Judo in the United States however, the lecture had little effect on mainstream judo growth. The first American to actually study judo was Prof. Ladd from Yale University, in 1889. He trained at the Kodokan in Japan for about ten years; by 1908 about 13 Americans were training there. In 1919, Prof. John Dewey of Columbia University came to visit Prof. Ladd and Master Kano, many years later he took his knowledge back to Columbia and began the first U.S. college judo program. While some students were training in Japan there was some action in the U.S. Perhaps one of the most important figures in
Judo particularly from more powerful throws that uke lacks the skill to breakfall from. For these reasons, throws are normally taught in order of difficulty for both tori and uke. This is exemplified in the "Gokyo" , a traditional grouping of throws arranged in order of difficulty of ukemi. Those grouped in are relatively simple to breakfall from whereas those grouped in are difficult to breakfall from. A practitioner of judo is known as a . The modern meaning of "judoka" in English is a judo practitioner of any level of expertise, but traditionally those below the rank of 4th "dan"