Not everyone has the need to use self-defense techniques in life (luckily), but for adults and/or children who do, knowing how to defend yourself can mean the difference between safety and injury, or life and death.
Not everyone has the need to use self-defense techniques in life (luckily), but for adults and/or children who do, knowing how to defend yourself can mean the difference between safety and injury, or life and death.  Judo is a highly effective martial art that develops self defense skills from both the standing and ground positions.  Martial arts like Karate and Taekwondo are “standing only” and are essentially nullified if an attacker/bully takes you to the ground.  Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, or BJJ, is primarily a ground-fighting art, so if a fight or attack starts from a standing position, the BJJ practitioner is limited in his/her ability to defend himself/herself until the fight goes to the ground.  BJJ is not to be disrespected, as it’s a strong self-defense, but with little to no stand-up training, BJJ is hardly a “complete” martial art.  Many Judo dojos focus more on stand-up fighting, but a few, such as Tri-City Judo specifically, focus on a 50/50 balance between stand-up and ground fighting defense.  Taekwondo and Karate both have their place in the world of the best martial arts, but if an attacker gets too close, the range needed to utilize their stand-up moves can be exploited to the attacker’s advantage.  Judo can work from any position as long as the judo fighter, also known as a “Judoka”, is able to get their hands on the attacker.  When a skilled Judoka gets their hands on a bully or attacker, it’s not going to bode well for the attacker.  Many kids who experience bullying, or a physical assault, may carry that trauma with them for their whole life.  As the author of this article, I recall being bullied and threatened many times as a kid, and if I had only had the knowledge of how to defend myself, who knows how different my life may have been.  Can you relate?