Sunday, August 14, 2016
Olympic Judo an Opinion
The Judo Olympics has now finished so what is the general
response? Of course the Judo Establishment says it was marvellous. In terms of
organisation, presentation BBC coverage and Neil Adams commentary it was BUT
what about the Judo itself? I recently done a survey and asked people who not
do Judo to watch some matches and give some commentary. The main ones were 1)
they could not understand the rules so found it difficult to follow 2) Judoka
were winning without scoring 3) they thought Judo was about throwing your
opponent 4) boring switched over
The one about the rules I had to agree even I had difficulty
understanding them luckily enough Neil commentary helped especially when he
said Judoka had been disqualified for touching the legs (unbelievable). Ippon
was always a powerful technique finished by your opponent landing on his back
with force, this is no longer the case. Several times I saw players pushed on
to their back and Ippon was award against them. The fighting for grips was more
like a slapping match and on many occasions when they did get their grip they
released it. Most techniques attempted were either drop seoi nage of Yoko
otoshi (side sacrificial)
To explain Judo competition the explanation was it was a
like a game of physical chess where it was all about tactics that is why a lot
of matches went the distance and was won on penalties. This may be true but it
does not catch the public’s attention.
I will not say it was good or bad what I will say Olympic
Judo is not the Sport I was competing in from the 1960’s to 1990’s and if you
do not agree look at Neil Adams in the 1980 Olympics and the great Yamashita
both on YouTube and tell me it is the same sport.
My association the IBF UK still run Judo Competitions mainly
in Sittingbourne, Faversham and Folkestone and we still use the rules of many
years ago. The audience and fighters like them as they find easy to understand
and exciting.
The modern generation of Judoka may like the rules of Judo and think it is just a competitive Sport, I still believe it is much more then this.
As for the IJF continually changing the rules just to appease a few at the top who think change is the future, they are wrong. The hey days of Judo in the UK was in the 1970's and 80's and the question must be asked WHY?
The modern generation of Judoka may like the rules of Judo and think it is just a competitive Sport, I still believe it is much more then this.
As for the IJF continually changing the rules just to appease a few at the top who think change is the future, they are wrong. The hey days of Judo in the UK was in the 1970's and 80's and the question must be asked WHY?
# posted by IBFBCSA @ 4:02 AM 
