Jigoro Kano ''I have been asked by people of various sections as to the wisdom and possibility of Judo being introduced with other games and sports at the Olympic Games. My view on the matter, at present, is rather passive. If it be the desire of other member countries, I have no objection. But I do not feel inclined to take any initiative. For one thing, Judo in reality is not a mere sport or game. I regard it as a principle of life, art and science. In fact, it is a means for personal cultural attainment. Only one of the forms of Judo training, so-called randori or free practice can be classed as a form of sport. Certainly, to some extent, the same may be said of boxing and fencing, but today they are practiced and conducted as sports. Then the Olympic Games are so strongly flavored with nationalism that it is possible to be influenced by it and to develop "Contest Judo", a retrograde form as ju-jitsu was before the Kodokan was founded. Judo should be free as art and science from any external influences, political, national, racial, and financial or any other organized interest. And all things connected with it should be directed to its ultimate object, the "Benefit of Humanity". Human sacrifice is a matter of ancient history'' A quote from Kano Sensei.... Just a comment about numbers. It may well be that there is a rise in judo numbers in some countries but I haven't seen it happen in the west and I would be interested in where you found comparative numbers. In some ways it might be confusing much the same way as when one looks at rugby participation numbers. Yes rugby is a very popular sport at the moment but the number of sides being fielded is dropping (again at least in the west) even though the sport appears to be more popular. I wonder whether, as a percentage of the population, judo participation has actually increased compared to the percentages that were present in the 70's or 80's. You know the old saying, there are lies, damn lies and statistics :' ) I think that the more restrictive the rule set, the narrower band of people will feel able to compete effectively. Take out things that people are good at and at least those people will stop participating. I see nothing in the present rule set that encourages me to compete. Just sayin... LFD
If anything the new rule set should encourage you to compete more as there's now less chance of a Russian picking you up and slamming you from a great height.
It's in Livingston, outside Edinburgh. Yeah there's Dynamo Sambo in Glasgow and there's the BSF representatives in Dumfries, Closeburn Sombo, that I know of.
Unless said person had also trained wrestling and wanted to suplex guys and attack their legs with singles and doubles as well As a submission grappler and MMA guy I would love to do more grappling and with no BJJ club near me judo would seem to be the answer, especially as I would love to do some gi work but it’s the groundwork element I want to spend the most amount of time on. and with the restrictions on ground work currently in place and with a lot of the takedowns I know not allowed I am at the moment not that interested in picking the art up it seems too restrictive for me compared to the submission grappling I do
when I did Judo a good amount of practise time was spent on groundwork to be fair, about as much as you could ask of a primarily standing art. Most of the instructors had been at it for long enough to know that rule changes come and go in Judo so longer time for groundwork will probably come back one day. That and they just had an appreciation for it, you never know you could come across clubs like that if you looked. as has been well covered you wont get the depth you'd get in BJJ but as a trade of you'll get to learn how to put people on there head a little more easily.
If you're wanting more training then go along, if anything it'll force you outside your comfort zone and you might pick up a few new throws that you can use in MMA. If you were allowed to do everything you could in sub grappling then you'd likely rely on it in randori and progress more slowly anyway.
