Learning Martial Arts - Fitness

Is a person right when he says, “I’m not fit enough to (M.A's name) yet so I’m gonna go to a gym for x amount of months first” ?

I'm interested in Judo, but am not that fit and I don't want lack of fitness to be a reason for enrolling and quitting. What should I do ?

Thanks in advance.

The gym thing is just an excuse. Just go and do Judo if that's what you want to try. In Judo, you'll probably start out by learning how to fall correctly anyway.

I just discovered Baguazhang for beginners on YouTube in HD with Jake Mase and the guy rocks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ir69i-qAsI

I was about to join a martial arts studio near my home for Tai Chi, but after talking to the owner of the m.a. school, he told me they wanted committed fighters with some background in martial arts. He only had about ten students per class and wanting to interview/pre-screen me before I could join. As of right now, he said I could watch classes but wouldn't be able to participate without beginner's experience. His average student had 3-5 years experience. I give the guy credit though for introducing me to Baguazhang. So I'm going to watch Jake's videos and practice before consider joining a m.a. school.

That's the great thing about the internet, if you have an internet connection, decent bandwidth you can learn most martial arts form by watching and practicing. Watch an experienced martial arts form, pause and resume to master the mirroring mechanics of body movement so you don't injure yourself. Stretch/warm up before you start the Judo regime to prevent injury.

Martial arts are actually lot like lifting weights in the gym, you don't just walk up and mirror the biggest most bad@ss dude in the gym. You got to learn how to walk before you can run. Start with the basics and once you feel comfortable add more complex moves in Judo.

When you're ready and want to start sparing with other fighters, you can join a gym/dojo/martial arts studio, etc.

I'm in the process of doing this myself. I did mixed martial arts ten years ago and worked up to a yellow belt before I quit. I'm starting back up again and am going to use my garage space for space and movement. I need to get rubber mats to protect my joints and feet, maybe a mirror to boot, but we'll see.

Good luck with your Judo journey.

Judo shouldn't be that strenuous. You'll mostly do throws, break falls, trips and sweeps. It is the art of depriving your opponent of his balance, while maintaining your own. The idea behind that involves a survival mechanism of the body - when you lose your balance and feel like you are about to fall, all of your body's energy will be directed at re-gaining that balance, making it nearly impossible to fight. As long as your opponent stays off-balance, he can't hurt you.

Judo can be hard on a person's back, from landing on the mat a lot after getting thrown. But if you don't already have back problems, you should be fine.

Judo isn't seen a lot in MMA. The padded mat and controlled environment negates the value of being able to throw someone down. However, real life fights typically don't occur without hard surfaces being around, or ledges, or pointy things that would hurt to fall on, or large windows to get thrown through. Being able to throw your opponent is a huge advantage in a real fight.

Good to go

Rubirosa, resilient and Bible_Belt - Thank You for your replies, encouragement and wisdom