Judo vs Wrestling: Which Takedown Art Should You Learn?

Watch a judoka walk into a no-gi room for the first time. The hand goes out for a lapel and closes on skin. The sleeve grip lands on a wrist that has already left. Half the throws have quietly stepped outside, and the person opposite, who has never worn a jacket, is already under the hips with a double leg. Now run it the other way: a wrestler in a gi for the first time, suddenly slower, suddenly covered in handles, thrown by someone smaller who has never taken hold of anything but cloth.

The short answer: judo and wrestling are the two great arts of putting a human being on the floor, and they get there from opposite grips. Judo holds the jacket and wins with one clean throw; wrestling holds the body and wins by control until both shoulders touch the mat. If the people you expect to grapple wear clothing, or you want an Olympic club sport with belts, learn judo. If MMA or no-gi is where you are going and you can find a club, learn wrestling. Underneath, both build the same thing: balance while somebody is trying to take it from you.

Judo wins in a single moment

Kanō Jigorō built judo out of jujutsu in 1882 and gave it rules, belts and a school programme. It has been Olympic since 1964 and one federation runs it worldwide. A match ends on ippon – a throw that lands the opponent largely on the back with force, speed and control, a pin held for twenty seconds, or a submission by arm lock or strangle – and everything in a judo club follows from that word. Judoka grip lapel and sleeve, fight for the dominant grip first, and throw with the hips, the shoulders, the feet and, in the sacrifice throws, their own falling body. The ground phase is short, because the referee stands the pair up as soon as nothing is happening. Since 2010 competition judo has forbidden grabbing the legs, which took the wrestling-style takedowns out and made it an upper-body game. The full story is in our history of judo.

The practical case for judo is that it is everywhere. Clubs in almost every town, adult beginner classes, low fees, a belt system, and one of the best children's programmes in any sport. Its practical limit is the jacket. The grips and a good many of the throws assume there is something to hold, and the world does not always oblige.

Wrestling wins by not letting go

Wrestling is older than any written rule and exists in some form in every culture; our history of wrestling runs from Beni Hasan to the Olympic mat. The two international styles are freestyle, where the legs may be attacked, and Greco-Roman, where nothing below the waist may be touched, and American folkstyle is the school and college variant. A match is won by a pin – both shoulders held to the mat – or by points for takedowns, exposing the opponent's back, escapes and reversals. No submissions, no jacket. Wrestlers grip wrists, necks and bodies, fight for underhooks and head position, and take down with double and single legs, snap-downs, arm drags and, in Greco, throws from body locks.

The practical case for wrestling is transfer. Takedowns and top control that work on bare skin are the base most MMA fighters stand on and the answer to most no-gi problems, and the conditioning culture turns people into athletes whether or not they asked. Its practical limit is finding it. Outside the school and college systems of North America and the clubs of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, adult beginner wrestling is rare, and most adults who learn it learn it in an MMA gym.

Everything follows from the jacket

Hold a lapel and a sleeve and you can throw from a distance, using the cloth as a lever, and a small judoka can throw a large one on timing. Take the cloth away and the levers vanish, which is exactly why wrestling attacks the legs and the body and fights for underhooks and head position instead. So judo's throws are upper-body throws and its ground phase is quick; wrestling's takedowns are lower-body and body-lock attacks and its ground phase is long, patient control. A judoka in a no-gi room keeps roughly half their throws – hip throws, reaps, sweeps, body locks – and learns that the sleeve-and-lapel half, seoi-nage included, needs a jacket or a new grip. A wrestler in a gi room learns that the jacket makes them slower and hands the other person a set of handles.

If the people you expect to grapple wear jackets – gi grappling, most self-defence situations in a cold climate – judo's grips apply. If they do not – MMA, no-gi, summer – wrestling's do.

Each art's blind spot is the other's core

Judo's rules produce explosive, timing-based throws and a short, aggressive ground game. They also removed the leg attacks, so a judoka learns the double leg elsewhere. Wrestling's rules produce relentless pressure, level changes, the sprawl and control on top. They have no submissions, so a wrestler learns what happens after the takedown in a room that allows chokes. Judo's sacrifice throws and pins do not exist in wrestling; wrestling's leg attacks and riding do not exist in judo. Neither is complete, and each one is missing precisely the thing the other spends its evenings on.

What it costs your body, and your wallet

Judo is falls. Shoulders, collarbones, knees, fingers worn out by grips, and a first year spent mostly learning to land. Wrestling is knees, necks, ears that turn to cauliflower, skin, and in the school systems a weight-cutting culture that is a hazard all of its own. Both are physically brutal; wrestling's daily conditioning is the harder grind, judo's competition the more injury-prone per bout. Judo is a club sport with etiquette, belts and volunteer coaches; wrestling is a school sport with seasons, weigh-ins and a work ethic that MMA inherited whole. Judo is cheap and everywhere. Wrestling is cheap where it exists and simply absent where it does not.

Choose judo if …

• You want to throw people who are wearing clothing, and to compete in an Olympic sport with a club near you.
• You train, or plan to train, gi BJJ or sambo, where every judo throw pays off.
• You are signing up a child, or you want a belt system and a structured path.
• The single decisive technique appeals to you more than long control.

Choose wrestling if …

• MMA or no-gi grappling is where you are going; wrestling is the base they run on.
• You want takedowns that need no jacket and control that needs no submission.
• You want the conditioning culture and can find a club or an MMA gym that teaches it properly.
• You are young enough for a school or college programme, which is where wrestling is easiest to learn.

Better still, do both

Put judo's grip fighting and throws next to wrestling's leg attacks, sprawl and top control and you have the combination the best grapplers are made of. Judoka who add wrestling fill the hole the 2010 rules dug; wrestlers who add judo learn to throw from the upper body and what to do when someone is wearing a jacket. If you only have room for one, decide by clothing and destination. Jackets and gi arts, judo. No jackets and MMA, wrestling. Either way you will spend the first year on the same lesson: keeping your feet when somebody else has plans for them.

Where to go next

• The hubs: Judo and Wrestling.
• The histories: Judo: Kanō Jigorō and the Gentle Way and The History of Wrestling.
• The ground half of the question: BJJ vs Judo and Sambo vs BJJ.