Dave Camarillo on judo in MMA and the challenge of Ronda Rousey
Dave Camarillo was a very high level judo player before he tore up his knee and switched to Brazilian jiujitsu. He now runs a successful BJJ program in the South Bay called Guerilla Jiujitsu and is the former BJJ coach at American Kickboxing Academy. The link above is to an audio interview and partial transcript in which he analyzes some of the differences between judo and Brazilian jiujitsu, and also analyzes Ronda Rousey’s MMA game.
I agree with his assessment that judo players are generally stronger and more aggressive than BJJ players. In terms of shiai (competition), we are trained from the beginning to do “attacking judo”, to constantly press the attack and go for the ippon. This develops your fighting spirit and is an important component of your martial arts training. But keep in mind there is a big difference between shiai and randori. In shiai you go for the ippon, attack attack attack and try to win. Randori has different levels of intensity, but the point of randori is always to develop your technique and benefit both you and your partner. You don’t fight as hard as you can to avoid a throw – if your partner has a good technique, you should take the fall, get up and keep going. This is also an important part of your martial arts training – the benefit of softness, of being able to take good falls, of working together with your partner so that you can both advance and learn.
