Judo for BJJ players usually gets sold as a list of throws. I started Brazilian jiu-jitsu in 2017, had a brown belt by 2023, and walked into a judo club that year to fix my top game. The newest thing I found there was a principle.
The gap in the jiu-jitsu game
Jiu-jitsu, in my experience, barely develops the standing part of the fight. We spend years on guards, passes and escapes, and very little time on what happens before anyone hits the mat. And there is one idea that simply does not exist in most jiu-jitsu rooms: kuzushi.
Kuzushi means breaking your opponent's balance. Jigoro Kano, who founded judo, made it one of the fundamental elements of the art. The idea is that you first move your opponent into a position where they cannot stand solidly, and the throw finishes something that has already started.
For me that was the new thing: a new way of looking at every move.
I still have not mastered it
I want to be honest here, because most articles like this end with the moment it all clicked. I am a brown belt in both arts, and I am still not sure how well I can apply kuzushi. It is something you keep practising and refining, every session, and I expect to be doing that for a long time.
If you are coming from jiu-jitsu, start by noticing it.
Where kuzushi actually comes from
It comes down to footwork and practice. You drill it until it becomes a skill.
Most of it is position: where your body is, and where your partner's body is. You are always reading both.
One way to create it is a feint. You start a throw and it does not work — but your opponent is already off balance from defending it. That is when you go into the second throw. Judo has a name for this: combination techniques, where the reaction to your first attack is what unbalances the opponent for the next one. Fake attacks are one of the recognised ways to break balance.
Pick throws that fit you
I do not have one set combination. I am still working through different throws. What I look for are throws that suit my body type, my age, my strength and my agility — and that I can use in both judo and jiu-jitsu.
Here is where I am right now:
Sasae tsurikomi ashi. I like it as a first throw — an attempt to take my opponent's balance and see how they react. It sits in the first group of the Gokyo, the Kodokan's standard set of forty throws.
Osoto gari. I am still working on it. It needs the opponent standing upright with their weight on the heel. In jiu-jitsu that is hard to get, because the opponents are usually bent forward.
Sumi gaeshi. This is the one that always works easily for me, and for the same reason: the jiu-jitsu opponent is bent forward.
Uchi mata. A common one in jiu-jitsu.
Notice the pattern. The posture jiu-jitsu players stand in makes some throws hard and others easy. Choose from the easy side first.
The second thing jiu-jitsu is missing
Judo has one more thing that jiu-jitsu is missing. Jigoro Kano also built judo on a principle called jita kyoei, mutual prosperity: you train so that both partners benefit.
Jiu-jitsu has no equivalent principle. I think it would be good to bring this one into jiu-jitsu training.
What to do if you are thinking about it
Find a judo club with a coach who teaches carefully and takes safety seriously. I wrote about my first sessions in Blue Belt Blues: How to Get to Purple, and the coaching was the whole reason it felt like a beginning.
Go in to learn kuzushi. The throws will come.
And write down what you drill. Balance is hard to feel improving from one week to the next, so keep a record of what you tried, what moved your partner and what did not. That is what our Judo Training Journal is for.
