Not all white belts are the same! This one's a black belt in Judo...👀

[brianbassir]

Ummm...I am blown away at the response to this vid. I make these as a means of observing and obsessing over all the mistakes I make. In an attempt to improve. I'm happy to see so much interest in this! Lol. And ftr I love Kenny! I love my bjj fam at Casarez and the bjj community at large! Everyone is always so positive and helpful. Everyone seems interested in building each other up and Kenny is no exception. OSS!!

[jskscotty]

One of the blue belts at my gym was a state champ wrestler in high school. When he was a white belt, I was a blue belt and he just threw me around like a rag doll. Cross pollination between the different grappling arts is a beautiful thing to see. Less so to experience :D

[TexasGuitarist]

I'm a lifelong boxer, the first time I rolled in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, the guy thought I was going to throw a punch because I was bouncing around like a boxer. That's all I knew! How funny.

[lbj]

I've had this humbling experience as well. At my gym I was the one of better ones at my feet, even giving me an advantage against the higher belts if we start from our feet standing up.
One of our classes was focused on takedowns, and in comes this new white belt. This was his 3rd time with us.
He was a head shorter than me and a good 20 pounds lighter than me.

While sparring on the ground he didn't even stand a chance, but as soon as we stood up I was his personal ragdoll. He swept, threw and swung me around like I was a trash bag. There was nothing I could do and I was completely dominated. After some talking after the class we discovered that the guy was a former competitive judoka, he wasn't even a black belt.

This experience sure humbled me and made me realize that comparing belts is just stupid. The belt is nothing more than my own diary for my own journey, and comparing diaries just makes no sense.

[murco]

I was a blue belt when I met my mate Joao, a 45 year old judo black belt of 20 years, taking his first bjj class and he took my soul 😅😭

[califitness]

1:10 “damn, dude they make white belts different these days” 😂😂 cracked me up that haha

[fennec]

Hopefully this doesn’t come across as assholery but as someone with ~15 years of Judo experience some advice:

At 0:41 he has a high collar grip on you. This is kind of a universal signal in Judo that you’re about to get tossed. Typically, it means you’ve lost the grip fight. If you’re fast on your feet you may be able to duck under, but most people will try to get sleeve control to stop turn throw as and try to find an opportunity to break the grip and reset. Even so, it’s pretty hard to do, tbh.

The other thing—although it didn’t really bite you here—is be careful of the hunched over wrestling stance. There is some received wisdom in BJJ circles these days that if you do this and attack the legs, it’s a surefire way to get Judo guys. And maybe for newer ones, but if they have a solid Tomoe Nage or Sumi Gaeshi, it’s basically is if you’ve set yourself up for the throw for free.

Other than that, I’d just be careful of super dominant gripping positions. The high collar is probably the most common in the States, but occasionally you’ll find people who like to go deep as if grabbing at your belt over the back—if they get this it’s almost always a bad time. The armpit grip is also kind of in vogue right now due to a certain famous Japanese Judoka… while he’s a monster with it, I think in the hands of mere mortals it’s not as dangerous as a high collar or belt grip. It IS still a dominant grip though.

I’d say last thing—although definitely kind of advanced—is always expect an attack to come in response to one of your own reactions. He throws you as you stand up, which gives him the space for his throw, but also takes advantage of your focus on resetting. This is kind of “Judo theory 101, ” but in practice it takes awhile to really get a sense for. Just don’t expect the genuine throw attempt to come blazing out in the open. I notice a lot of BJJ guys will shoot sort of haphazardly, but Judo is really a lot more about gripping properly and then successive feints into the actual throw.

Kinda went into grip fighting a lot here but I think it rarely gets overtly talked about—even in Judo. Which is a shame because understanding it really cues when you should be defense or offensive. Basically high grip=try to bail, neutral=fight to establish your own superior grips, high grip of your own=string a combo into your throw

[jabarimyles]

What’s really crazy is how gentle Kenny was being. That man is an absolute savage and could’ve thrown at will. Great work from both of you

[tristenclark]

I train with a brown belt in Judo from Romania who was training for the Olympics before he left, because of him I've fallen in love with Judo and doing my best to learn all I can.

[makepool]

I was once told by a blue belt that a black belt in judo would easily be beaten by a blue belt in BJJ. We were doing positional work, I was a white belt at the time, he couldn't get mount on me where as I mounted him several times. I never told him I was only a green belt in Judo.

[chonzen]

The judoka is taking it easy. He is being very very gentle. He wouldn't hold a grip like that in competition for that long. He would have thrown as soon as he got that grip.

[Swoleminer]

Judo and Jiu Jitsu compliment each other very well. People shouldn't think Judo vs. Jiu Jitsu.

[mikedee]

At one time this was all considered Judo. The “Ne Waza” which is what the Judo ground game is called has been incredibly refined by the Brazilians.

[antiqueexcavator]

The respect on the mat by most is what makes this and most styles so beautiful. We are always learning and cross pollinating making everyone better.

[bryonbauer]

This is why people should not pay attention to rank. It doesn’t mean as much as people think. No where is this more evident than ju jitsu. You have guys who wrestled 4 years in high school and then go on the wrestle in college walk into class because they want to start something new. Black belts have a hard time with these guys. You got 50-60 year old guys that just want something to do a couple days a week to stay in shape versus the 18 year old dynamo who is a natural, and athletic, a super strong. Rank means very little. You got people who come in and have 30 years of fight experience and multiple black belts who just want to start something new. Not all white belts are created equal.

[sandiegonative]

Same goes for D1 wrestlers when they go to a no gi class..

[steelninja]

My background is a black belt in judo and I just started training BJJ last week. I have a huge advantage in the stand up game.I’ve just been starting from guard to try and get confortable on my back and improve that weakness in my game.

[mattjack]

This video made my day. I started BJJ in 2009, when I was 26. I had wrestled from 4th grade all the way thru high-school, and my first year in college, and was also a Judo black belt. Unfortunately, there were a whole bunch of guys there with wrestling backgrounds, and our instructor was also a Judo blackbelt, as well as a 4th degree BJJ Blackbelt, so everyone there was pretty competent on their feet. lol I didn't get to stand out and shine the way I thought I would. I was just another white belt who could wrestle, the same as alot of other guys.

[thomaskrutulis]

Awesome to see the utter calmness and confidence on his feet. The control was beautiful and he obviously had no probs with getting to side or north south. Once he masters anacondas or darce or anything from that position it’s lights out for most. Cool vid guys, thx for sharing!

[WaterYaDune]

I don’t know anything about Judo or BJJ, but the way he swung his leg out to keep himself balanced at 0:12 was so clean