The ideal judoka is someone who has both sound technical skills and good fighting skills. It is totally possible for someone to be technically sound but not a good fighter. It is also possible for someone to be a good fighter but not very technical.
A person to only focuses on technical skills would be able to demonstrate a technique very well. But if that person doesn't do a lot of randori and doesn't compete, he won't be able to test those skill against a resisting partner. It's debatable whether such a person is actually technically sound after all if his techniques don't work when someone is resisting or fighting back. But such a person can definitely demonstrate the technique well when there is a cooperative partner. Whether you consider such a person technical or not depends on your definition of "technical".
I would say such a person is technical in as far as judo demonstrations are concerned because they could do the techniques beautifully in a demonstration context. It's sort of like how someone could be very good at kata but not good at shiai. You can't say someone like that is not technical. He's just not good at fighting.
On the other hand, we all know of some players who are really pretty good at fighting but have a very limited range of techniques. Sometimes such players are limited to as few as one technique (e.g. drop seoi-nage). They only do one technique but they catch everyone with it. Ask them to demonstrate other techniques and they aren't able to do so.
Those are two extremes of course: (a) someone who is very technical but cannot fight (b) someone who fights well but not very technical.
Most people are a mix of both, possessing some technical skills and some fighting skills. Which skills a person prioritizes will depend on their aspirations. For example, a competitor will naturally favor fighting skills. But in the long run, for a competitor to be good, he would need to develop technical skills too. Instinctive fighting ability, strength and aggression can take you only so far in judo.
Training competitorsIf you're training a competitor from scratch, the first thing you need to do is build up their technical base. That is, teach them several techniques and get them to master them. Then (and only then) should you embark on teaching them fighting skills.
If you do it the other way around, that is, teach fighting skills first, they will tend to rely on aggression and raw strength to try to overcome their opponent. They won't be interested in technical skills. So, it's better to teach skills first. Then teach them how to fight.
Teaching technical skills means showing them the mechanics of the throws and get them practice the throws over and over (uchikomi first, then nagekomi). It's pretty straight forward. Not so with fighting skills.
You can't really teach fighting skills. You can teach certain things that will help their fighting abilities, like gripping techniques and strategies, you can also teach them some strategic moves, such as teaching them how to transition seamlessly from standing to groundwork (and vice versa). You can also mimic different scenarios with resistance drills. But at the end of the day, good fighting skills will come from doing lots of randori and competing in lots of tournaments.
A person to only focuses on technical skills would be able to demonstrate a technique very well. But if that person doesn't do a lot of randori and doesn't compete, he won't be able to test those skill against a resisting partner. It's debatable whether such a person is actually technically sound after all if his techniques don't work when someone is resisting or fighting back. But such a person can definitely demonstrate the technique well when there is a cooperative partner. Whether you consider such a person technical or not depends on your definition of "technical".
I would say such a person is technical in as far as judo demonstrations are concerned because they could do the techniques beautifully in a demonstration context. It's sort of like how someone could be very good at kata but not good at shiai. You can't say someone like that is not technical. He's just not good at fighting.
On the other hand, we all know of some players who are really pretty good at fighting but have a very limited range of techniques. Sometimes such players are limited to as few as one technique (e.g. drop seoi-nage). They only do one technique but they catch everyone with it. Ask them to demonstrate other techniques and they aren't able to do so.
Those are two extremes of course: (a) someone who is very technical but cannot fight (b) someone who fights well but not very technical.
Most people are a mix of both, possessing some technical skills and some fighting skills. Which skills a person prioritizes will depend on their aspirations. For example, a competitor will naturally favor fighting skills. But in the long run, for a competitor to be good, he would need to develop technical skills too. Instinctive fighting ability, strength and aggression can take you only so far in judo.
Training competitorsIf you're training a competitor from scratch, the first thing you need to do is build up their technical base. That is, teach them several techniques and get them to master them. Then (and only then) should you embark on teaching them fighting skills.
If you do it the other way around, that is, teach fighting skills first, they will tend to rely on aggression and raw strength to try to overcome their opponent. They won't be interested in technical skills. So, it's better to teach skills first. Then teach them how to fight.
Teaching technical skills means showing them the mechanics of the throws and get them practice the throws over and over (uchikomi first, then nagekomi). It's pretty straight forward. Not so with fighting skills.
You can't really teach fighting skills. You can teach certain things that will help their fighting abilities, like gripping techniques and strategies, you can also teach them some strategic moves, such as teaching them how to transition seamlessly from standing to groundwork (and vice versa). You can also mimic different scenarios with resistance drills. But at the end of the day, good fighting skills will come from doing lots of randori and competing in lots of tournaments.
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