Fitness Level for Martial Arts/ Judo

Agent J

So i recently started going to the DCU judo club and i have to say all in all i am very much enjoying it.

However on thing i have noticed is that after the warm up and during sparring is that i am pretty quickly tired out and need to step off for a few mins.

Now dont get me wrong, i am not complaining about it whatsoever and quite enjoy the classes. My question is how do i improve my stamina in classes? Is there anything i can do outside of class to improve it?

See, and possibly this is my mistake. I thought i was relatively fit or at least a respectable enough level. During the summer i would regularly go for long distance cycles(100km+) and currently do regular 10km runs. I can handle them relatively ok. I just thought some of that would be able to translate into martial arts fitness. Or is that a little naive of me?

arthie no no

just enjoy the class as you learn more and relax your fitness levels will adjust :cool:

beGood

Welcome to Judo and it's nice to hear you're enjoying it! I also took up judo at university and I remember very well how tiring training was in the beginning. But arthie no no's advice is spot on, keep training and enjoying the classes and two things will happen: your fitness, as required by the demands of Judo, will improve and more importantly your Judo will improve thus you will waste a lot less energy. For example, every beginner in Judo must learn to defend more through body movement (tai-sabaki) than by relying on holding the opponent away with arm strength alone. When you learn to relax your arms you will notice a massive difference in your energy levels.

Your good running fitness is a help for Judo, but you are right that it doesn't translate directly since Judo uses so many more muscles than running alone. From personal experience, a few years ago during a summer break from Judo I ran the Helsinki City Marathon. This took place in August and a few weeks later I started back to Judo and after the second newaza randori (ground fighting) I was dead and my forearms were totally limp!

If you like to run then it certainly won't do your Judo fitness any harm. It's most effective if you vary the pace of your runs and include sprints or interval training.

At this point in your Judo education the most important thing is to understand the principles and techniques and the only way to achieve this is time on the mat. Judo isn't just about throwing people on their backs but how you throw them is as important. So I wouldn't recommend any weight training as there is a risk that you will start to use strength in randori to execute throws instead of applying the "maximum efficiency for minimum effort" principle that is the essence of Judo.

Also, make sure on training days you've eaten properly and are hydrated enough.

Khannie

It's more or less been covered by the other posts but...

From a fitness perspective the long runs and long cycles give you aerobic fitness, but combat sports are generally anaerobic (i.e. explosive). It'll happen though. It just takes time.

Nothingcompares

plenty of riding do the job

arybvtcw0eolkf

Just to expand on the great advice given by 'BeGood' and weight training.

I'd say certainly don't weight train with the thoughts of being stronger at Judo, but when your Randori/Fighting & understanding of both Judo and how your body works in fighting I'd say start looking at weight training to develop explosive power where & when you need it.

However it'll be while before you understand Judo enough to translate that power to your techniques, but certainly its another bow to add to your quiver further down the road.

One further thing which new comer's to Judo don't realise, your more than welcome to drop into other Judo clubs and pick up some different experience's from them - we're all very welcoming!.

Agent J

Cool thanks all for the advise and information. I'd love to drop by another judo club but i'm a part timer student who has zero free time currently. DCU works for me because i can double up on the library vists while im there.

Actually tonight wasnt that bad because it involved interval training 30 second runs then something else.

Yeah. One thing which i picked up somewhere along the way was the importance of trying to not BFI(Brute force and ignorance) it. I think someone told me " If you throw by strength alone , it'll work right up until you meet someone bigger then you. If you use proper technique .. Doesnt matter how big they are".