Simple Techniques Show How To Practice Judo By Yourself At Home

Learning judo at home as a complete art is not possible if you are never to train with anyone else. However, it is possible to supplement your judo by practicing alone at home. This method is certainly not ideal and you always run the risk of practicing bad form.

If you are sensible with your training it is certainly possible to learn judo at home. As an example, if your gym closes down for a few months and you have nowhere to train. Even if you have no partner, there are still some drills and techniques you can do to improve your judo form. With that being said, obviously having an opponent to train with is a massive part of judo.

The movements of another person are dynamic and unpredictable at times. This is something that you simply will not be able to replicate whilst training alone. Instead, it is better to look to the things you can control and improve upon whilst you don’t have anyone else to train with.

Throwing Form & Drills

It can be useful to work on your throwing technique and form if you don’t have a partner. Once again, you won’t be able to improve on a lot of details since you won’t be able to replicate your opponents weight or body structure. It must also be added that there are certain throws you will not be able to perform such as the Tomoe Nage. These are because they are very dynamic movements which require a great deal of adjustment based on the weight distribution of your opponent.

If you put some markets down on the floor (or a pair of shoes for your opponent). You will be able to practice entries to throws such as an Uki Goshi or a Seoi Nage. These throws will not particularly help your overall form of finishing the technique. They will however be extremely helpful with your entries into certain throws. You will notice your footwork will improve especially.

Practicing Judo Throwing Drills With A Grappling Dummy

Despite what you may think, practicing judo throws on a grappling dummy is not especially helpful. Most of the judo drills will improve your footwork and not much else.

The reason for this is because a grappling dummy is 100% deadweight. It does not move, react or redistribute it’s weight. Most grappling dummies are not able to stand up by themselves and do not distribute their weight over their hips like a normal human would. Therefore it is really quite difficult to get a good feel of how to throw a resistant opponent if you are practicing on a dummy.

With that being said, you are still 100% able to practice your entries into a grappling dummy. Especially if they are being propped up well against a wall. Secondly, if you were having trouble with your grips or arm positioning. A dummy can be very helpful since you’re able to take the drills as slowly as you like and reset every time you make a mistake. The bonus is that the dummy will never shout at you when you hurt it or perform the technique incorrectly.

Conditioning Your Core

An often overlooked part of training Judo, or even martial arts in general, is the conditioning of your body. The primary area that you will want to condition, are your core muscles. These mostly include all your chest, leg, and back muscles. It is strains and pulls in these muscle groups which often lead to time away from the mats. Whilst you are off the mats, it’s wise to make the most of your time by training these muscle groups to make sure that they’re 100% conditioned and strengthened by the time you get back.

Turkish Get Ups With Kettlebell

The benefit of Turkish get ups are that it trains your entire body. Whilst you are only training a singular exercise, you will improve at other exercises. As you get stronger and can add higher weight kettlebells to your routine, you will become more athletic and increase your overall body strength. Obviously you aren’t trying to become a bodybuilder for judo, but strength and athleticism will always be good trait to have.

Various Bodyweight Exercises (No Equipment Needed)

There is a good chance you will have seen most, or if not all of these drills already. There are various things you can do such as sit ups, push ups, planks, heel touches and scissor kicks. All of these exercises will condition your core muscles and obviously do not need any equipment at all so are ideal for home training.

Hip Escapes & Mobility Drills

The hip escape is purely for groundwork, but judoka do not really train enough ground fighting for the most part. The hip escape is an essential movement as it stops you from being pinned. In almost every BJJ class you will see hip escapes in the warm-up, this should prove to you how much you need it, if you weren’t already convinced.

The difference in being pinned or not in judo can be the difference between winning and losing a match. Whilst most fights are won on the feet in judo, there are still a good amount which end up on the ground. As you increase your mobility on the ground from a defensive point of view, you will find that you are no longer concerned when in bottom position.

It’s not just hip escapes that can be done to improve your overall movement and athleticism on the ground either. Both forward, backward, and even Granby rolls can be used to increase your movement, athleticism and mobility through various easy at-home drills.

Shadow Randori

This technique is not for everyone, but some people may find success using it. The judo equivalent to shadow boxing is shadow randori. By performing a shadow match against an imaginary opponent, you will find yourself making several mistakes from footwork to general body posture. If you are mindful of what you are doing, over time you can correct these mistakes without even getting thrown in sparring. This is a physically more pleasant way to learn since you’re not getting thrown on your back every 2 minutes. However, it may be quite mentally challenging and boring if you are not entertained by this kind of idea.

For some people this technique is great, whilst others may find it more entertaining to watch paint dry.

Studying Video Footage

Perhaps the best way to improve your own judo game is by watching footage of yourself, ideally in a tournament setting. If you don’t have any footage like this it’s no big deal. There are plenty of professional tournament videos on youtube. If you watch carefully you will be able to see some of the intricacies that led up to a big throw. It may take you several times of watching a single video at a high level or even slowing it down to half speed. However, if you keep looking for something, eventually you will find something small that can potentially have a big impact upon your own technique.

If you have footage of yourself it is 100% ideal, since you will be able to review your past mistakes. If you are not a seasoned competitor at black belt, the chances are you will be making a LOT of mistakes during your matches. When re-watching, you may find that you are making the same mistake over and over. This is the best kind of mistake to correct, by cutting out the most common mistakes to the least common, you will rapidly improve your overall game and become fundamentally more solid as a judoka.

Similarly, there are a number of decent judo books out there that can help beginners. For instance, this book is a good starting point for learning kodokan judo techniques.

Risks Of Training Alone

If you are training judo alone, there are two main risks.

The first is that you are practicing bad form or technique. Whilst you will be ok when you are solo training. You may force yourself to learn bad form which will injure you or your partner in the future. Practice makes permanence, not perfect. Therefore if you are drilling a technique which has a few dangerous flaws in it, you may risk injuring yourself when you train with a partner. An example of this would be lifting your opponents weight with poor posture, you may cause serious damage to your lower back.

The second problem is that you may feel like you’re better than you actually are. As you have not practiced with an opponent, you may get hurt from being thrown yourself. If you didn’t break fall in a long time, or perhaps you have never learnt at all. You can get seriously injured if you try to post an arm or hand when you’re getting thrown from a decent height.

Conclusion

Training judo at home is certainly not ideal, nor is it suitable for everyone.

Overall, you should be looking to train with other people as much as you can. Only train alone when you absolutely have to, since you will not improve as fast, possibly learn bad habits and certainly not have as much fun.

With this being said, at the very least, conditioning as well as mobility drills can certainly be done alone. You definitely do not need anyone else if you are practicing moves such as hip escapes or throw entry drills.