I am a green belt at judo and cannot seem to improve although I train at my local club every week.?

Question

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Answer 1

Skill is one thing but age is another.  In all sports age is very material . . if you are over 34 your ability will diminish year on year.   Maybe you are at your zenith (curtains if you like) and Bowls or Golf beckons.

Answer 2

try doing more than 1 martial art, if you are doing judo, i would suggest ju-jitsu as well, you will learn good floor tecnique and then be able to incorperate this into your judo, to get a real benefit from martial arts though, you need to train more than once a week, i did yoshin ryu ju jitsu for 12 years, and i trained 4 times a week (all my club would allow). i tried judo but because of my ju jitsu past i found it was too easy to lock opponents up, so gave it up, and tried mui thai instead, which was a lot more of a challenge. give it a go

Answer 3

It took me 8 years of training ( between 3-5 times per week) before I got my black belt.  I went in for it extremely confident as I had spent so much time perfecting my techniques.  I saw all my friends getting theirs after 2-3 years, but it never bothered me, because whenever I spar with them I knock them from pillar to post (they are 3rd dans now lol).

Remember it is not the belt that make the man, it is the man that makes the belt.  Your time will come just make sure that when you go for your next grading, that you are sh*t hot!

Answer 4

What is require is more effort, Once a week will not do much, there you will only learn the knowledge, it is up to you to do the practice.  Set aside an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening each day to practice what you have learnt at the club.  Also use this time to build up your strenght, speed and stamina, push ups, sit ups a bit of jogging.

Function in a manner that you may fulfil your potential

spend another hour reading books, you need to work and expand your mind as well as your body.  I suggest you read  'The Book of Five Rings'  by Miyamoto  Musashi

Remember the more you put into something the more you will get out

good luck  hope you get your Black Belt soon

Answer 5

just tran harder and focuss also get a punching bag or a kick bag to practise all your kicks and stuff on also maybe start lifting some weights if your really kean.

Answer 6

Many of the answers appear to be telling you to work harder, train more, lift weights, try more etc, but that is the equivlent of using muscle over mind instead of mind over muscle. Which is a contradiction of the number one principle of Judo i.e. non-resistance.

Perhaps you need to fall in love with Judo again and study the theory of non-resistance.

Why not read or re-read the comments of Kano himself. There is a good website http://www.judoinfo.com, it may just be the answer.

Also you can try incorporating the concepts and principles of Judo into your everyday life and that will give you greater understanding because you'll get closer to the spirt of Judo.

Think about how we tend to use willpower and strength rather than technique to win arguments over love ones. The possibilities are infinite.

Answer 7

Trevor C has an awsome answer for you and deserves the best answer. The only way to improve is to push yourself and take on people who are better then you. If no one at your scholl is better then you(I doubt that is the case) then try and find another school, at least for a while. If there are better people then you in class, these are the people you should be seeking to work out with.

Big thumbs up trevor C!!!!!!!

Answer 8

Taking up a martial art is one of the most rewarding decisions a person can make. With a good instructor, there's a lifetime's worth of hobby stretching out in front of you as you enjoy shaping yourself and your technique towards the elusive goal of perfection.

When I was 'stuck' at 4th kyu (purple belt)  just over a year ago, the following quote inspired me:

"The belt that you wear…only reflects the person who is wearing it."  (Vince Cullan)

"You may train for a long, long time, but if you merely move your hands and feet and jump up and down down like a puppet, learning karate is not very different from learning to dance. You will have never reached the heart of the matter; you will have failed to grasp the quintessence of karate-do..........Spirit first, Technique second."  

Gichin Funakoshi.

Answer 9

I hope its not making you feel blue. (hang on, that's what you want lol)

Answer 10

When I was  brown belt a long time ago, I had the same problem.  After 2 yrs as a brown I was no better than when I first got it.  The I met Brian Jacks who advised me to find a club where I was one of the worst instead of one of the best, so I started going to the Budokwai in Kensington, where all the big boys trained.  I went there for 4 months and never won a fight, but I did notice that they were taking a little longer to get me.

