Plateau at 8 months — what helped me push through

Around the 8-month mark in Judo I hit a wall. My progress with harai-goshi wasn't improving and I felt like I was spinning wheels. It's apparently common but that didn't make it less frustrating.

What helped: going back to fundamentals with my coach, spending more time drilling grip fighting slowly rather than at full speed, and watching Teddy Riner breakdowns to understand what I was missing. the judo community warmth eventually returned once I let go of trying to advance too fast. trusting breakfalling (ukemi) instinctively was actually the underlying cause of the plateau — once I addressed it, things moved again. If you hit that wall, stick with it. It passes.