Neil Adams Essential Judo Seminar Review

Be as stubborn as you want, Neil Adams will get your arm. This technique involved a nice neck crank with the inner thigh.

The Short Review: A four hour judo seminar with something for everyone, at a very reasonable price. To subscribe to Neil Adam’s online content or buy products you can visit here: www.neiladamsjudo.info to see a bit of Neil in action to get an idea watch this randori video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGYp4sDHxm0

£35 to train for four hours with a double Olympic medallist? I was a bit confused. I wanted to improve my judo as I had seen firsthand how useful it was from 8 months of training. I had been looking into the subject of Judo seminars and found it a quagmire. Seminars on the BJA website were often belt ranked, which meant as a keen beginner I wasn’t welcome. So when I saw Neil Adams was doing a seminar open to everyone I was very curious. How was he going to reconcile absolute beginners with dan ranks? I had been doing BJJ for just over a year, and everyone had been saying how Judo was defeated by BJJ. For me it was a bit of a paradox. BJJ and Judo were essentially from the same lineage, so I felt that saying BJJ beat Judo was saying Manchester United beat Manchester United. It turned out it wasn’t that simple, as the rule sets of both sports and founding ideas emphasise certain things. There is a great deal of difference in the manner of training in both codes. In many clubs there is almost a 90-10% bias in techniques taught. This means in Judo 90% can be standing and 10% on the ground. In BJJ it may be normal to be a blue belt before you are familiar with your first take down. There are clubs that are different, but this seems quite normal.

A Contextual Snapshot of modern BJJ and Judo (skip to seminar breakdown to find out what happened)
The attitudes to training involved at the recreational level can be strange. In one judo club I said that in BJJ the fight would continue even after a big throw. The person I was talking to seemed perplexed, perhaps believing people were dead after a throw. Throws can be very dangerous, but most of the time there is a lot of fight in someone even after a takedown. The concepts of sparring are quite different too. In Judo sparring there can be a lot of talk about “you can’t do this, you can’t do that” and it ends up being a case of focusing on the negative. After one session I was thinking to myself “What can I do?” because it didn’t seem any legal grips were explained. In BJJ sparring is a fundamental step that cannot be avoided, but it nearly always starts on the knees. That is safe, but not how most interactions begin. It is becoming a blind spot for some pure sporting BJJ players. This is similar to the blind spot judo has in believing a throw wins a fight.  In fact, in the beginning BJJ sparring is designed to completely dominate and destroy a person’s preconceptions about fighting. You can go full out and almost never injure someone badly. When you experience this, you get a sense of how helpless you are. It gives a sense BJJ is unbeatable. Whether BJJ is really unbeatable or not isn’t necessarily the issue. BJJ gives a smaller person some tools to really sap and demoralise a stronger opponent. The sport of Judo however was very much intended for different purposes. It would be impossible to find a technique in BJJ or Judo which didn’t exist at some point in the other canon. But the implementation of these techniques is determined by the end user purpose. I so far haven’t met a judo player who can pull off a good triangle in sparring, or a BJJ player who can tap you from a crushing pin alone. These abilities are developed by the necessity of the sport.

As BJJ has become more popular, it has really emphasised a way of fighting that is very potent and can’t be understood without experiencing. However, some things do seem to be relegated in importance. Throws, take downs and break falls just aren’t that necessary. In Judo, the rule set has meant a lot of techniques just aren’t worth the effort. When competing in BJJ I managed to get an uchi mata. In response the next opponent sat down in the first 6 seconds. This was probably a good idea in a competition, but it possibly didn’t have a martial use. In a way, “pulling guard” or sitting down has become a way to negate certain techniques when you know an opponent will dominate you in one plain. But when anything becomes a dogma, there could be negative consequences.

Dogma wasn’t a part of this seminar. In the Essential Judo session, there was time taken in passing the guard from standing by grabbing the legs. You couldn’t do this in modern competition judo, but everyone who has studied judo for a long time would have practised it a lot. What it did was show Neil’s intent not to be stuck in a rut by current Judo doctrine. This skill set was introduced as a concept after an opponent had either been knocked down or failed in a sacrifice technique. In BJJ the concept of passing the legs is so core sometimes it is easy to forget most people won’t want to go on the ground!