When I went back to my local club, everyone including me was stunned.  It was as if I had turned into Superman.

I sailed through my 1st Dan grading.  In fact I got told off for staying a brown belt for too long on the grounds that it wasn't fair to the other Browns having to compete against someone who was so much better.

Remember this. When you are losing, you are learning and improving.  When you are winning, the other guy is learning and improving.

You learn Judo by watching and copying your betters.

Today, you have You Tube.  Just type in judo and you can watch the best in the world and try to copy their techniques.

Answer 11

How do you know you are not improving? Maybe your instructor can see a difference. But if you want to improve just train harder and more frequently. Practice makes permanent.

Answer 12

1) enter some tournaments.  Tournaments, even if you get your butt handed to you each time, do wonders for improving Judo.  It's like that time is equal to 1.5 or 2x the time you normall spend working out.

2) order some books on Judo from Amazon and read them.  Troll the net for Judo in your down time.

3) ask your teacher.  Odds are, you are experiencing one of the many plateaus that happen in martial arts.  I hit green and stayed there for a long time also.  

4) try to train more than 1x a week. If you cannot (or even if you can), you should do some shadow/solo exercises as part of your daily workout in the morning.   Here are some I've done:

1) 1000 foot sweeps

2) Walking shadow fits of Harai Goshi/Tsurikomi Goshi hand motions

3) In-place step-behind foot movements for Harai Goshi/Uchi Mata

4) Ippon Seoi Nage Shadow Fits (throwing yourself off-balance)

5) Shrimping Forwards and Backwards

6) Slap-Pulls

7) Ukemi

8) shadow combinations

Answer 13

Try taking the importance of rank off. Your rank isn't that important. When I was a white belt and yellow belt I went to the junior nationals and beat many blue, green, purple and brown belts. My instructor allowed me to go thinking it would be a good learning experience. No one knew I would compete so well against higher ranked people. I know your rank is an accomplishment, but we shouldn't put so much value on rank. I would suggest that you workout more than once a week if possible. We used to train 2 to 3 times a week. We had one of the best schools in the area. We were nationally ranked. Because of our ranking we got a chance to train with the Olympic team. We visited them and they traveled to visit us. You should also give it some time. You will get better. Practice with people that are better. Also try to become the Sensei's uke. Believe it or not those person usually become the best students.

You never know, you may be improving more than you think. Many times your peers and your instructors will notice the improvements before you notice.

Good Luck

Answer 14

Training once a week is not enough. To be able to become a blue belt, i feel you should be training at least twice a week or at least 2 hours a week. Prefarably more.

Answer 15

Just remember it is unimportant how long it takes to get there if you get there in the end.  Sometimes the slower the better.  I take maybe three to six times longer to read my college based books compared to others.

Maybe let your instructor know what is going through your mind and ask his advice.

Answer 16

Some good advice has been given to you.

I'd also like to ask, how many times a week do you train? If it's only once a week, you may not be getting enough time to practice.

Something else that you should keep in mind is that progression isn't linear; it comes in cycles. Sometimes you'll be feeling really good at something, hit a platuea, a brief decline, then bounce back stronger. Sometimes the road is smooth, other times bumpy.

Perhaps your kauzushi has improved, but you haven't noticed because your attention is on entries. Maybe your te waza has improved, but you're focused on ashi waza. Sometimes its easy to overlook little improvements across the map, if you're too focused on one specific piece or your overall goal (say, getting an ippon).

But, honestly, I don't know a thing about you, so I'm just firing in the dark. However, I'd recommend that you read this article. It has a lot of good insights.

Obviously, you're doing Judo -- not submission grappling -- but the idea remains the same.

http://ezinearticles.com/index.php?Deali...