Judo Seminar with Lynn Roethke

Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to participate in a judo seminar led by Olympic Silver Medalist Lynn Roethke. Lynn Roethke has tremendous charisma, and communicates techniques and concepts really well. The attendees that she was teaching was primarily Brazilian jiu jitsu practitioners who have caught the judo-bug. It was really cool to see the differences in judo ne-waza vs. BJJ, and to drill with my former BJJ teacher, Blackbelt Gabriel Heck, who is now a greenbelt in judo. The Seminar was organized by Osmil Milan, the judo coach at Fight Prime Training Center. Assisting Lynn Roethke her student, the International Judo Federation’s -63kg female division Champion Lauren DeSmidt. It was incredible to find out that such talent is hidden here in Wisconsin, Lynn runs a gym in Fond Du Lac called Club Olympia!

Interesting differences in Judo vs. Brazilian jiu jitsu

During the demonstration of newaza, a couple of practical differences became the topic of discussion. In judo, there are no ankle locks allowed, which were used to compel the judoka with back control to open their legs in the demonstration of the judo newaza, but in BJJ, are legal to finish the ankle-lock as a submission. For this reason in BJJ, crossing your ankles is strongly discouraged because it will cost the match. Nevertheless, whether the ankles are compelled to open, or someone simply doesn’t entangle them, the escape that followed led to an armbar, with a surprising inverted triangle option.

Check out this article about the differences between BJJ groundwork and judo ne-waza from BJJ Motivation!

Many of the BJJ practitioners were surprised to hear about the complicated rules in judo regarding shoulder-lock submissions, in that you cannot attack the shoulder, but you can attack the elbow to cause a submission at the shoulder, which doesn’t sound terribly different than BJJ for an americana, kimura, or oma plata, but it makes me hesitant to use these submissions in judo based on the wording.

Judo Footwork Drills

Finally, we got to do some judo drills which were footwork-based reaping and sweeping techniques for take-downs. We were shown a series of five attacks that we were to do with a partner, walking them across the tatami. I had the opportunity to drill with some expert black belts who’ve been practicing for over 50 years! Their insight and advice was greatly appreciated, as well as their patience! As a BJJ practitioner, the footwork of judo is my greatest challenge!

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Theo Howard with Olympic Silver Medalist Lynn Roethke and International Judo Federation’s -63kg female division Champion Lauren DeSmidt