Seminar Breakdown
Here is a brief rundown of the  seminar: Okuri Ashi Harai (double foot sweep), Seoi Nage, Tai Otoshi. passing the open guard, Turtle turnover from an opponents failed throw, juji gatame from the back (cross body armlock), okuri eri jime (sliding collar choke) from the back, Hadaka jime (rear naked choke), ne waza (ground fighting) sparring and standing randori (standing sparring). This was over four hours and people could work at their own pace.

Before we had been taught anything, grip fighting was introduced. Defence and attack was focused on. It wasn’t so much competitive as it was cooperative. This was an important framework for the seminar. You can stuff any move when you know it’s coming!

After the grip fighting, either Neil’s celebrity or the exertion of judo caused a lady to swoon. It was resolved quickly and safely. Nevertheless it struck me what seemed quite light exercise to someone used to contact sports could be a challenge to others. It’s interesting to note that a lot of people from various martial arts were in attendance. I am not familiar with how each club or code trains, but in some martial arts there is never a genuine active element in it. This seminar may have come as a shock to the system to some, where physical contact was mandatory.

The next step was break falling. I am not great at break falling, but I realised how important the simple actions of side break falls were. Just tucking the chin in and keeping the arm at the right angle can stop breaks, concussion and death (hitting a pavement with the back of your head is very hard if you break fall properly).

After that, we went into throws. It’s one thing to know intellectually how a throw works. But to be given feedback by one of the best practitioners cut through a lot of wasted time. The foot angles and the slight modulations on entry were made apparent. I felt I made genuine progress. Foot sweeps were covered first and drills like following the opponents head helped time sweeps.

Next came bigger throws, Seoi Nage and Tai Otoshi. The chap I was training with felt I was resisting his throws, which was confusing to me because I thought I was making myself available. Standing with my hands out like a scarecrow or a zombie, I thought I was his puppet. It is a very important aspect of judo to work together, but there is a point where you can help someone delude themselves by “jumping” for a throw. I don’t believe it helps anyone when all they have to do is adjust their hips. To make things easier I added a bit of my own energy to the techniques which seemed to help my partner make things work. I don’t know if it was in reality helpful because it seemed I was aiding the technique too much. I am not the best judge but after I started to aid the throw he said “Much better”.

It is really critical to note that throws are very complex. Differences of centre metres can make it work or not work, a bit like having a plug near a socket, but not in it! In my opinion if I can’t throw someone I am doing something wrong. For someone like Neil it must be hard to look at a beginner and see the thousands of things they are doing wrong and decide what to mention. Because of this I was very impressed by the way the moves were broken down. It allowed everyone to make things work when they followed the instructions. In fact I would imagine the people without so much power benefitted from the technique more than a lump like myself. They have to use technique, but I could lean on strength to overcome my flaws.

After the throws, we went into groundwork. I was really impressed. The techniques were very simple and yet this made them more effective. Since learning them I have implemented them a lot in sparring and had positive results. The armbar Neil taught this day was one of the many he has in his arsenal. If I am honest, I’m not quite sure it sunk in because there was a point where he torqued the opponents neck and I couldn’t find the right angle. Regardless, the positional control was very obvious. It’s tempting when something isn’t coming together to say “I don’t think that works” but it was clear I was just doing it wrong. Chokes and some other ground techniques were covered, but it relied on a specific and achievable entry for a novice. I thought that was very well chosen.

There was a bit of sparring on the ground and it was good fun, but it showed how complicated grappling was. With a year of grappling behind me it was so easy against other martial artists who focused on other things. It is very hard to intimate this to someone taking part in another martial art for years, that essentially they’re helpless whatever grade they are, if they don’t have a fundamental grappling knowledge. This cross pollination was the best aspect of the seminar. It boiled down something so complex as grappling and people took part and learned a great deal, especially what they didn’t know! What is a harder pill to swallow for some is that grappling isn’t something you can take a seminar on and become proficient. With any luck, it will have encouraged people to take up Judo or another grappling art consistently.

After the seminar, questions came. The responses were candid and not filtered, which I believe was really useful. It’s easy to be dodge a question but nothing was. I eventually had a chance to ask something and instead of just telling me the answer, Neil demonstrated. Essentially I wanted to know how to stop opponents taking a sleeve lapel or 50/50 grip. “I’ll show you.” Was Neil’s response. “Take a grip!” I tried, it wasn’t going to happen.

A sense of perspective. Neil is taller in real life! He also
showed me my grip fighting need a lot of work.

