The International Judo Federation Refereeing Commission announced one change in the rules of judo during the IJF Ordinary Congress in Rotterdam (NED), on August 23rd, 2009.
All techniques below the belt line will not be allowed anymore.
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Any athlete trying to grip the opponent´s leg will be punished with a shido (first time). If another try happens, he will be banned from the combat (hansokumake) and the victory will be given to the opponent. Only techniques using leg against leg will be allowed, or if the hand grip in the leg is the continuation of another technique tried (example: ouchigari which can develop into kataguruma).
“We don´t want our sport to be mixed with other martial arts. Judo is judo, and all IJF wants is to come back to the true judo”, explains the Head of the Refereeing Commission, Mr. Juan Carlos Barcos. “We may lose a few techniques with this decision, but on the other hand we will be awaking some techniques who we don´t see any more in the combats due to the sitting position the athletes take while they try to grab the opponents leg”, adds Mr. Barcos.
The IJF concern is that more and more often, wrestling and sambo techniques are seen during judo combats.
“That is not good for the future of our sport in the Olympic Games”, says Mr. Barcos.
From http://www.intjudo.eu/?Menu=News&Action=Full&type_id=1&id=284&lang_id=2&mid=4
We're living in the digital age, when communication so easy and information is so widely available that it's impossible not to get in touch with other cultures.
That is the case even for martial arts which are getting in touch with each other: in competition (thanks to mixed martial arts competitions) and also via techniques websites or martial arts forums. Contemporary martial arts have to deal with the problem of coming in touch with (and getting compared to) other styles and schools, and finding a way to co-exist pacifically.
Unfortunately, now martial arts are in many cases surviving as cultural fortress where every other martial art is depicted as something suspicious, or even dangerous. This is a very old problem which has arisen every time different cultures and people came in contact: after all, fear of the unknown and fear of the different are a part of us.
Cultures and people blending has historically worked after all, and by now we should have realized that so many atrocities have come out of xenophobia that our ancestral fears have to be fought and overcome.
Of course we have plenty of examples where and idea has been rejected, fought fiercely, and then accepted as self evident; and in most cases so many people had to die in order to keep that idea alive. Those “different” ideas were not fought so fiercely because they were probably wrong, but because they might be right, and in that way they were undermining some already well-established institutions. But time and death eventually bring change, and whatever does not adapt to change eventually disappears.
Martial arts are no exception. Martial arts could be regarded as languages, who live ad evolve with their speakers, get contaminated by foreign influences, have grammar books, have dialects. Why freezing it, teaching it the same way it since its beginning?
It should be kept in mind the reason why martial arts exist: they all have come from the human need to fight, and to do it efficiently. Fighting was a central aspect of society and men's life among many cultures, and fighting skills were highly regarded, and often warriors' social class was among the highest. There was a need to regulate such a dangerous power, and a common solution was to tie martial skills to a code of honor. Martial skills elevated themselves as a training attitude, a code of ethics, and eventually a way of life; becoming martial arts.
Judo, in Kano's point of view, had to unite all that. Ancient Jujustsu was dying at the time, and Kano realized how great would have been such a loss in he martial arts community. Kano was also aware that technique choice was crucial, as Judo would have had to prove itself by winning and thus convincing it was a viable discipline, and so he careful selected the techniques he deemed most useful and effective from all the schools of Jujutsu he knew. He also realized that, by eliminating some dangerous techniques, he could let his students spar full force with little risk, giving them a training which was authentic, alive.
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Around 1880 Kano started rethinking the jujitsu techniques he had learned. He saw that by combining the best techniques of various schools into one system he could create a physical education program that would embody mental and physical skill. In addition, he believed that the techniques could be practiced as a competitive sport if the more dangerous techniques were omitted. So in 1882, having pulled from ancient jujitsu the best of its throws and grappling techniques, added some of his own, and removed such dangerous techniques as foot and hand strikes. Kano at the age of 22, presented his new sport—Judo.
From http://judoinfo.com/jhist4.htm
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The world is changing and Ju Jutsu has to change too. I don’t think it’s practical to limit ourselves to one particular style. [...] It would be better to experiment with a whole range of techniques and select the ones you want to use, changing them if necessary. I’d like to take the best techniques from the Yoshin style and the best techniques from a lot of other styles and combine them all to create the ultimate form of Ju Jutsu. [...] To do that, we can’t rely on just one particular style – we need a combination of the best techniques from all the major schools of Ju Jutsu.
From http://judoinfo.com/jhist2.htm
But respect had to be maintained for safety reasons, even though sparring sessions were fought with full force. Kano also wanted to strengthen his students' spirit by keeping humility and perseverance as a part of his martial art.
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There is the "sport" Kano wanted to create. He knew you couldn't allow strikes in Randori/Shiai as people would get seriously injured. But there was more to it than that. Kano knew by then that so called "deadly" techniques (for an unarmed fighter) were mostly myth and impossible to master the way "sporting" techniques could be. How can you master an eye gouge? Look how well you can master the throw into the arm lock. This was Kano's point.
From http://members.lycos.co.uk/fight/judo/judo.html
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Also, Kano wanted to keep the "life and death" aspect of the old Samurai tradition in the matches. The problem is, killing students tends to decrease the student body. So the "death" became a symbolic one, submission! The ONLY way you could win a match in Kano's Judo was to tap out or get knocked out by a throw. Both of these areas held real Budo lessons that Kano wanted taught. "9 times thrown, 10 times rise," taught that you must keep getting up when life knocks you down. The submission aspect was the "death", by tapping I agreed you "killed" me. This was still a death to the ego (and the reason so many people have a problem with submission fighting); and Kano felt learning how to deal with, and overcome this death would build strong character; and better people.
