This is my final report on the 2010 World Championships. I was fortunate to speak with many foreign coaches, officials, and athletes in the stands. They provided me a non-American perspective on our sport, which not surprisingly mirrors how I feel about Judo’s new direction.

Most of the Europeans I talked with are not in favor of the new rules. The paradox is that it appears that an EJU clique of “reformers,” consisting of Marius Vizer, Vladimir Barta, and Juan Carlos Barcos, has hijacked the IJF, and is most responsible for the remaking of Judo along the lines of professional tennis.

Why tennis? I have no idea, but tennis has been invoked by more than one person on different continents, so this appears to be the model the IJF is pursuing. Note that the single elimination model we are now using for major events comes from professional tennis.

Single elimination is still for the birds, no matter how or why you try to justify it. Judo matches are too short, officiating remains problematic, rules are too complex and silly, and what the IJF has done to ippon is too criminal to warrant a single elimination system that deprives the spectators of good players early on. Some IJF officials think that nobody wants to see losers. Wrong! Win or lose, we want to see skillful players with fighting spirit. If they win, so much the better.

Judo spectators are no different than spectators in other sports. Two of the most popular, crowd-pleasing wrestlers (rikishi) in the sport of Sumo are what the IJF would call losers. In the 1990s, Mainoumi at 5’7” and 220 lb, which is extremely small for a rikishi, was a crowd favorite, because he was always the David against Goliath. Although he had a losing record over his career, he won five trophies for “Best Technique.” Currently, Takamisakari is a crowd favorite in spite of his “just barely” winning record. What he brings to Sumo is passion, emotion, and a terrific warm-up sequence that wakes the crowd up from its slumber. Like Judo, Sumo has its five to ten seconds of excitement, interspersed with far to many minutes of boredom.  He has won two “Fighting Spirit” awards and two “Best Technique” awards over his ten-year career. Win or lose, spectators enjoy watching Takamisakari.

I had several good chats with Densign White, Chairman of Board of Directors of the British Judo Association (BJA). I nearly fell off my chair when he mentioned that the BJA budget for the quadrennial was £7M or $11M! That’s eleven million dollars. Just imagine how many trips our USA Judo executives could make with that kind of money. USA Judo might even be able to find a way to send a few athletes to international events on fully-funded trips instead of the self-funded ones most get to go on now. On the other hand, USA Judo could further bloat our already bloated national office. That’s scary.

White indicated that the BJA is not implementing the new rules! The BJA has rules for under-10, under-12, etc. He also confirmed my suspicions that the IJF is lying about the pressure it is receiving from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to purify Judo techniques and reform the sport. The IOC doesn’t interfere in the affairs of international sports federations. All reforms under way are driven by that small, rogue clique within the IJF.

Tribute to Anton Geesink and Francois Besson on the big screen at Yoyogi Arena. RIP

Finally, the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2010 World Championships in Tokyo were worthy of being recorded and made available on DVD for purchase. There was a tribute to 1964 Olympic champion, Anton Geesink, and IJF Sports Director, Francois Besson, both of whom died this year. A group of over 100 musicians playing the traditional three-stringed shamizen entertained us, as did Takeshi Tsuruno, a musician who composed his song Medalist especially for the World Championships. Medalist was played throughout the tournament. Thankfully, it was a good song for the occasion.

Rocker Tsuruno singing "Medalist". A section of the shamizen musicians.

During a Kids Judo session, streams of kids descended upon the mat and were addressed by former World and Olympic champion Kosei Inoue. After a short speech, Inoue left to tend to his official duties as coach for Team Japan. Three-time Olympic gold medalist Tadahiro Nomura took over and overloaded the kids with information. Kids then practiced for a few minutes, then Nomura randoried with one of the smallest boys. He gave as good as he took from the Olympic champion. Lastly the flag exchange between representatives of Tokyo and Paris ended the event.

Inoue and Nomura during Kids Judo presentation.

The background music during the event and particularly during the medal ceremonies was very good; so good in fact that I had to find out the names of the songs, so that I could get copies of them on i-Tunes or YouTube. I tracked down the TV Production Division Director for FujiSankei, the TV group that was responsible for the show. Within a few short minutes, it was apparent that nobody in the IJF or Fujisankei had ever thought to produce a DVD or CD. He informed me that the songs I liked were all original material composed expressively for the World Championships, and that he would have to deal with copyrights. He gave me his card and encouraged me to write to him when I get back. It’s on my list of things to do. Honestly, how hard can it be to put a few songs on i-Tunes? And why doesn’t Fighting Films include some of the material in its DVDs?

It’s been weeks since the 2010 Worlds ended, and I’m still feeling separation anxiety. It’s hard to come back from a World Championships in Japan to the reality of Judo as it is in the U.S. Next year’s championships will be in Paris, where my own Judo career started back in 1964. I’ve been trying to find my French Judo coach, Jacques Bardel, to tell him that his efforts with the small American kid were not an exercise in futility. He’s 85 now, so I’m running out of time to find him and thank him.

Classical shamizen musicians. While they played, a calligrapher painted the Chinese characters for Judo with a huge brush.