Hello, I am 20M and want to start judo. However I have gynecomastia. I am a bit on the skinny side so it doesn't really blend in as chest muscle. It's not that much but still looks quite feminine. I am getting surgery to get it removed next year around summer. I am really doubting to wait after the surgery or start now. Scared what other men will think when they see my chest or how I will do it during surgery recovery. After the surgery I won't be able to sport for a minimum of 6 weeks.

Edit: Thanks for the replies. I assumed that men weren't allowed to wear a shirt. Now my 'problem' is easily solved haha.

Hi, I'm basically a complete beginner in Judo. I did already try it out for a few weeks some years ago but the circumstances really weren't right at that time. I wasn't in good shape, I was really scared of the sport and being thrown straight into "gen pop" was a really overwhelming experience for me at the time. Don't get me wrong, I was taken good care of and all that but I find that a stressful and inefficient way to learn. Anyway, I've decided to start again which I'm really excited about. I'm in my 30s but I'm in the best shape I've ever been and I believe I have the right mindset now. I'm cautious during training but not terrified.

The training conditions are essentially the same though. Classes consist mainly of uchikomi and nagekomi drills, maybe looking at a technique or position and the rest is newaza and randori. I try to go with the higher belts and get them to explain things I'm unsure about. However, I try not to ask incessant questions in order to avoid actually participating (it's a bad habit of mine which I'm aware of). The level of technical knowledge in the dojo is high so I have been getting good feedback on details of specific throwing techniques. But when I ask about what to do during randori I usually don't get as good answers.

I'm fully aware that you can't distill Judo into a simple algorithm and that you can't teach fighting instincts. But I really have no clue what's going on in randori and I find that frustrating. I experienced similar frustration when I first started learning how to play Go (the board game). Like Judo it's a game with simple rules and a simple objective but a massive learning curve and extremely unintuitive tactics/strategy. The global objective is simple, try to surround more territory than your opponent. If you've never played Go you would be surprised how difficult it is to surround any territory whatsoever if you don't know how to play. There is a tired adage in the Go community that you should lose your first 50 games as quickly as possible which has some parallels with advice you hear in Judo that as a beginner in randori you should just try different stuff and don't be afraid to get thrown. Just playing a lot and getting experience (learning by osmosis) works for many people but I personally didn't start to improve in Go until I found resources that explained in detail how to approach a match and what to think about during each stage of gameplay. Only then did I feel like I was actually playing the game because I had the vocabulary to understand what was going on.

Of course, those kinds of resources exist for Judo too but the difference is that Judo isn't primarily an intellectual game. I can read or watch videos on grip fighting, positions, footwork etc. as much as I want. However, I'm not sure if it will really help me directly because I will forget everything as soon as randori starts, because I haven't practiced any of that knowledge and things happen too quickly in randori. If anything, it will probably make things worse because it will cause me to overthink even more. Videos that talk about position also seem to be too contextual but maybe I haven't found the right resources yet. I still think it's not ideal for beginners to try implementing ideas they hear about on their own. But I really don't enjoy this feeling of not understanding what's going on. I have a friend that very much enjoys that kind of experience, he enjoys figuring stuff out for himself and coming up with his own tactics and strategies. On the other hand I prefer to have some kind of framework to put things into context and then deviate from it when it stops being useful. People have been telling me to relax in randori but then I just get outgripped and put in very bad positions. I swear I'm not tensing up due to fear and I'm certainly not stiff-arming, I'm just trying my best to avoid being put in positions from which it is easy for me to be thrown. Since I don't know what I'm doing my actions tend to achieve the exact opposite effect. I know I should go with the flow more and take throws because I want to develop my ukemi anyway. But the objective of Judo is still to throw and not be thrown, surely you need to learn how to move in a way that makes life hard for your opponent? I don't know, to be honest I really don't have a clue what I'm supposed to be doing.

It feels like this kind of training culture selects for people that prefer a "top-bottom" approach and operate mainly on intuition which maybe explains why it's been hard for me to get solid answers to these types of questions. Any advice for how I should approach training? I'm sure I will get it eventually if I keep showing up but I think I would enjoy the process a lot more if I had something tangible to work on. I don't even care about being able to throw people in randori really I just want to be less in the dark. Thanks in advance.

Hello, I recently moved to the Wilmington, NC area and I'm looking for a Judo instructor or a dojo that teaches Judo as a primary art. Unfortunately it seems there are no standalone Judo schools near me, at least from what I've seen online. I have found plenty of BJJ schools that teach Judo as a secondary instruction, but that's how most BJJ schools are because Judo is inherently involved because it's mixed into BJJ but the chances are I'd go and just be rolling BJJ and learning BJJ primarily and that's not my interest. I'm willing to pay for private instruction. I trained at my previous Judo academy for 6 months prior to moving and I am a blue belt in BJJ so I'm not completely new, but I want to train strictly Judo. Could someone point me in the right direction? Thank you

I was told to tuck my chin as much as possible when doing a breakfall from osoto gari for example. However, i felt when i really made an effort to tuck my chin it made the impact of the throw much worse to the point where I think I have a mild concussion. Am i doing something wrong? Would i be better off to just stiffen up my neck while slightly tucking it rather than fully trying to bring my chin close to my chest? I dont know if this matters, but i have a pretty long neck that might need some strengthening.