Vladimir Putin Offers To Join Russian Judo Team (VIDEO)

Though no longer president of Russia, Vladimir Putin still knows how to throw his weight around. He offered to join the national judo team after sparring with members of the squad on Saturday. "If you need direct help, you can include me in the team," the 57 years old prime minister told the trainer, according to Reuters.

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This isn't the first time Putin has showed off his martial arts skills. Last year, he released an instructional DVD, "Let's Learn Judo With Vladimir Putin."

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Comments

[mamacat]

05:01 AM on 12/24/2009

Nothing says "delusional megalomaniac" better than naming yourself to your country's olympic team by fiat.

[POLINUT]

05:33 PM on 12/22/2009

Yeah, ok..
I'm a contender facing off against Putin with dozens of armed Russian agents surrounding the ring at the Olympics. I'm really going to try to slam him to the ground...
Yeah....right...

[S1m0n]

07:36 AM on 12/22/2009

He IS the campest leader out there. Did he show off his chest again, too?

[blackhole2008]

03:24 PM on 12/21/2009

good career choice: lose the match against the Puter.

[sandrasamnick]

11:19 AM on 12/21/2009

i think sarah could beat him--lol

[liberalNmoderation]

10:15 AM on 12/21/2009

I wonder what the quitter, failin palin thinks about this recent development....can she see him from her tour bus?

[KayJay90]

08:53 AM on 12/21/2009

Definitely choreographed for the cameras.

The workout is called randori, and it's just practice, trying out and practicing and getting muscle memory for the advanced judo techniques used in world competition. This was about as low key, non-competitive a session of randori as I've ever seen.

In competition matches, you see a lot of counter moves and unbalancing techniques that foil the ease of the throwing techniques you saw here. And you see a lot more mat work, similar to wrestling (lots of wrestlers switch to judo after college wrestling careers). Over the last 30 years I'll bet I've seen more judo matches won from mat holding techniques than throwing techniques.

But a swift and decisive winning throw gets the applause and accolades the way a home run does in baseball -- and occurs about as often.

[armstp]

10:16 AM on 12/21/2009

I bet all his opponents were quite nervous. Don't want to make the most powerful man in Russian, who eliminated, often by death, all of this political opponents, be embarassed. Given all the camera flashes you can hear, this was clearly staged to beef up the profile of Putin.

[JStading]

04:20 AM on 12/22/2009

Putin's judo/jujitsu is no joke. It's a fair point that more judo/MMA matches have been won by submissions than throws, but Putin wasn't trained for matches - he was trained to square off against CIA agent and the special forces of the democratic nations. The fact that he survived the fall of the wall while being in East Germany should speak volumes.

[roninroshi]

08:53 AM on 12/21/2009

A little info on Putin's Judo...http://www.fightingarts.com/reading/article.php?id=167

[roninroshi]

08:50 AM on 12/21/2009

He's the "real deal"...Putin holds a 5th Dan from the Kodokan in Japan...I always looked forward to Shrub putting out a challenge to Putin for a smack down...LOL

[Hugatreetoday]

08:04 AM on 12/21/2009

He's not too much of a megalomaniac, is he.... lol Yikes. And this is the man that Bush said he looked into his soul (or some stupid thing like that). Good grief!

[elizlucinda]

06:17 AM on 12/21/2009

This man is scary

[Hedonist88]

05:57 AM on 12/21/2009

naw this is all just a publicity stunt....

to get the attention of all those fly ruskie babes

[katooom]

06:15 AM on 12/21/2009

most of the fly russian babes have already gone porn

[78Thomas]

05:41 AM on 12/21/2009

No russian who values themselves would throw down Putin. Its hard to believe that members of the olympic judo team are not just throwing him around like a rag doll.

Putins most admirable feat is being a non-drinker. Anyone whose ever been there can attest to the HUGE drinking problem that the nation has.

[redsongia]

08:14 AM on 12/21/2009

The very first throw on the top clip, he didn't flip the kid on the first try, and he stood perfectly still to let Vlad try again. LOL.

Still hawt, though.

[katooom]

05:14 AM on 12/21/2009

Many not so subtle undertones here. Putin shows his strength, compared to our guy - sort of a wimp.

[mikeVA]

05:34 AM on 12/21/2009

Some people like MMA and some people like basketball. Obama and dunk all day.

[Abraxas79]

03:20 AM on 12/21/2009

Not bad for 57. The average american male at this age cannot even see his toes whilst standing.