From http://members.lycos.co.uk/fight/judo/judo.html
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Now; Much has been said over the years that Kano wanted to create a safe "sport" rather than a combat art. This is simply not so and ignores dozens of written works by Kano that refute it. What he wanted was a "sporting" attitude in Judo. That is not the same thing. Example, I am rolling with a player and he gets the choke, I tap, he lets go. That is sporting. I tap, he doesn't let go, that is not sporting. If he cranks on a joint lock and I have no chance to submit, THAT is not sporting.
From http://members.lycos.co.uk/fight/judo/judo.html
Judo proved itself effective, grew in popularity, and spread all throughout Japan. But Judo was slipping out of Kano' s control, as “Kosen Judo” was getting more popular due to competition success.
Kano didn't like Kosen Judo way of training and techniques selection, and tried to force his point of view. This led to a split in Judo, as Kosen Judo maintained his way while the majority of practitioners still trained Kodokan Judo.
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From 1912 to 1926, Kyoto University Judo Club played an important role in Japanese Judo and gave lots of influence to it. In 1914 the Judo Competition of Higher schools and Colleges (Kosen Taikai) was commenced in Kyoto under the sponsorship of Kyoto University Judo Club at Butokuten (the name of the place where the competition was held). Year by year this Kosen competition grew bigger and bigger and had many participants all over Japan. In the Kosen competition, we did not have any restriction on practicing "Newaza" (ground work), so that we could fight under the rule of admitting "Hikikomi". Owing to this rule Newaza prevailed all over Japan. Of course, we had to have an antagonism to Kodokan, because Kodokan considered it very important to practice with Tachiwaza (standing technique). But judo competitors who had made efforts to fight with standing technique were defeated by students of higher school and colleges (Kosen) and even by those of middle schools who were skilled at "Newaza". In 1925, the president of Kodokan, Mr. Kano Jigoro who created Kodokan Judo, visited Kyoto University Judo Club again and required to obey new Kodokan rule where Newaza was not regarded as important (70% standing technique, 30% ground work). The members of Kyoto University Judo Club and Kano groups discussed for two days. But they had come to no understanding with each other. As a result, Kosen Competition were continued till 1940 without changing its own rule, which was called Kosen rule.
From http://www.kusu.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~judo/history-e.htm#Taisho%20Era
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Eventually, in 1925, Jigoro Kano decided to re-vamp the rules of competition judo. One of those changes was to limit the time that competitors could spend grappling on the ground. This effectively stopped the trend that was going on in judo; however, the Kosen Schools were allowed to continue their matches and train the way they had been since the turn of the century. Kosen judo followed its own course, and continues under the old rules even to this day in the Seven Universities Tournament. Kano was careful not to obliterate Kosen judo when he introduced the new rules. He did this for several reasons:
-There were relatively few judoka doing newaza-only.
-He wanted newaza specialists in judo.
-He could not convince himself that doing only newaza was in itself bad.
-Kosen judoka also did tachiwaza despite their emphasis in newaza.
-He thought newaza was so efficient and easy to learn that the emphasis should be in tachiwaza, so there would be harmony in the quality between these two knowledges.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosen_judo#Kodokan
But the problem was not solved, as many Kosen athletes were still dominating (and in Kano's eyes, spoiling) Judo competitions. Kano then decided to send the most successful Kosen masters abroad, in an effort to put and end to that problem.
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This Kosen Rule continued into the 1940's, stating Shiai had to be 70% standing and 30% ground fighting. This led to an early split in the Kodokan Judo movement. Many of those Judoka whom Kano had set to master newaza, had spent time inventing new series of movements, escapes, and submissions. They and their students were now dominating even the Kodokan contests. There was so much negativity with this, that Kano sent many of them abroad to teach Judo elsewhere. He was very aware that they would not be easily defeated no matter where they went, and he also smartly removed the challenge they presented in Japan. Some of the known Kosen Judoka were Yamashita, Hirata, Tomita, Yokoyama and Maeda.
From http://www.kobukaijujitsu.com/sensei6.html
One of them, namely Mitsuyo Maeda, travelled to south america, and gave birth to what is now called “Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu”, one of the major martial arts in the MMA circuit today. Whenever there's a good and solid idea, it's just a matter of time, it will spread. After all, nowadays we all know that the sun is center of the solar system.
We, as world martial arts community, should nowadays be able to understand the importance of pursuing tolerance, mutual respect, as we are all working together to achieve the same goals. We should also value other martial arts' heritage and work as a valuable contribution to what is fighting, in its every aspect.
We should thus admire and praise those people who dare to break those walls who divide us. It is because of that people that today, finally, the Berlin wall is down. We should then welcome all athletes who are so humble to bow down and compete with rules they are not accustomed to, fighting other athletes using styles they are not accustomed to: they are actively contributing to keep our martial arts alive.
It is a shame that IJF is ostracizing Wrestling and Sambo practitioners, and it is even a bigger shame that it' s happening today, after all the historical evidence we have. It's so easy to hide behind simple statements like “That is not good for the future of our sport in the Olympic Games”.
Last time it was Kosen Judo's ground fighting turn to be excluded from competition. Now it's arms-against-legs techniques' turn.
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