If you haven’t yet read IJF President Marius Vizer’s latest interview, which appears on the EJU web site, you should. It’s pretty obvious that he intends to take Judo into the ranks of the elite, professional sports in which only the countries that are Judo powers, and moneyed athletes can afford to participate. I’m not sure how this is going to play out in the long run, but if tennis is any indication- and Vizer’s camp has alluded to the fact that Judo should emulate tennis- fewer countries and fewer athletes stand a chance of competing fairly in the big leagues.
Vizer’s focus is on creating more Grand Slam and World Cup events, and increasing prize money. That only means lots of running around for the athletes and more expenses to get to these events just to chase Olympic qualifying points, and perhaps earn some prize money.
Three near-successive world championships (2013 and 2015 WC, and the 2012 Team WC) will be held in Brazil for some reason. This reminds me of all the U.S. events that are held in Florida. USA Judo does this because it can apparently generate more money for its coffers. The other reason is that not too many groups want to work with USA Judo: too many hoops to jump through to pad our executives’ pockets. Of course, USA Judo can’t be bothered with the fact that repetitive events in one area penalize players from other areas, in this case players from the West Coast. It costs those players more money, and more time traveling. The three events in Brazil will cost a fortune just to get to, but what the heck. At least the IJF will reap the benefits. And how convenient for the Brazilian players!
Vizer thinks that all our problem in the U.S. can be mitigated if we simply had just one Judo organization. I guess the East European doesn’t understand the benefit of competition. The only reason USA Judo has survived is because it’s the national governing body for the sport. Remove that label, and it dies quite quickly. Unfortunately, as incompetent as USA Judo is, the other two organizations don’t fare much better. Vizer’s call for professionalism, financial support, and sponsors is spot on. Good luck with achieving those anytime soon.
It’s interesting that Vizer doesn’t latch onto the fact that Judo is in trouble in the U.S. because other grappling arts now offer more substantive fighting skills than does Judo. Vizer’s march to eviscerate Judo to make it look prettier is one of the main reasons Judo is losing ground to other grappling arts in the U.S. USA Judo should have mentioned that to him, but that requires that USA Judo recognize that as an issue. Since I haven’t heard one negative peep from USA Judo regarding the rule changes, my guess it that the organization is oblivious to the obvious. Judo is becoming a sport for pansies.
Vizer denounces the influences of wrestling and sambo, and claims that the technical changes- i.e. banning a bunch of throws- has brought us back to the spirit of Judo. What spirit is he talking about? I was under the impression that Kano created Judo by keeping the good and discarding the bad from a collection of jujitsu techniques, and yes, Western wrestling. Every Kodokan syllabus was reworked and improved over the years. Judo techniques have evolved thanks to the creativity of our competitors who seek new ways to perform more effectively while circumventing the ever-changing rules of competition. Isn’t that what martial art skills should be? That’s the spirit I know.
There is a way to encourage beautiful, high amplitude Judo, while not banning a bunch of “ugly” sambo and wrestling techniques. Change the values given to throws.
What Vizer’s push to make Judo a professional, elite sport will do to grassroots Judo is anyone’s guess at this point, although you can already see the writing on the walls here in the U.S. Why is so much effort being directed to the Judo that only a small fraction of the world Judo population participates in? I’m not against creating a path for athletes to earn money, but I am against this push being the main focus and forced top-down. Shouldn’t there be more effort in increasing the numbers of grassroots players, clubs, and coaches?
While the IJF has given national organizations free rein to act independently, the reality is that almost all of them will get sucked into the IJF’s latest “scheme du jour” and “rule du jour.” In the U.S., this is a golden opportunity for USJA and USJF to have the balls to say enough is enough, declare that the insanity must stop, and watch their membership rolls grow. One thing is sure. The IJF is no friend of grassroots development, and is dragging Judo down.