Why is that illegal?

My colleague Steve Scott, recently wrote in his newsletter, “As an interesting sidelight to how history repeats itself, a variety of these techniques are used in various forms of submission grappling and mixed martial arts, although they continue to be illegal in judo competition.”  He was talking about various forms of shime waza or constricting techniques, not necessarily neck chokes.  Not very long ago, one of my readers commented, “Please correct me if I’m wrong; wrestling, Brazilian jiujitsu, and competitive sambo will allow all Judo throws of the Kodokan in competition.  With the IJF rules, Judo does not.  This is a disgrace.”  I couldn’t agree more.

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Letter to a Dad

One of my readers is a father of four young, dynamic Judoplayers, who have great potential as Judo competitors. His kids have been to my practices and have competed in my in-house tournaments. He has participated in a USJA Coach Education Program I’ve run. He hates the new IJF rules. Who can blame him? So now, in addition to Judo, his kids are doing jiujitsu. His latest comments to my posts have encouraged me to address issues he brings up.

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The Sissification of Judo

Let’s be honest. In an attempt to overprotect participants and redefine the aesthetics of Judo, we are witnessing as never before the sissification of Judo. We have removed and penalized so many things that we are left with a sanitized version, a shell, of what used to be one of the most comprehensive forms of grappling. For those of us in areas where Brazilian jiujitsu and mixed martial arts are popular, today’s sport Judo is not helping our cause one bit.

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