Small Woman Judo

I once had someone ask me why I was in Judo. The context was that he wanted to draw in and keep more women in his Judo club, and wanted a woman’s perspective on it.

I had no answer.

I began my Martial Arts journey in January of 2016 with a Christmas gift from my parents. It was a one-month trial of Krav Maga program at the local Karate school. I absolutely fell in love. I was training three to five days a week, and after training I would go out with the other students for drinks, or we’d go to the gym and work out some more. The people I trained with, some of whom are my fellow writers on this blog, became my family. I loved being in Krav Maga, and excitedly got my yellow belt through Krav Maga Worldwide.

In August of 2016, I moved to Minnesota for school. Krav Maga was no longer easily accessible, nor affordable.

If I’m being honest, I contemplated not moving at all because I couldn’t bear to leave my Martial Arts behind.

But the college I was attending had a Judo Club, and I built my schedule around Judo class times so I could still train.

In 2017, out of training with injuries and poor decisions, I was asked why I was in Judo.

And I didn’t know. I started in Krav Maga, and knew that regardless of how difficult Judo training was, I loved Martial Arts, and I needed to train. No, it wasn’t easy, and I felt that Judo was harder than Krav Maga. But I had to do something, so I stayed.

Once I was able to, I slowly began training again, and by the time I tested for my green belt in Judo, I was training two hours a day, four to six days a week.

I used to joke that I secretly hated Judo, I just wanted to prove to everyone that I could do it.

But I literally talked about it all the time. It was the first thing people learned about me, that I did Judo. I trained every day. When I wasn’t training, I was thinking about training. I told myself I didn’t really want to go back to doing Judo when my shoulder was better, but I kept telling everyone else I couldn’t wait.

I love Judo. I don’t have to prove to anyone else that I can do it or how good I am, I just simply love it. It’s complicated and simple and confusing and makes so much sense.

Martial Arts, especially Judo, has done so much for me. It has changed how I feel about myself, how I see life, how I treat my body, how I treat other people.

But as I trained, I struggled. Judo is a throwing art, and the men in my classes were able to throw others without even doing the technique correctly, and I couldn’t even get people in the right position.

At 5’ 5”, (currently) 140 pounds (though I’ve trained ranging from 125 pounds to 150 pounds), I couldn’t hold a candle to the larger men training with me.

Some of the techniques, I couldn’t even do.

Even when training with other women, most of the women have 10 or more pounds on me, and/or are significantly taller than me. While I may be an average-sized woman in life, I am not in my area of Judo.

That small size is a huge disadvantage for me.

I’m going to be blunt for a moment.

The techniques that I am taught by large (mostly) men often do not work for me. They rely on strength, body weight, and the momentum gained from moving one’s body weight.

This is not bad. Traditional throws do rely on using one’s body weight and their opponent’s body weight, as well as momentum to complete the throws. What does not work is the style of technique that I am taught. I do not have enough body weight, nor can I get enough momentum to complete the throws the way that I am taught against people larger than me. I may be able to move my opponent, but not with enough control to complete the throw.

Judo is a beautiful art. One of mottoes of Judo has been translated into “Maximum efficiency with minimum effort.” The techniques of Judo were never intended to rely on strength or out-of-control momentum to complete. But each person’s Judo is different, and the styles of technique that are chosen by the Judoka is largely dependent on what’s easiest for them.

For a 6-foot-tall, 180-pound man, sometimes strength is the easiest way.

But for 5’ 5”, 140 pound me, it isn’t.

This is not to say that the current black belts do not proper Judo technique. That is not the point at all. “Proper” technique, I think, is a misnomer. There are many, many ways to do a throw. The ways most often taught in my area tend to be very difficult for me to do.

Judo is disheartening. I have spent almost all of the last three years of my training feeling like I am bad at Judo because I struggle to complete throws.

White belts often have less precise technique than I do, but they have a higher completion rate of throws because they are bigger and stronger than me.

To do this day, I don’t know why I stayed. I almost quit. I told my Krav Maga friends that I might quit, and I was flooded with Facebook messages about how I was no quitter, and how I had to stay. Even my Krav Maga sensei popped in, reminding me that he “trained a warrior, not a quitter!” And as most people in the Martial Arts community know, when you have a good sensei, you do your best to make them proud.

So, I kept going. I kept going until I loved Judo as much as Krav Maga. I kept going until I loved Judo more than Krav Maga.

I am disheartened more than I am proud. I am in pain and scared as much as I have fun. But nothing is so satisfying as the feeling of throwing someone effortlessly over you. I have done it a handful of times with one singular throw, all in the same night. And then never again.

I am blessed that I get to work with instructors who realize my size changes how I can do throws. They let me play, show me different styles, help me find the right positions and timing and everything I need to complete my throws with maximum efficiency and minimal effort.

But not every small woman Judoka has that.

This whole post stems from a conversation about this topic that my boyfriend (Ikkyu Judoka) had about this topic. From there, I reached out to my other small woman Martial Artists, and asked if they had experiences with being small women in Martial Arts. And yes, we all did.

So, we decided to start this blog in hopes of bringing together women in the Martial Arts community for sisterhood, discussions, and networking. And to any non-women here, welcome! I hope this site, the blogs and forums, are informative to you about what Martial Arts is like for women training in a man’s world. As Judo technique is becoming a passion of mine, you may even see some posts less related to women, and more related to history and technique!

I am excited about this new blog. I welcome you, and thank you for reading my story. There are three other writers I am excited to have post with us, all whom I met through Krav Maga. Two are still in Krav Maga, and the third is in 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu. We hope you will stay and join us on our journeys.