If you’re a parent or coach of an upcoming Judo athlete, who better to look to for advice than the one, the only, Travis Stevens. If you’re not familiar with Stevens, know that he was only the third American Judoka to win...

  Coming off of his unprecedented Worlds win, let’s take a moment to look at the life and journey of Sagi Muki. Before we begin, check out some of these stunning throws Muki has executed in competitions. Judo at its finest.   And...

At Judo Fanatics we’re excited to soon be bringing to you an instructional by multiple Pan Am medalist and 2016 Olympic Judoka Colton Brown! In the video below we look at Sasae tsurikomi ashi with Colton alongside Silver medal Oympian and John Dahaner...

Judo is unique from Jiu-Jitsu in two ways, one of which is more important than the other.  Jiu-jitsu, or as it was called in Japan Jujutsu, was a catch-all term in Japanese that meant something like “unarmed technique”. For this reason it was...

We’re really excited at Judo Fanatics to soon be bringing to you a tutorial with the excellent Judoka 6th Dan Shintaro Higashi.  Shintaro has a really rich background and is incredibly well placed to teach us, having a degree in Psychology and an...

We’re really excited at Judo Fanatics to soon be bringing to you a tutorial with the excellent Judoka 6th Dan Shintaro Higashi.  Shintaro has a really rich background and is incredibly well placed to teach us, having a degree in Psychology and an...

We are incredibly fortunate to live in an age where information is so easily, widely, and readily available. We have access not only to many current teachers around the world thanks to platforms like Judo Fanatics and BJJ Fanatics, but also through the...

As the saying goes, Life Happens.The universe is larger than we can possibly imagine, and some physicists are now even saying there may be multiple universes. Life is a mystery, full of challenges and opportunities for growth. Fortunately for us Judo offers, whether...

When we think of Jigoro Kano establishing Kodokan Judo in the 1880’s it would be very tempting to use the phrase “old school”.  Surely we can’t get much more old school than a country that had only just opened its borders to foreign...

It’s worth asking. I mean, with all the martial arts out there, Why practice Judo? In this blog we’ll look at 3 areas of Judo, the history, the character development found within Judo and the pragmatic application of Judo as a martial art....

We would like to start this blog by sending a HUGE congratulations to Sagi Muki on winning the 2019 Judo World Championship!  Sagi displayed great use of strategy and beautiful technique to secure victory with an impressive array of throws.    Sagi Muki...

The martial art of Judo has a rich history, which begins in the late 1800’s during what is known as the Meiji era of Japan. The Meiji era was a time for Japan of a great deal of cultural change, which included a...

As we progress in the grappling arts we must make a mental and practical transition from thinking about the application of single techniques to a strategic chaining together of techniques in order to succeed against increasingly more skillful and tough opponents. This is...

It might sound obvious but it’s easy to overlook the fact that different grips need different breaks applied against them to free us.  Kumi kata, or grip fighting, is a unique phase of combat that has a winner and a loser. We can...

We’re going to look at a topic that’s often vague, confusing and full of myths. Mental toughness. What is mental toughness? We often think that mental toughness is simply enduring physical discomfort.  The more physical discomfort we can endure the more mentally tough...

Seoi Nage (meaning shoulder throw in English) is one of the core forty throws in Jigoro Kano’s Gokyo of Kodokan Judo. It’s a part of the Dai Ikkyo (first group) of techniques that all Judoka learn and therefore is a staple of Judo’s...

There is a sequence in any grappling art which goes 1) Gripping 2) Breaking balance 3) Application of technique. Without gripping there can be no breaking of balance and no application of technique. Gripping, known as Kumi Kata in Judo, is something Judo...

One question that people often have about Judo is its ability to translate outside of its own specific context of gi oriented grappling. In this clip we have Silver medal Olympian Judoka, John Danaher blac belt and Judo Fanatics tutor Travis Stevens giving...

  Want to mix up your Seoi Nage? Then look no further. Here, 2019 World Champion Sagi Muki shows a cool Morote Seoi Nage that involves a grip break, grip switch, and stance switch (oh my!).   First, we’ll discuss the technique. Then,...

As the now iconic saying by Brue Lee goes “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times”. It’s really easy to forget this simple piece of wisdom from...