Judo is a modern Japanese martial art and Olympic sport. The Japanese word Judo is translated as “gentle way.” Its most memorable feature is its competitive component. The object is to throw one’s opponent to the ground, immobilize, or subdue one’s opponent with a grappling maneuver. Or one can also force a contestant to submit by joint locking the elbow or by choking.

Strikes and thrusts as well as weapons defenses are part of judo, but only in pre-arranged forms which are called Katas. Katas not permitted in judo competition or free practice. This martial art originated in Japan in the late nineteenth century. Eventually, the philosophy and successive pedagogy developed for judo became the model for just about all modern Eastern martial arts that developed from “traditional” colleges.

The spread of Judo throughout the world has led on to the development of a number of offshoots like Sambo and Brazilian Ju-Jitsu. The history of judo is inseparable from that of its founder, the Japanese teacher Jigoro Kano. Kano was born into a wealthy Japanese family.

Small and weak as a boy, he was sometimes picked on by bullies. He initially began studying the art of Ju-Jitsu at the age of seventeen, but only met with minimal success. This was in part due to difficulties in finding a teacher who would take him on as a student. When he went to school to analyze literature at the age of 18, he continued his self-defense skills studies, ultimately gaining a Continue reading »

Many people are planning to start learning about martial arts nowadays but may not have taken into account the fact that they will need martial arts equipment to be able to practice this hobby or occupation. Here are some tips on how to get the best martial arts equipment you need:

1.Try to figure out which martial arts equipment you want to become proficient in. The uniforms in martial arts differ in design, color and use so you have to be specific about which uniform you wish to use. This also applies to your martial arts equipment since the martial arts equipment for one martial art may be unique to that martial art.

2.Find out what protective gear you need to be able to spar and train in your preferred martial arts. Protective gear as martial arts equipment is very important because the last thing you want is to get injured in a sparring session. Protective gear as martial arts equipment can be categorized either as head gear (like face masks and helmets), gear to protect your torso (like chest shields), gear to protect your groin (which is more for men than women, and may consist of a crotch guard or sports cup to shield your privates from being punched or kicked), shin guards to keep the shin area of your legs from being injured when you block a flying kick with your legs (since getting hit on the shin tends to be rather painful since there isn’t much flesh and muscle to shield your shin bone), feet gear (such as kic Continue reading »

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