Back in May 2011, I wrote The Case Against Terminal Ippon. Although the idea didn’t gain much traction back then, it’s a good time to revisit this concept with all the talk going on currently about developmental rules and long-term athlete development (LTAD).
Just when you think the IJF rules can’t corrupt Judo anymore, in rides Neil Adams with more insanity from the IJF. Neil has bought into the notion that Judo needs to remain an Olympic sport, and that in order to do that, Judo must be made purely an offensive minded sport with big throws. Sorry, Neil, that’s a load of crap. What the IJF is proposing makes a mockery out of what used to be Judo. At my club, we will continue to have none of this nonsense.
With the latest scourge coming from the IJF, discussions are heating up, and more and more disgruntled coaches and players are ready to go in different directions. Some are leaving Judo outright, because they are unable to comprehend that options short of quitting Judo are available. Some are saying that they are not leaving Judo, but that Judo has left them. Fair enough. Thankfully, many more are discovering Freestyle Judo and realizing that FSJ offers a return to the way Judo ought to be played, and that the Judo community doesn’t revolve around the IJF.
I admit it. I’ve been missing in action for more than I wanted to be. Several of my readers have reminded me that I haven’t posted anything in over a month. Time flies when you are busy. I’ll have a lot to discuss in the coming weeks. In December, I spent 12 days in Japan watching the Tokyo Grand Slam and teaching here and there. I recently received The Second Life of Judo, a new book by Alan Rafkind, who’s one of my fans. I’ll have more to say about that soon. And then, when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, there’s the IJF with its latest version of how to make Judo even more irrelevant.
A few weeks ago, Steve Scott emailed me wanting to get my opinion on whether the AAU should have a third set of competition rules to attract more grapplers who may not dig our stand-up game and the fact that in Judo it’s one good throw and you lose the match. After much discussion, we came to the conclusion that Freestyle Judo rules were all that we needed for mainstream competition. The only thing left to do is tell more people about Freestyle Judo.
For those of you who have been turned off from competing under the restrictive IJF rules, the National AAU Freestyle Judo Championships, which take place on March 23-24, 2012 in Kearney, Missouri, offers you a great opportunity to compete under more sensible rules that allow the full complement of Judo skills.