Basic Judo groundwork principles for Mum & Dad in Lego.

Judo is done standing and on the ground. Often with juniors more time is spent on groundwork or “Ne Waza” as it is called in Judo. In this post we shall discuss the basic principles of Ne Waza so you are a parent can help your child develop good Judo groundwork.

In Judo groundwork for children, there is one way to win, hold your opponent on their back for 25 seconds (soon changing to 20 seconds). The more dangerous methods of victory used by adults are banned; specifically strangles and armlocks.

The reason that you have to hold your opponent down for 20/25 seconds is that the goal is to “control” your opponent, not just to get them on their back briefly (such as in wrestling for example).

So when learning Ne Waza, it is important to keep the idea of control in mind. The goal is not to immobilize, or crush, or tie someone in a knot. The goal is to control your opponent to keep them on their back.

As always, Judo is not a game of pure strength. Simply using muscles to try and hold down a person is not most effective. Good principles and technique will win over strength alone. As a parent you want to encourage your child not to use strength, rather to learn good principles.

On this subject, letting your child practice on you on the living room floor is a great idea. In part because your child is not likely to have the strength to hold you down. So good technique/principles will be more effective.

So, what are SOME the basic principles of Ne Waza?

The Lego picture above is in fact a good example of good Judo groundwork principles.
The “player” in white is holding down the “player” in blue; lets look at what the player in white is doing right…

On Top.
Basic, but suprisingly often done wrong. To hold someone down, it is immensely helpful to have your weight bearing down directly onto your opponent. In the picture above, I would suggest that white moves their weight forward a little more perhaps.

A good “key point” for this is the phrase “chest to chest“. If your childs sternum is directly over their opponents sternum, they are generally in a good position.

At right angles.
The storm trooper above is lying at right angles to the player in Blue. This helps prevent the person being held down from turning over.

Hips Down.
The white players hips are on the floor, not up in the air. This means his/her centre of gravity is kept low, minimising the chances of the person on top getting turned over.

There is one more very fundamental principle that the player in white is NOT doing in this picture. And this would be holding on tight !