[judogido]

I'm curious as to how many of you guys in BJJ do the whole bowing thing in training & how many other japanese traditions left over from judo you follow.

Watching the Purple Belt test video (Purple belt test video.) I notice a lot of japanese stuff here - and they perform (quite neatly) a kneeling bow before beginning.

In my judo club, we dont do kneeling bows before training - only a standing bow in ranks. We're not overly traditional - we have "coaches" not "senseis", we train at a "club" not a "dojo" - that sort of thing.

The BJJ club I visit does a standing bow at the beginning of training. The class is arranged in circle (clockwise by rank)- & bow inwards, which I quite like as it's like everyone pays respect to everyone else. After this, there's the hand-slap before rolling.

How much judo traditions have filtered through & are in use at your place?

[Yojimbo.]

At my gym we bow before we start the warmup and at the end of class. Nothing like the purple belt test video

[judogido]

Originally Posted by Yojimbo.

At my gym we bow before we start the warmup and at the end of class. Nothing like the purple belt test video

Kneeling or standing?

[Darkslide632]

Even in my Judo class, which I try to keep fairly traditional we do not perform bows from the knees unless we are only doing ground work and starting from the knees.

When we're doing just grappling or MMA, it is pretty informal. I don't like it, but I am not the only one teaching there.

[Yojimbo.]

Originally Posted by judogido

Kneeling or standing?

Standing. That's as "traditional" as it gets at our place. Everything thing else is common courtesy/sense.

[cockysprinter]

theres some bowing in my gym. we even say 'osu' a lot.

[jasond]

Our coach is a pretty traditional guy (a black belt in karate), but when it comes time for bjj class it's pretty informal. The golden rule is treat everyone on the mats with respect. There isn't any bowing at all regardless of whether it's gi or no-gi class; just a slap of the hands before we roll.

My kids train karate under him and they do the traditional bows to him before and after class, as well as bowing to their opponents before and after they spar.

[Bubble Boy]

Judogido, I noticed the exact same thing in that bjj video. I was like: "Damn, that's more traditional than any Judo class I've ever trained in."

I wish I could find the picture of Kano teaching a class in Germany. All the guys are in tattered gis, some with shorts on, some sitting, some standing, in a circle around Kano.
Kano is enthusiastically teaching in the picture, but the students are very, very informal in appearance. It's clear from the photo that Kano does not care.

To me, that's what a Judo gym is. I don't think I'd fit in well with an overly traditional school.
We don't bow on and off the mat, and there's only a quick abbreviated bow in before and after class. Sometimes we just shake hands, high five, etc after class.

We don't have a picture of Kano on the wall either.

[mattmania843]

Before and after class, we bow twice to the school logo (go figure) and once to our partners, before we roll from the knees we do a kneeling praying mantis style bow,and shake hands, colored belts line up on one side, and white belts on the other, when we roll whitebelt vs color belt our instructor says to let the colored belt set the pace. Thats about all and I like all that stuff.

Edit; we say OOS to, but not because its required, its just a trend that started, lol

[hayliks]

i'm not a fan of bowing, but if i visit a school that does it, i will respect their ways and bow