What is Judo?

Judo has a rich history, starting in Japan with Professor Jigoro Kano, the founder. Judo has ties back to several different styles of Japanese JuJutsu, which is known as the unarmed combat style of the Japanese Samurai - the dominant warrior class in Japan before the Meiji restoration. Sensei Kano was young and frail when he started studying Jujutsu out of a need for self defense. The more he learned, the more he began to separate the dangerous techinque's from JuJutsu to create Judo. Kano eventually moved on to create his own judo school called the Kodokan Judo institute, where he taught and trained several Japanese JuJutsu masters in the style. Judo grew quickly, eventually becoming an olympic sport and the preferred unarmed combat art for the Japanese Police. Today - Judo remains one of the most popular martial arts in the world because of its focus around teaching a defender to ward off attackers using their motion, its powerful throws, and its ability to give someone the ability to defend themselves effectively.