or.. Well I see your point but since I come from a freestyle and greco wrestling background I see the ban on leg attacks stopping me from using kata garuma, pick-ups and a bunch of other stuff. Watching the stalling and lack of interesting throws in this present tournament I can't help but wonder how the changes have improved the tachi wazza. Now maybe over time this will happen but so far it seems to have had the same effect as not scoring hand techniques in TKD. No need to defend the leg attacks as they can't be launched. This will weaken the system if people focus on training for competition and not for being able to make what they learn useful in general. There has been a move in some places to have tournaments with non-Olympic rules to try and keep people focusing on ALL of what comprises judo. As was mentioned in my comment above, when you focus too much on one thing for the purpose of (?) making things more interesting for tv or whatever I think the style suffers. In it's day no one could touch judo. I am not sure that for the general population of players the same can be said today. Just sayin'... LFD
I know this may be a bit off-topic but why is it that we have Tae Kwon Do in the Olympics but no Karate,Muay Thai or San Shou? It would be asking a bit much for Karate and Muay Thai both but the aim of Karate and Muay Thai is scoring points over a period of time using hands and feet. Wouldn't it be better to make a tournament of stand up styles/freestyle Olympics- not a freestyle martial arts competition like WAKO/WKA/ISKA but say the national and international champions from WTF, WKF and whatever Muay Thai has and those champions representing there countries. or they could have AT LEAST karate and muay thai added. As for MMA, I think the stated styles should take first preference and before MMA, maybe Sport JJ and/or Sambo (again, they don't seem that different) should take preference
A little off topic here But karate's just as popular as Tae Kwon Do- all these parents signing their kids up to karate clubs, movies like Karate Kid, our hero Chuck Norris,etc. Karate's also more effective in MMA (ITF Tae Kwon Do is actually good but seems to be better in above-the-waist kickboxing than karate simply since they normally kick higher,thus accumulating more points). Btw- is it WKF,JKA or JKS that's the main karate organisation? I know WUKO is now WKF but JKA has a huge following.
If anything I think MMA should come first. It's closer to pankration which was an original olympic event and would allow athletes from all the various disciplines to compete if they chose to.
For decades, karate had no single recognised governing body. All karate organisations competed under their own rulesets, making it pretty much impossible for members of different associations to compete against each other in a way that all found agreeable. Now, the Olympic committee recognises the World Karate Federation as the governing body for karate, but most karate organisations still don't affiliate to this body or compete under its rules.
I know this is off topic but it's to do with karate: Is there a video link/comparison between karate kumite/shobu ippon and today's terrible semi-contact point fighting? I have competed in point fighting but haven't done too well in it as I refused to drop my hands to score points. Prefer continuos fighting but i'm worse at it as I don't like getting hit in the nose or ribs :/ I made a thread-regarding this,please take a look! I'm wondering why the introduction of Jhoon Rhee safety equipment has ruined point karate that people like Machida/Bill Wallace/Joe Lewis/Chuck Norris practice. Some people say Lau Gar's fighters and people like Nathan Lewis and the Sykes' are legit tough guys but even in their full contact fights their boxing is awful (full of point fighting backfists and ridgehands) and kicks are above the waist. ^shouldn't they have followed suit and done MMA or K-1? Going back on topic, these martial arts have yet to make it to the Olympics: ITF and Karate~kumite/point fighting (just as deserved as Tae Kwon Do) Muay Thai~leg kicks;knee and elbow continuos fighting San Shou~same as above but with throws BJJ~grappling only as opposed to throws being scored in judo Sambo~safe MMA Sport Jiu Jitsu~more technical than MMA we already have judo,wrestling,greco roman, tae kwon do, boxing and fencing; the amount of combat sports has to practically be doubled to the above before MMA is even considered! That's why I said they could do with merging some things- maybe merge karate and tae kwon do and (even before it happens over 4 to 40 years) merge muay thai and san shou. If the rule sets are similar and the athletes can cross train, they should merge it if they're worried of too many sports. They should however, stick to the organisations-e.g. karate fighters only from WKF and tae kwon do fighters from ITF/WTF and only use athletes from those organisations???
In Sport JJ you have to throw once you grab hold/can't strike, you have to grapple on the ground/can't strike more technical-not better or worse. I read somewhere people think it's point fighting-as far as I know it's continuos fighting-probably depends on organisation
So I turn up at my club last night and we have 6 new beginners on the mat and one 1st kyu who hadn't practised in four years. Usually we'll get maybe one new person trying judo every other week. What do all these people have in common....... they were motivated to come along by watching judo at ..... you guessed it.... the Olympics!! I've been hearing similar reports from other coaches as well so it looks like the Olympics has had some positive effect directly on my club In the mean time though, with six new white belts I fear for my shins.
