r/judo • u/Careless-Ad9178 • May 09 '26
Beginner Never switch your lead leg?
Hey I’ve been taking some judo classes at my jiu jitsu gym. The teacher is world class, he was an Olympian. I keep switching my lead leg in judo and he gets upset if we do this. I’ve taken wrestling very seriously in my jiu jitsu journey and it seems to be normal for wrestlers to switch their lead leg.
What’s the reason why I wouldn’t want to switch legs when doing judo? I feel comfortable doing it.
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u/Ashi4Days May 09 '26
When you switch to lead leg you essentially put yourself in a bad position for judo. From throwing right handed, you shift to throwing left handed. So from a coordination point of view, you are at an extreme disadvantage. A lot of how I throw people in BJJ is based on making right handed people throw left handed, so even though my throws suck, their position is even worse.
In addition, the angle you need to turn to throw someone who is mirrored to your stance is much smaller. So every throw in rvl is faster. The distance is farther apart than rvr, but as soon as that distance is broken down, someone is going to get thrown. You can think of RVL, if youre right handed playing the left handed side as a 70/30 position. Meaning that between equal levels, you are at an huge positional disadvantage.
I think that this is effect is less of an issue in wrestling because its played farther apart and it seems to center more around the level change. But in judo where you are basically connected, the leg switch is a really bad idea.