Over two billion people worldwide are now watching the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa. That includes me. You’re probably wondering what that has to do with a Judo blog. Well, there are things that the soccer world can teach the Judo world. If we are perceptible enough, soccer also serves as an example of what Judo should not be.
Most judoplayers don’t know it yet, but the International Judo Federation (IJF) issued new judogi guidelines at the end of 2009. For now, these guidelines directly affect only players who participate in the premier international events, i.e. Grand Slams, World Cups, World Championships, and Olympics. Sooner or later, these guidelines may affect all players. This is both good and bad depending on how you look at the issue.
Last month, many of us received this announcement from USA Judo. “As you may have already heard, the International Judo Federation, due to the respect United States has earned in developing and promoting Judo has been awarded the hosting of one of the IJF World Cup which is an Olympic Qualifier for the 2012 London Olympic Games.” I nearly choked on my raspberry-filled doughnut when I read that. The only thing the IJF respects is how much money it can make off national Judo federations, and how many of their votes can be bought off though minor gifts like hosting one of a plethora of World Cup events.
As I read the summaries of the recently held Sao Paulo World Cup and Brazil Grand Slam, I was taken aback, even though I shouldn’t be, by the relatively high number of matches during which only negative scores (penalties) were awarded, and positive scores were nowhere to be found. I think one match that ends with three penalties against two is already one too many. Unfortunately, there were other matches that wound up with the victor winning the battle of the penalties either 3-2 or 3-1 or 2-1. How exciting do you think those matches were? My daughter, Natalie, who competed at both events, said that there was a plethora of penalties, and she was bored out of her gourd watching the matches. Sounds about right.
Two days ago, I hosted my first in-house tournament of the year. Before the event started, I made my usual announcements regarding its format. When I said that we would be using the old rules, the spectators applauded, giving credence to my opinion that not many people appreciate the new rules, which penalize players even more than before. We often market Judo as the second most popular sport in the world, but maybe we should be known as the most penalized sport in the world.
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.