16 year old friend has a question with judo difficulty?

Hi, my 16 year old friend wants to start Judo, but she is wondering how hard it would be to progress through the belts after orange as she will need to compete in fights. She is worried that the fights will be too hard.





I am not sure what to say to her as i have dont know anyone that started judo this around her age.|||I was 14 when I started. it was easy for me. But I wasn%26#039;t interested in moving up quickly in rank. I purposely would take my test or miss class on the day testing was to be done. One day my instructor who was pretty smart realized that I was avoiding taking the test. I didn%26#039;t need the rank. I was beating people of higher rank all of the time. My sensei told me the he wanted me to just go over the test as a practice and that i could take it later. I said ok. After the practice test was over he announced that I had been promoted. I was a little upset at first. But after getting that rank I said to myself that I am so close to black that I might as well get my other rank.





We had other student that started older than I. One of the students that was assigned to me was in her sixties. She moved up in rank.





The only thing that stopped me from getting my black belt in judo was that I graduated high school. I was working full time and going to school full time. I still think about going back to obtain my black belt. I also want to add Aikido.|||Competing in tournaments isn%26#039;t a prerequisite to getting graded in Judo.





Also keep in mind Judo is most like wrestling, she won%26#039;t be taking punches, she would be grappling with other people.





The simple truth is she will experience much harder sparring and training in a normal Judo class than most tournaments, as she will be learning with people larger than her, and more advanced. Whereas in tournaments she will be going against people her own weight and of the same rank.





The only difference is tempo, as a tournament is much higher paced, and at a much higher aggression level. But by the time she goes to tournaments she will already be ready for it.





But more importantly, looking for belts and such doesn%26#039;t really matter. Getting better at the art, or feeling good about yourself and enjoying something does.





If she is scared of sparring, or difficult training Martial Arts in general probably isn%26#039;t for her. While people don%26#039;t necessarily like the idea or are wary of %26quot;fighting%26quot;, it is through doing it that one gets better and more proficient. Otherwise you are just fooling yourself.





The fights won%26#039;t be hard, because she will be prepared. IF she wants she never has to go to a tournament. But she will grapple with people who are trying to beat her practically everyday of training once she gets proficient enough.





It looks far worst than what it is, you never have to do anything you don%26#039;t feel comfortable doing. She should try Judo and see if she likes it before worrying about what might happen in the future, or what she might have to do to get a belt...





That%26#039;s like starting Kindergarten and wondering what major you should have in College. Get through Kindergarten first...





Competetion in tournaments isn%26#039;t required for advancement in rank, but it does help you become used to adrenaline based situations and learning how to control yourself in them.





Just what I would say...|||Look for a guy on here named judomofo. He might be in some of my answer sections, look through there and you should find a question asked by him. He is a great person full of information (especially judo) and is willing to help those genuinely asking for it. I would highly recommend you find him and shoot an email through this site.|||if she wants to be good at it and progress through the ranks then she has no choice but to overcome the difficult things in the way, whatever they may be.|||judo is averagly diffucult so if she is tht worried then i wuld try it and if u dont like it quit!