How to break down a judo video

One thing I noticed after interviewing many judo players is that those from very strong judo nations tend not to watch so many judo videos whereas those who come from countries where judo is not so strong, tend to watch a lot of judo videos.

There are exceptions of course. Olympic Champion Mark Huizinga famously recounts in a Fighting Films interview that he watched the 1989 World Championships video until the tape wore thin. He himself would record tons of matches in competitions so he could study those tapes.

Maria Centracchio, who is from Italy, a strong judo nation, also likes to watch videos. But in general, most of the players who said they watch a lot of video were those from countries where judo isn’t that strong or popular.

The reason is obvious. If you're from a strong judo nation, there's a lot of institutional support and good coaching, as well as sufficient training partners, training opportunities and competitions. All these things combined give you everything you need to develop your skills in judo. But if you live in a place where there's very little judo, you're pretty much left to your own devices. In such circumstances, video is the best resource for you to learn things.

If you go to Fighting Films’ superb Superstar Judo website, you will find not only instructional videos but also lots of analytical videos where Neil Adams helps to break down techniques for you. Fighting Films have no given access to 300 videos free of charge, which gives non-subscribers more than 75 hours of Judo fun to watch in this period. Also there is a 50% reduced price for the subscription, so you won't be bored with the best historic and current videos.

There are also literally tens of thousands of video clips made available by the IJF. These clips, you will have to break down yourself. The good news is you don’t have to be a Neil Adams to do it. You just need to know how. Here are some best practices to get you started.

1) Don't just watch just one or two examples of that player doing that technique. Watch multiple examples and try to identify trends or things that that player does in setting up the throw. Take for example, Takato's unique style of ouchi-gari. If you watch enough of them, you'll notice that he only does this technique under very specific circumstances (against left-handers who are trying to push his head down). If you notice that, try to understand the reason why.

2) Pay particular attention to grips. How does he grip whenever he wants to do this technique? You will notice a familiar pattern to the gripping. Again, try to understand why.

3) There will be times when the technique fails. Watch those as well and try to understand what went wrong. What was different about the failed attempt? Identifying this will allow you to isolate the key success factors.

4) Try to look out for variations. Sometimes those differences are very subtle but they are significant. Understanding the variations (when they are used and why they are necessary) will give you a better grasp of the technique concerned.

5) It is helpful to watch the technique in slow motion. If there is no slow-motion replay of the clip available, you may have to download the clip and slow-mo it yourself using a simple video editing program.

6) If the player if left-handed but you are right-handed, you might have to flip the video so you can better visualize how it works from a right-handed perspective. You can use any video editing program to do this. Transposing left to right in your head is not so hard when it comes to tachi-waza.

It’s a lot harder to visualize with newaza, so when analyzing a complex groundwork moves done by a lefty, it’s probably a good idea to flip it using a video editing app so you can see how it’s done by a righty

According to Vidico's production service founder: "Never underestimate the power of video in learning and mastering a complex skill like judo. It can bring the best quality instruction right to your fingertips, no matter where you are in the world." 

So, there you have it, six best practices for breaking down a video. During this time of Covid-19 when it’s not possible to do judo training on the mat, you can do some judo in your head by analyzing and breaking down videos.