In what facilty to do Judo

[Jospek]

Hey there!

I am planning on beginning with Judo and was wondering where to train it. There are some options, for example my old high school offers classes in the gyms where the students also do school pe. On the other hand there are some studios that offer the courses in their own rooms. Since the floor and the mats where quite nasty in my school and you have to do it barefoot and they will probably take the school mats what would you suggest in terms of hygiene?

 

[WDSTK]

I am not a judo player but do train in it. We have several top ranked judo players as trainers in my karate gym. For my 2 cents, I would go with the school with trainers who have competed a lot successfully. Second I would go with a school that regularly competes. Mostly though, you need to watch to make sure they are training smart and not in a reckless manner to injure students. Watch how they train the newcomers. In my case, first thing I was taught was how to fall. Talk to the instructor on how he brings up beginners. Talk to students who have been there just a few months and get their story on how their training started and is now. They do need good mats or they have to go easy on the throws which takes away some of the value of learning a technique. In my case, the judo school trains at our karate gym (Shidokan Karate includes grappling which in my school is mostly judo) and they train in an old YMCA gym. Obviously clean and nice facilities are important but the quality and safety of instruction should be first. I encourage you to compete as well to better learn the techniques and find the ones that work best for you .