Judo versus Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: An Apple Vs An Orange

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Judo versus Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: An Apple Vs An Orange



By Joaquin Jauregui

An objective and fair comparison between the combat sports of Judo and BJJ (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu) would reveal that each art has its own set of strengths and weakness, and that these strengths and weakness are created by the rules of each sport. An argument to attempt to establish which art is better is akin to arguing which fruit is better: An Apple or an Orange.

Judo and BJJ each have their dedicated followers and of course of if you ask a Judoka which art is better they would most likely say Judo and a BJJ fighter will say the opposite. A Judoka might say that BJJ fighters have no throwing skills and that all they want to do is lay on their backs. A BJJ Fighter might say that Judokas only focus on throws and that they cannot finish their opponent because of their lack of advance groundwork. Both arguments are valid and invalid, because each side is seeing the other side through the rules of their separate competitions.

Modern day Judo or Olympic Judo focus is on performing throws; as stated in the International Judo Federation Official Referee Rule Book an Ippon (Winning score) is awarded: “When a contestant with control throws the other contestant largely on his back with considerable force and speed.” (Sec. Rules, International Judo Federation) A throw for a Judoka is the fastest route to victory and is therefore practiced the most in the Dojo. Judokas can also win a Judo match by submitting their opponent, by either a choking technique or a joint locking technique against the elbow or by pinning an opponent. Though three of the four ways to win a Judo match are on the ground a premium is placed on scoring and Ippon via a throw. Referees also have a practice to only allow a Judoka three to five seconds to get a pin or a submission. As any Judoka or BJJ fighter knows, groundwork is a game of inches, not miles; three to five seconds is simply not enough time to work your game plan on the ground. “I do not know when or why this three to five second time constraint came from!” stated Sensei Victor Anderson, who is a Forth Degree Judo Black Belt and a National Level Qualified Judo Referee. “Nowhere in the rule book does it say that there are any time constraints on Ne-Waza. If the players stall then we are supposed to call “Matte” (Halt or Stop in Japanese) and stand them up. If a Judoka is working for something or both players are rolling and making transitions than let them continue.” (Anderson)

Due to this practice of limiting time for Ne-Waza in tournaments, many Judo clubs simply do not spend much time teaching Ne-Waza let alone any of the complex guard sweeps, guard passes or submissions that BJJ fighters do. Why would they? Why focus on an aspect of the competition that you may only spend a few seconds in during a match and the probability for winning is relatively low? The logical thing would be to simply train throws, because that is most likely what is going to win your matches and make you a successful Judoka.

This leaves many Judokas with a very basic and limited ground game, but a very good skill set for grip fighting and throwing techniques. Many BJJ Fighters will claim that BJJ is better because many of the BJJ fighters are able to dominate many Judokas on groundwork and right they should as most BJJ schools teach about 90 percent ground work and 10 percent throwing or takedowns, if even that. Many BJJ fighters will simply pull guard if presented with an opponent who they are unable to takedown. This is allowed in BJJ competitions but is not in Judo, so a Judoka who is skilled in groundwork cannot simply pull guard to initiate groundwork. The Judoka must throw his opponent to the ground with skill and then use what limited time he has to achieve a pin or submission. If we were to compare BJJ to Judo in a Judo Tournament, than most BJJ fighters would be at a great disadvantage and BJJ would prove to be the inferior style. If a Judoka was to fight in a BJJ tournament then most likely he would lose, as a BJJ fighter can get thrown cleanly to the ground and only be down by two points and still win by using his elaborate groundwork game, and not be worried about a referee stopping the groundwork to stand the opponents back up. In a BJJ tournament Judo would prove to be the inferior sport, as groundwork is placed above all else and throwing can be negated all together by a BJJ fighter simply pulling guard.

In Sociology when objectively studying a culture, who must take care not be ethnocentric, meaning that we must judge a culture’s way of life by the culture’s standards, not our own. When comparing Judo to BJJ and BJJ to Freestyle wrestling and Freestyle Wrestling to SAMBO we must look at the rules and regulations of the particular style of grappling and judge it by its’ own standards and not by those of our chosen sport. After all an apple and an orange are both fruits but are still very different, and who can say one is better than the other?













Works Cited

Anderson, Victor. Personal Interview. 3 Jan 2011

Intjudo.eu. Rules. International Judo Federation. Web. 3 Jan. 2011