Basic judo "tactics" for kids?

silverharp

I hope this doesnt come across as a silly question but I have a 7 year old who does Judo and in both an effort to follow better what goes on and to get him to think "tactically" I'd be interested in reading or otherwise finding out about what factors are important in turning a fight one way or the other. Obviously its up to junior to learn and practice his moves but I'm thinking of the softer stuff like his balance, forcing the opponent to become unbalanced or if the opponent happens to be shorter/taller/stockier does it influence how you go about things?

slammer187

Teach him how to grip fight, if he can always get dominant grips he'll be almost impossible to throw at his level and also it will give him a chance to use his throws with similar grips that he would have whilst drilling his throws, It's a very underestimated part of the game at lower levels but at Olympic level it's the main focus so obviously the best in the world are doing something right :P

Doug Cartel

Grip fighting is usually discouraged for kids as it's not the best thing for improving long term.

slammer187

Doug Cartel wrote: »

Grip fighting is usually discouraged for kids as it's not the best thing for improving long term.

How so?

Raging_Ninja

slammer187 wrote: »

How so?

Better to spend time on doing throws and moving around the place, keeping balance.

Later on they can learn how to grip fight.

After a quick google there's a good discussion on it here:

http://judoforum.com/index.php?/topic/56501-why-grip-fighting-at-lower-grades-is-messing-up-judo/

slammer187

The OP is looking for ways that his child can be tactically advantageous in Judo, understanding how to get grips and not lets your opponents get dominant grips on you is a key part to winning matches especially at a level where most other competitors won't understand the concepts of tactical gripping.

I'm not saying to abandon fundamentals and just learn how to grip your opponent, I'm saying that to be tactically advantageous being able to beat your opponent in what is arguably the most important part of the game obviously is a way to improve your game tactically

If I can get grips to throw you with on you and you can't get grips to throw me with who's gonna get thrown?

Kimura

Gripping is the most important element to Judo,

gripping should be done with movement. it does not have to be about power and strength, Movement with gripping is fundamental to the development of any judo player of any age.

This promotes the understanding of how to move into throws, and how to control and setup for throw,

Simple exercises, Like moving your partner around the mat, lightly on the balls of you feet, changing grips.
For a child of 7 two or 3 sets of grips are fine, just move with circles, backwards forwards, diagonally always light on the balls of your feet, and repeatedly changing in and out of the different grips.

Sets of grips would be e.g
1. Standard lapel and sleeve grip
2. behind the head and sleeve grip
3. around the waist and sleeve grip.

Any theses grips are very simple but we are talking about a 7 year old. so practice changing in and out of theses grips while moving lightly around the mat. it is a bit like dancing.

cambridge

judo tactics for a 7 year old?

winning or losing at this age will have absolutely no bearing on his future progression, in fact, putting high significance on winning or losing will probably put him off the sport.

Grip fighting at 7? leave it to what ever the coach teaches.

at 7 you should be enjoying it and trying to get perfect technique on the gross aspects of judo, not the fine details of grip fighting.

Doug Cartel

Whatever you do, you should probably talk to the coach first. You don't want to end up in a situation where you're giving your kid one set of instructions and the coach is telling him to do the opposite.

Burnt

Kimura wrote: »

Sets of grips would be e.g
1. Standard lapel and sleeve grip
2. behind the head and sleeve grip
3. around the waist and sleeve grip.

I don't know if it's still the case, I suggest you check it out; but, in the past example 2,
"back of the head/around the neck grip," was expressly prohibited for children's bouts, by
the IJA, due to risk of possible neck or spinal injury.

Kimura

Burnt wrote: »

I don't know if it's still the case, I suggest you check it out; but, in the past example 2,
"back of the head/around the neck grip," was expressly prohibited for children's bouts, by
the IJA, due to risk of possible neck or spinal injury.

High grip is ok, for minors as long as the grip does not go past the spine, i.e all the way over, head-lock type or heading that way.

Barry.Oglesby

At 7 kids should free play as much as possible. An example of a tactical cue for a 7 year old would be "maybe try to do that throw we learned last week" or "concentrate and do the best you can".

I wouldn't know the fine details of how best to coach a judo player, but I do know how to deal with kids and the notion of tactics is alien to them. They live in the moment!

just-joe

Hmmm maybe real tactics are hard for seven year olds, but to get a bit of an advantage, maybe it would be good to have a very high attack rate, and move a lot.

It also may be difficult when you are 7 but I would guess the tiniest bit of break-balance (kuzushi) would make a huge difference so if your kid concentrates on doing uchi-komi properly, breaking balance first and then turning in and then throw, that would help a lot. Practice slowly step by step, to differentiate the parts, and quickly like for proper randori.

I recommend 100 a day for every throw he/she knows, the ippons will be coming in no time!

arybvtcw0eolkf

I'm not sure just how tactically aware a seven year old can be, but if I was to rewind the years I'd have concentrated more on grip fighting and ashiwaza (foot sweeps) and build my game around those.

Other than that I'd let a seven year old just have the craic with his team mates in the club.

silverharp

thanks for all the tips, I'll have a word with the coach. There is a schools competition coming up in 2 weeks in Marino, so we will see how it goes. My main objective is just to get him past the "deer in the headlights" when it comes to a competition.
I hadnt thought about getting to practice some of the routines at home so Ill ask the trainer for some tips on that

Doug Cartel

How many competitions has he had already? Getting past the dear in the headlights stage is largely down to experience.

One tactical thing I can think of in relation dear in the headlights problems is this: In a kids competition, you often get a situation where both players fall in a heap with no score awarded (or at least not a match winning score). One of the players will then pop his head up and look at the ref, or his dad in the crowd or whatever, and start thinking about walking back to the restart spot. The other player will remember the fight is still on, and will drag his opponent down for an easy pin.

Make sure your son knows to keep going until the ref tells him to stop.

silverharp

Doug Cartel wrote: »

How many competitions has he had already? Getting past the dear in the headlights stage is largely down to experience.

One tactical thing I can think of in relation dear in the headlights problems is this: In a kids competition, you often get a situation where both players fall in a heap with no score awarded (or at least not a match winning score). One of the players will then pop his head up and look at the ref, or his dad in the crowd or whatever, and start thinking about walking back to the restart spot. The other player will remember the fight is still on, and will drag his opponent down for an easy pin.

Make sure your son knows to keep going until the ref tells him to stop.

just the one so far and just the way things go the trainer could be involved timekeeping or on another mat. Good advice about listening to the ref.