Grappling style to work well with Shotokan?

[armanox]

Aikido is a fantastic complement to karate. And, despite what you may have heard, is quite effective. Like many arts, it is a matter of being taught correctly.

[BreathingHands]

Study Judo or a traditional jujitsu school that practices HARD.

I would avoid aikido as I don't think it's practical for the street and is lacking in ground technique.

BJJ is awesome for grappling but I still don't buy it as a viable self defense system. I have trained at a top Gracie school for about 4 months and I don't care what they feed me, I would NEVER use the techniques if I found myself in an altercation in the street.

[Lupin1]

Aikido is a fantastic complement to karate. And, despite what you may have heard, is quite effective. Like many arts, it is a matter of being taught correctly.

My instructor incorporates aikido into our Isshinryu training all the time (he's studied a bunch of systems and works a lot of stuff from other systems into our Isshinryu classes). In fact, just yesterday we were working on a few aikido moves (actually, the black belts were working on the moves. I got to start learning how to be uki )

[bub4444]

Hey, just wanted to say I've been doing Judo for about a month at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre, and I'm having a lot of fun. It started out slow with just learning break falls, but we eventually moved onto pins and newaza randori. I have just finished the one month beginner session, and have joined the rest of the class. Thanks for the advice everyone!

[david123]

i do shotokan and judo....judo is very effective with shotokan especially with sparring and using correct sweeps....we also use it in self defense LOADS!

[bub4444]

Been doing Judo for four months now, going pretty well. Still have not done any standing randori. I've learned about four throws, four pins, and two arm locks. We do ne waza randori and practice throws almost every day. Can't wait for the tournament in June! (white belts only do ne waza in the tournament, though all belts but black participate)

[jsteczko]

I train Shotokan Karate and BJJ (sometimes MMA grappling).

I think the biggest difference between judo and BJJ is that in judo they train more takedowns. On my BJJ classes we do not practice takedowns which is a negative thing. I heard that this is a common "problem" in many BJJ clubs. But I cannot be 100 % sure because I did not train in every BJJ club on earth. Maybe it depends on the teacher.

I would gladly test judo because then you can be sure you will learn how to take people down to the ground.

How about the grappling part? Judo and BJJ have the same roots which means their grappling techniques are very much the same.

So, everything depends on what you want to practice. If you want to learn both takedowns and ground fighting you should go for judo. If you want to put 100 % of your efforts on grappling you should train BJJ.

If I could go to a judo class I would do it. But I live in a small town and there is no judo here...

[Toptomcat]

I'm glad to hear that judo is working out for you!