I just started Judo
 

I have years of wrestling experience from when I was in school, but I have now taken up Judo, at the ripe age of 32!
I've only started 3 weeks ago and I really enjoy it, but I know myself and I am already thinking about competing :laugh:

I know all to well that I am nowhere near ready for that, so I thought I'd ask here. What would be a realistic target, timewise, for someone like me, concidering my age as well, to go through the grades?
If there are any UK based posters, are there 'beginners' competitions or something like that?

I can't remember when I started competing, but I'd say that as soon as you've learned to fall properly (to prevent injury) and are confident in doing at least one throwing technique yourself (so you can do something with your opponent), you are ready to go to a competition. That depends on how fast you learn. Kids are thrown into the cold water (competition) quite early after a couple of months, already as white belts. As for the grades, that also depends on how often you train and how fast you learn. Ask you trainer, he will be better at estimating your progress than anyone on an internet forum could do.

Cheers and have fun!

I love watching the judoka based fighters; Karo Parisyan, Akiyama, Ronda, and even the Dong. Those throws are just beautiful to watch especially when you can connect it into a submission. I once had someone throw me with a Ippon Seoinage right into an armbar. I was laughing in the air telling myself how cool that was getting hipped toss and next thing I know I was in an arm bar.

Check out Karo's videos.

Quality isn't great, but it's a very good tutorial.

I live in the Uk and have been doing judo for about 3 years now (I'm also 32) and I absolutely love it.

There are not a huge amount of competitions for adults below black belt standard but they seem to have about 2 a year where I live (south coast). You can compete in these competitions as a white belt as they are normally graded so you would only be fighting other white belts.

I think judo is probably the best grappling art for self defence due to the high impact throws. As they say, if MMA was done on concrete floors everyone would do judo.

Can I ask where you have been doing wrestling? I'd love to try it but there are no schools anywhere near me.

I did my wrestling in South Africa, when I was in school. But you're right, the are not many wrestling clubs around in the UK.
What grade are you? And would it be too adventurous of me to set a goal of getting a brown belt by the end of 2013?

I think a green belt would be more realistic. A blue belt should already be hard to achieve and that with at least four times a week of training. But again, ask your trainer on how well you do. He can estimate your progress better than we can over the Internet.

I'm a green belt. Without wishing to be pedantic, asking how long it would take you to get a brown belt is like asking 'how long is a piece of string?' It depends on how often you train, how much prior experience you have, how much natural talent and athleticism you have, how good your instructor is, how good the other students are, how well you apply yourself, etc, etc.

There is nothing worse than having a belt you don't really deserve so don't rush it, it's only a belt after all. There is so much to learn with judo (as with every martial art) so whatever colour your belt is there will always be more you can learn. Having said that I met a guy recently who got a back belt in 3 years so it can be done.