if I DO eventually find a place that teaches it, I would have no experience on how to train in two martial arts. How do you go about it? Concentrating on both simultaneously, or separately? If that makes sense. Maybe I'm getting a bit ahead of myself though. Sorry for this post being a bit wordy. I don't particularly know too many people who have any experience with martial arts so this is one of the only places I have to go where I could get input.