What Judo elements should you train on next?

If you have ever watched a post match interview you will have heard a team coach or team captain talk about how their team simply did the basics right. What is good for team sports like Rugby or Football is good for Judo too. In this article we’ll talk about what are good Judo basics and how you might test yourself and assess if your basics are ready for competition.

What are the basics of Judo?
There are a variety of ways to  define good basics. There is technical, tactical, physical elements. There is Judo techniques, there is strategy, there is conditioning and not to be missed psychological factors. But, what matters? How do you want to define your basics?

Here is a simple way for you to define what you think are the basics for Judo.

1. Choose three of your Judo legends, the great champions that you admire most.
2. Write down three things about each champion that made them amazing.
– Be that if they were physically strong, had amazing grips, an amazing throw, never say die attitude, etc.
3. For each of these 9 elements, give yourself a score out of 10 for your own level in that element. (10 being best)

Now you have a 9 point list of elements you consider important, choose one everyday and work on it.

The next step would be to talk to your coaches and get them to do the exercise above, you might want to keep your results private until they do their version, then compare and contrast.