What many grapplers of today don’t realize is that back then grappling techniques were a lot harder to come by. Now-a-days, anyone can go online learn from any of the many highly-qualified grappling instructors who, many for absolutely free, demonstrate effective and proven techniques. With the advent of Youtube and other similar websites, one can simply type in “omoplata defense” on YouTube and get to choose the most credible-looking instructor from a multitude of related videos. But back then, you primarily relied on your instructor or training partner to teach you, or if you were determined enough, tried to piece together techniques from instructions in a book on grappling, which were expensive and rare.
When I was around 14 years old, I was member of my high school Judo club. The pace of the Judo lessons back then were agonizingly slow. We spent months learning break falls and rolling. I desperately wanted to learn more grappling techniques, and as I mentioned, this was before there was this answer-to-all-questions-in-the-universe thing called the internet. I already had a copy of Judo in Action: Throwing Techniques
One day as that 14 year old frustrated kid, I was roaming around, and decided to drop by the bookstore that was in front of my school, and right there in the sports section, I saw it the grappling book I’ve wanted to buy for years. Until that time, I had never even read or seen for sale a single book on grappling (except for a small book on Sumo in my dad’s personal library). To afford it, I had to save up my allowances for a couple of weeks, and once I just had enough money, I bought it: Judo in Action Grappling Techniques
Here’s what the book looked like:
Back then, it was the Holy Book of grappling knowledge. I would spend whole nights leafing through it page by page. It gave me an edge. At every grappling session, I’d try apply whatever technique points I could glean off just reading and visualizing. Not before long, I had a definite technical edge in grappling over the other kids in the club.
The author of this book is Kazuzo Kudo. When he wrote the book in the 1960’s he was already an old man, and by then he was the only living student of Jigoro Kano still left alive. But even if you picks up the book today you will find out that the techniques in this book are still used by the modern grapplers and MMA warrior today.
Somethings I did learn from my first ever book on grappling were:
1. For every technique there is are actions you have to focus on
2. For every technique, there are techniques you can do to try escape from it.
Judo in Action Grappling Techniques
The book is also a time capsule. The nature of fighting sports have evolved dramatically since the book was written, especially with all the prize money and science put into grappling and MMA. One can expect that improvements have been made on some techniques, and new ones have been developed and introduced to the grapplers around the world. But also, far more interestingly, one will see that most of the techniques on the mats and in the cages today were already well-studied by at least the middle of the last century.
Now-a-days, without the benefit of a grappling coach, I still learn from books, but I’ll take that up at a later post.
(While I love Kazuzo Kudo’s book to bits, literally because my copies are falling apart, this page contains affiliate links. That means if you click on links or pictures to Amazon and end up buying the book, I’ll probably earn a few cents.)
I have this book. I’ve had it for years since I was training Judo back in the early to mid 2000s. The gym that I attend now is a MMA gym and the grappling is all no gi. So do you have any ideas or suggestions for incorporating the techniques from this book into a non gi context?
Super good question. I guess each Judo practitioner entering the no gi world would have their own approach to this problem, but what I personally found useful was this book “Judo for Mixed Martial Arts” by the UFC fighter Karo Parisyan. I actually discussed this book in Part 2 of this article. It’s too bad I discovered this book rather late in my years as an actively competing athlete, but I’d suggest anyone in your situation to give it a look.
Thanks for the reply and suggestion. I’ve only just begun to study the book by Karo Parisyan (it came in the mail last Thursday). I am excited to try to adapt my Judo game to the non-gi mat.
But I have a book suggestion for you; “Mixed Martial Arts [The Book of Knowledge]” by BJ Penn is an EXCELLENT MMA book. There’s a reason it got a perfect 5 star rating based on I believe 74 reviews on Amazon. I don’t know if it’s out of print or not but I got a used copy.
BJ’s book offers a complete MMA system and what really makes it stand out is that it teaches a system in which the techniques of boxing, wrestling and BJJ are meshed together as a complete and coherent system rather than a disjointed process of switching fighting modes. I highly recommend to read the reviews on Amazon and then going to abe.com to find a cheap used copy.
Thanks again for your wonderful blog.
Damon.
Thanks for the book recommendation. I totally agree with what you said that a lot of MMA schools tend to teach the various skills in isolation. This BJ Penn book definitely seems like a good deal.
Also, thanks for appreciating this blog, Damon. It means a lot to me.
You’re welcome. Thank you for having it and sharing your thoughts and experiences with the rest of us CMPs 😉
Hi there,
I’m revisiting this article to add on to my comment about BJ Penn’s MMA book and why I think you’ll absolutely love it.
As noted earlier, this book teaches a COMPLETE MMA system rather than a disjointed and isolated set of techniques from the striking and grappling arts. But the two reasons why I believe you’ll absolutely love this book are:
1). Getting the fight to the ground and finishing your opponent with either submissions or ground striking is the primary goal and strategy of BJ’s fighting style and this book. As a BJJ Black Belt BJ Penn’s goal is to always use striking and wrestling techniques as aids to get the fight to the mat so he can finish his opponents by using his SPECIALTY which is grappling.
2). This book can be studied STRICTLY for the no gi grappling game that is taught in this book. I know of many reviewers who got this book for that reason alone and I would be the first to admit that I study and practice techniques from the ground game more than I do the stand up game.
This book can be studied by someone who’s looking for something to add to their no gi grappling game. Since you’ve expressed interest in possibly getting a book on BJJ or no gi grappling this would be perfect for you. You can study strictly the no gi grappling or study the entire fighting system that’s presented in this book. It’s a win-win situation as you get the best of both options. I highly recommend that you get this book if you haven’t already yet done so.
Take care,
Damon.
Thanks for this analysis of BJ Penn’s book. I haven’t got it yet, but this kind of high-level analysis of the available instructional material out there definitely has made me put it on my reading list.
As someone who trains in no-gi grappling as the core of my training (though I think I should focus a lot more on my striking), it sounds like a book I’d enjoy.
Okay, so I’m going to hold back from buying anymore books or DVDS after my last 2 purchases. I had bought both of Greg Jackson’s Mixed Martial Arts books. Volume 1 is the stand up game and Volume 2 is the ground game. If you don’t know who Greg Jackson is then you would definitely know his fighters; Jon “Bones” Jones, Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone, George St. Pierre, Michelle “Karate Hotty” Waterson and Holly Holm (the first girl to beat Ronda Rousey). He also trained Rashad Evans and Diego Sanchez.
Sometimes I could purchase something and end up regretting it or feel that it was a waste of money. Not so with these 2 books. His insights and attention to details are phenomenal and explain why he’s such a good coach. Many people say that the first chapter on strategy in the first book is worth the price of the book alone.
He doesn’t just present an encyclopedia of techniques in his books. He offers little details concerning the WHEN, WHY and HOW to execute the techniques under the most ideal and least risky circumstances. Between Randy Couture’s book, the Judo for MMA book by Karo Parisyan, BJ Penn’s MMA book and these 2 books by Greg Jackson, I think I have more than enough to keep me busy and help my game for quite a long time.
Also, like you, I’ve decided I’m going to place more emphasis on my stand up game, though I still intend to consistently improve my ground game.
Take care,
Damon.
Thanks for these suggestions, Damon. Sometimes I feel if I were just as much a nerd about my standup game as I were with my grappling game, I’d be a much better striker.