The grip Neil took above my left elbow stranded me. He used it to block my right hand and angle off constantly. If I managed to move my right hand in, he caught the sleeve under my wrist and levered me like a marionette. His ability to remove any grip I had on him in a split second made me gain perspective. Some people have physical capabilities beyond normal imagination, I don’t believe I have felt a grip so strong before and despite outweighing Neil I felt like a baby. Whilst I am not an expert at any martial art, the sheer domination informs my belief he could do that to almost anyone.

It seemed pretty clear to me that the Essential Judo seminar format was one both accessible to complete beginners and advanced players from any martial art. I remembered a story a 5^th Dan Judoka told me about trying to get to Neil’s lapel. “I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t even touch him.” If you do get a chance to train at a seminar like this you’ll learn something, and hopefully experience even more.

Should Gi Sports Work Together More? Skip if you don’t want to read idol speculation.
The BJJ and Judo community in England seem to have a somewhat stand offish relationship, which is interesting but they have an awful lot to learn from each other. Maybe some of the popularity has come from the Gracie challenge, the idea that no one could beat a Gracie black belt in no holds barred. Indeed, on a recreational level most BJJ players can defeat an equivalent Judo grade on the ground. Then most BJJ blue to purple belts really outshine the majority of judo black belts on the ground. But be careful to note, most! There are some Judo black belts who melt through BJJ black belts and the BJJ community doesn’t take note of this. It was very interesting to note when Royce Gracie was looking for a judoka to fight, he picked his enemy well. Yoshida was an Olympic gold medallist, but ground work was not his biggest interest. In both fights Yoshida dominated standing, and in reality there wasn’t much Royce could do to him. In the second fight after kicking him in the balls, Yoshida did seem to lose momentum, but he couldn’t be submitted. That’s not bad for someone who never specialised in groundwork.

There has been much talk of Royce attending a Neil Adams seminar in the USA, with some claiming there was sparring and Neil tapped him. This was not true, but it was an arm bar seminar and it did seem plausible they were checking Neil out to see if they could issue a challenge at some point. It’s always fun to ask what ifs. I would have been quite surprised if Royce could easily have won that fight should it have occurred. Watching old footage of Neil in action you can see he is very familiar with sweeps and the guard position, with some great flower sweeps as BJJ now calls them. It would indeed have been an interesting proposition. I don’t think Neil would have been as well versed on the ground as Royce, but his strength and ability in all areas seems to give him the edge in my book. Royce had an interesting interview once, and he said “Don’t play the other man’s game.” I think whoever managed to implement their game first would have won, and the power of Neil’s grips in my opinion would have given him the edge.

But why can’t every Judo black belt do well on the ground? Neil was aware of the way Judo’s rule set had affected the average player’s skills. He was welcoming and interested in what it was about BJJ that seemed to create such buzz, when from Neil’s perspective, it could be considered half judo.

 I wasn’t quick enough to formulate a reply, but I think BJJ is a bit like computer hacking. You can learn it yourself with minimum supervision, and it’s very informal. Judo can be a bit stuffy. For BJJ, you don’t need expensive hardware (i.e. a muscular powerful body) but instead an understanding of code (leverage and how to scramble someone else’s hardware). It’s almost a secret super power no one can guess if you have by looking at you. BJJ has a mystique and massive complexity. You can take part in it without being massively fit or risking a big slam. That being said great BJJ players like Roger Gracie enjoy judo, having trained extensively with Neil. Royler and Renzo Gracie represented Brazil in Judo. According to Renzo, Royler was an alternate for the Olympics but the place was taken by a Brazilian phenomenon. When you get to the very top levels, players do seem to have overlapping abilities, but BJJ will always emphasise the ground. It doesn’t negate the fact some judoka are unbelievable in ne waza. It’s hard for me to believe Kashiwazaki or Craig Fallon couldn’t have done well in BJJ competitions at most levels with their judo skills alone. I was tempted to invite Neil to come down to a BJJ tournament the week after, entering as a blue belt (all judo black belts can compete first at blue belt). It would have been fun to watch.

With this seminar, I believe Neil Adams showed Judo’s cutting edge, an edge that may have been lost in public consciousness over the years. If you do BJJ, a Judoka like Neil is definitely one who will understand things from your perspective and be able to guide you into throws. Neil believes his game is well rounded and his throws are as good as his groundwork, so that is some serious ability. If you own a dojo or wish to attend a seminar, make sure you do your best to set up or attend one. It is well worth the money and time.