My last attempt at this post disappeared with the e-grmlins, so 'ere goes again. I've heared that the BJA is removing the requirement to compete for gradings, is this correct, or am I being fed an early April fool ? If it is correct, what do you think of the idea ? I really liked the undeniable and inbuilt quality control with the existing competetive system.
It's true, requirement comes into affect as of April but you might be able to compete for another three months. Personally I'm not particularly happy about it.
Interesting stuff. Not knowing much about the Judo scene... even less about grading and requirements in the UK... I'll ask a few questions: Prior to this new development... did all UK Judoka have to compete to move up in rank/belt? Is there one primary UK Judo sanctioning body or are there several? I'm curious how this compares to BJJ. My Bjj experience is limited (less than two years maybe) but so far for use to move up in rank we've had to compete. It's severely frowned upon for us to train and not compete. I have the feeling you'd get brow beat out of the gym if you didn't compete. That we spend a good portion of the class rolling against class mates... it makes sense that we'd want to roll in comps. I'm assuming that competition has always been a big part of Judo in the UK. Do the Judokas see this as opening up the art to less than qualified higher ranking belts?
Not quite, if you had some sort of medical condition or where over the age of 35 you could go in for technical gradings, they weren't very common though. In addition, you where limited to grading once every fifve years once you got to dan grade. There are two, the BJA and the BJC but they are quite similar it seems and are going to both bring in the new grading syllabus. For us it used to be a formal requirement that we competed, to get up to brown belt you had to win about ten fights against similar level and size opponents. This is the part thats been replaced by technical grading (Although there always was an element of theory in the original syllabus your sensei marked you on) For your black belt grade the competitive element remains, you have to beat ten other guys going for their BB's as well at competitions, either normal sanctioned ones or special grading competitions where, if you won two out of three fights, you got a line up. In a line up you face three guys going for there dan grade and adding the result of their fight against you to the total number of wins they had, if you can beat all three of them in a row with ippon techniques then you got the black belt straight away. Competition has been a big part of gradings for the last 30 years, there where some complaints the technical element was being neglected but I think most people agree this goes too far the other way.
WHAT!!!! Why? This absolutely blows! I was considering in the next few years returning to Judo to fight for my BB (I got in Muay Thai when I started fighting for my BB and focused more on that). This sucks!
I seriously hope this isn't the case, And this is comming from someone who totaly got his backside handed to him on the grading last weekend. Whilst I think the technical side is somewhat overlooked, it gives a real sense of acheivement to fight for your belt. Also as in my case on the weekend, even though I lost both my grading fights and as a result missed out on promotion, I learnt so much from actually competing. So in effect even through losing I took away a lot that will improve my Judo skills.
Can someone post a link to this news. Also does anyone know if this apply's to the Welsh Judo Association. If true surely this is a bad day for British Judo.
can someone compare the british system to the american one for judo gradings? my understanding of the matter is rusty. didn't someone give points for reffing? you're evidently at a comp focused school - not uncommon, but also not necessarily the norm.
I don't see the point in any art that has one removing the competition requirement! You fight against new people, you get more of a feel for what you're doing, and to be honest, if you have to work a lot harder, it makes moving up in rank even more sweet. And it's fun. As for BJJ, we don't have to compete, many don't. But it's not that much different from the training fights. You're still trying to beat the other person, after all.
If you're going for your BB then it doesn't affect you, it's only those beneath 1st kyu that are loosing the competitive requirement, above that it's still the same.
So it's effectively the BJA adopting the BJC grading structure? I know that there's been a big shift back towards kata in the past few years.
I thought the difference between the two was a good thing, gave people more choice what direction they wanted to go in. Maybe it will get like music diplomas, where you can specialise in performance, a mixture of everything, theory etc.
Just got out of Jujitsu because of too much of that crap. At present one lesson of technique and one of randori suits fine, good 50/50 mix of ground and stand-up too. Kata is just .............. Hope this take a while to filter down to the WJA.
The problem with kata (strictly speaking one of the problems) is the combination of people not wanting to learn it and people teaching it badly. Done properly, combined with more modern training methods it has an excellent role to play - mainly giving judo players a much wider Varity of techniques. The problem that the BJA are seeking to solve is that in British judo there is a large amount of people who get by with one or two techniques that work for them and know very little else. The idea is that by making a more technique requirement, right down to Juniors, we should, in the long term, be able to produce players that make more of a impact on the international scene. I believe there are a number of problems with the new system - but these are mainly down to the speed with which it's being brought in and the amount of information given out. I think the change itself brings us into line with the rest of Europe and the world and might get rid of our plague of 'flop and drop' players.
That's up to instructors and students to be not so competition minded and wanting to learn the art, not just win at competition. Stopping fighting to grade won't help this. If anything it's going to make it easier to win comps.
I've just got back from Judo and non of my instructors have heard this. Any one got any links to where this came from?
It's up on the BJA forums if you have got your login for it and Judoforum.com has some discussion of it as well.
Sad news. Certainly a step on the path towards being like Japanese Jujitsu. I hope Judo Scotland don't even consider this. Gradings can be a pain, and they cost money, but as far as gradings go they are the best of all the martial arts. It's been over a year since I have been to a grading, perhaps I should go to one !
this is unfortunate to hear if it is true. when I was training in Judo you had to learn the kata's to get past a certain grade, but you still had to compete in gradings. I felt that what you were taught in kata's could have easily and much more efficiently been taught in drills. All the open and closing of the gates was something I could have done without. I'm glad I've gone back to competitive JJ in MMA rather then don a Gi again with Judo if this is true.
