I noticed something Disturbing about judo...

[Himokiri Karate]

I have noticed something disturbing about judo. You see I have studied/observed all sort of martial arts from boxing,kyokushin karate,kungfu as well as mma type martial arts.

But lately I have been giving a judoka friend of mine ride to his judo place. Long story short, when I sit out in these classes, I have noticed that almost all the instructors suffer from either:

1.Shoulder Injuries

2.Knee Injuries

The thing that botherd me is, they have a hard time doing push ups since they say there shoulder clicks and lots of them have had shoulder injuries or bad knees.

Is the reality of judo? Is judo techniques really this bad for your body? Im not trying to be disrespectful to all you judokas but I need to know whats going on in here???

[evergrey]

I know that Mas Oyama commented on this, and felt that Judo was much harder on the body than stand-up karate. It's one of the reasons why he chose to move away from Judo. I don't know if it's true or not, however, not knowing many Judoka myself.

I'll also say that I've had knee surgery, a number of people in my dojo have chronic knee problems, and some also have wrist or shoulder issues too... and we're Kyokushin, hah!

I mean, the people in our dojo have a specific orthopedic surgeon we all go to, if that tells you anything...

OSU!

[Himokiri Karate]

I know that Mas Oyama commented on this, and felt that Judo was much harder on the body than stand-up karate. It's one of the reasons why he chose to move away from Judo. I don't know if it's true or not, however, not knowing many Judoka myself.

I'll also say that I've had knee surgery, a number of people in my dojo have chronic knee problems, and some also have wrist or shoulder issues too... and we're Kyokushin, hah!

I mean, the people in our dojo have a specific orthopedic surgeon we all go to, if that tells you anything...

OSU!

I have heard bill wallace was a judo/wrestler until he injured one of his knees and went to become a full contact karate/pka kickboxer.

As a guy who boxes, I know that 80 percent of the coaches in my town are garbage since they have the whole jock "winning is everything attitude"that and teaching there boxers pitter patter punches for scoring points in the amatures and neglecting other defensive manuevers.

I suppose this is also rampant among judokas,wrestlers and tkd guys. Except tkd seems like less taxing on the joints and nervous sytem...

I never knew kyokushin had knee problems. GRRRRRRRR all these injuries seem like there from the need to compete and push your body to the breaking point...

[Harkon72]

Knee injuries are very common in Martial arts, hips are a close second.

[bassaiguy]

A friend of mine is an aikidoka and she just had knee surgery. Even in "soft" MA you can suffer injuries. I think the high number of injuries you see in judo and karate come from hard practice catching up to people in the 30s and 40s. As I'm finding out you just can't train as hard and recover as quickly as you get older.

[Himokiri Karate]

A friend of mine is an aikidoka and she just had knee surgery. Even in "soft" MA you can suffer injuries. I think the high number of injuries you see in judo and karate come from hard practice catching up to people in the 30s and 40s. As I'm finding out you just can't train as hard and recover as quickly as you get older.

Is it lack of flexibility and balance that comes with the old age?

What I mean by that is, if a practioner of martial arts did a solid stretching in morning and nightime each and everyday and did his martial arts however week he/she does, would they become exempt from injuries due to the fact that the are not stretching and taking a better care of there foundation?

Lots of athletes/practioners that practice some form of stretching,balancing seem to avoid these problems since there bodies are looser and not as stiff. I feel like the majority of martial artist and athletes do not stretch...

Ofcourse my take is that, not stretching=bad diet, its evantualy gonna catch up with you it seems. Would you say that assesment is accurate?

[Zaine]

Is it lack of flexibility and balance that comes with the old age?

What I mean by that is, if a practioner of martial arts did a solid stretching in morning and nightime each and everyday and did his martial arts however week he/she does, would they become exempt from injuries due to the fact that the are not stretching and taking a better care of there foundation

Stretching would help injuries like these. Also as Martial Artists we are constantly trying to push harder and harder without properly warming up or throwing things too hard and tearing muscles. Shoulder injury is also pretty common to hard styles.

I think to answer your original question about Judo I would equate it to poor stretching and warming up.

[Dobbersky]

Knee injuries are very common in Martial arts, hips are a close second.

Yes very true, as described by the consultant doing my knee surgery from an Injury sustained when I allowed a Judoka "without their own dojo" do some training with us.

I'm taking Aikido after the surgery to work more with Sabaki, Kazushi, Irimi and Tenkan

Edited December 15, 2012 by Dobbersky

[Wastelander]

Shoulder and knee injuries are simply the reality in judo unless you only train kata-style throws onto crash mats. By its nature, judo is intended to be trained live against a resisting opponent, and that means you are going to have a lot of torque being generated, bodies colliding together and into mats at odd angles, and an unpredictability that all come together to make it dangerous. You could only work throws on stationary, non-resisting opponents in the same way they are performed in judo kata, and you could only throw those people onto crash mats, and you would dramatically reduce the number of injuries, but you would also dramatically reduce the art's effectiveness.

[andym]

Same could be said for Ju Jitsu. An instructor friend of mine jokes that you don't need to look at the belt to see some ones rank, just look at how much strapping they have on.