THE TUNNEL OF JUDO
By: Rick Mertens
Up until a few years ago we had a strong bond
of friendship among all Judoka.
Where is it now? Perhaps it is lost in
personal gain, or recognition, desires, or complacency, or attempts to prove we
are better than others in Judo. But, enough of that - let's get down to facts.
We are in a tunnel.
We need more dedicated instructors and a return to Judo
as a recreational enjoyable sport or art. I will try to address each of these
needs in the following paragraphs. I will try to be brief but the problems are
very complex therefore, the solutions must be equally as complex.
Where have our instructors come from in the past? Almost
every one of them entered Judo as adults and continued in it because they felt
duty bound to pass their knowledge onto others. Very few people who started as
children have remained long enough to become instructors. The solution to our
need for instructors, therefore, must be in organizing and teaching adult
classes.
At this point I suppose I should try to establish some
reasons justification for the statement I made regarding instructors. Let me
first say I highly respect and encourage those who did enter Judo as children
and have become instructors. Now, for the reasons and justification.
1. Reason:
Most juniors are taught only one aspect of Judo; competition. This tends to
limit their desire and ability to pass their knowledge onto others.
2. Reason: Years of
continuous Judo (or any other activity) can become boring and a small
percentage of participants remain longer than ten years. If a person enters
Judo before the age of ten, the normal attrition can remove the student before
the needed maturity in age to become an instructor has been reached.
Now, let's delve into what can be done to return Judo to
being enjoyable for more people. In the past we were all proud of our wide
range of knowledge in Judo. Every instructor was familiar with officiating,
scoring, first aid, self-defense, kata, the history and theory of Judo. Many of
us spent a great deal of time on the philosophy of Judo. We were willing to
listen to others opinions but we were not willing to blindly accept their views
as the final word or fact
It is my opinion we must give up our present method of
tunnel Judo. Most of us are in a one way tunnel - teach students to compete, go
to tournaments, come back and teach more about competition. We need other
activities to broaden our vision and Judo. Not many years ago we respected a
fellow Judoka for being good at instructing, coaching, kata, a particular
throw, a certain mat technique, a method of self defense, or any one of many
other aspects of Judo. Today only the competitive champion and/or the
champion's coach is respected and even that is a
limited respect.
How much longer will we continue in our narrow tunnel
before we return to the broad scope of Judo? The choice is ours; do you have
enough interest to broaden your scope? Can you spend the time and energy to
write me an answer or a comment on this article?
I would be glad to read your views on how to revitalize Judo. Perhaps you would
like to go one step further; train an instructor that will start another club.
Oh, yes, how many of you know or have even heard
"The Oath of Judo"? It forces you out of the tunnel.
The Oath of Kodokan Judo:
1. I will not discontinue the study of Judo
without sufficient reason.
2. I will never do
anything to disgrace the Kodokan's honor.
3. I will always
comply with all regulations of the Kodokan in studying and in teaching Judo.
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Why Judo is Not Popular in
By: Rick Mertens
Much study, work and worry has been spent trying to find
out why judo is not accepted by the American public as a spectator sport. In
solving this problem one must use a common sense approach. I have listed below
many of our problems and some common sense solutions along with some humorous
thoughts on each.
THE SPECTATORS DO NOT KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON: We have at
least 4 different sets of rules for judo competition and these are modified by
local tournament directors to suit the players or themselves. We must get one
uniform set of rules and make sure every tournament is run by these rules.
Imagine, if you can, two boxers meeting in the center of the ring and the
referee telling them that in this contest kicking, biting, and jumping out of
the ring is acceptable; or how about a swimming meet where the chief Judge
notifies all the swimmers that if they kick their feet, they are disqualified.
We have the IJF rules so why not use them with the few changes needed to
utilize the following ideas.
TOO MUCH TIME IS SPENT ON ARRANGING THE JUDO-GI: No other
sport makes such a big issue of neatness during competition. Imagine, the gun
has sounded, the runners are off for a 100-yard dash and suddenly someone yells
MATTE.' Everyone stops and straightens their uniform; or how about the gymnast
who is in the middle of doing a full hand stand on the horizontal bar, and (2)
suddenly comes the great cry, MATTE: Or the golfer about to try a 30 yard putt
for a par 3 and there it comes again, MATTE: straighten you're your uniform. I
have designed a new type of jacket, pants, and belt that will stop this
foolishness.
YOU CAN'T TELL THE COMPETITORS APART BECAUSE OF THEIR
UNIFORMS: We have tried using ribbons or belts to identify one or both
competitors but this is not satisfactory. We must have a satisfactory method to
clearly identify each competitor. Why not require each competitor to have a
white gi and a black gi?
Imagine; two football teams all dressed in identical uniforms. Almost every
sport has recognized the need for different colored uniforms; we in judo should
be willing to give up the purity of white for the spectator' 5 interest.
THE TYPE MAT BEING USED IS UNFAIR TO ONE OF THE
COMPETITORS: I believe we should standardize the playing surface for all judo
competition. This should include the size, shape, thickness, density and
covering. Imagine: swimming meet held in a back yard plastic pool or in oil
instead of water, or a baseball game with the bases only 20 feet apart, or a
football game on a sawdust field that is only 50 yards long.
TOO MANY BOUTS AT THE SAME TIME: Many large tournaments
have 3 or more contest areas and all of them are running at the same time. It
is nearly impossible to see the best competition because you are watching
another contest. Imagine the world Heavyweight, Middleweight, and Lightweight
boxing championships all being decided at the same time in 3 separate rings, or
all of the golfers in the US open putting for the same holes at the same time.
THERE IS ONLY ONE CHAMPION SO WHY HAVE WEIGHT CLASSES: We
carefully weigh each competitor and place him in a weight class. We carefully
keep the competitors in the 6 divisions and then when the first place of each
division is determined we let them fight and end up with one over-all champion.
Why can't we be big enough and proud enough to honor 6 separate champions? Why
must we make 5 of these individuals feel that they are second best? Let's do
away with the overall championships. Imagine; the different boxing champions
fighting each other to have one overall champion, or each of the winners of the
national swimming contest all having one race to see who is the overall
champion, or wrestling champions fighting for an overall championship. I know
that many of you feel the best Judoka will win and once in a while the little
guy wins, but generally the bigger competitor is victorious. But regardless of
the outcome, the overall championship leaves 1 champion and 5 sub-champions. An
additional problem is the heavy weight division and the open division; this is
nothing more than 2 unlimited weight classes.
NOW HOW
ABOUT JUDO AND ITS VILLIANS:
Villain Number 1: The Tournament Referee
This all-powerful master over all his subjects is beyond
dispute or correction. He can call a full ippon a waza-ari or nothing and we
cannot change or amend his call. He can be completely prejudice in his call or
decision and we cannot correct his error. He can make a completely honest or
dishonest decision and we are stuck with it. He can call a half-completed throw
a full ippon and no one can change his call. Regardless of how honest or fair
the referee may be, he can not see a technique from more than one angle or
position at a time and this often prevents him from making the correct call or
decision. The new IJF rules have helped but much more needs to be done.
Villain Number 2: The One Ippon
Win
This little villain can cause a great
national champion to lose to a very poor but lucky opponent. One competitor can
throw his opponent for a full ippon but because of a mistake on the part of the
referee, he may not get any credit or only part of the credit he should
receive; he can also throw his opponent for a waza-ari and load him up twenty
times, but if he should slip and the referee decides it is now time to say
ippon all is lost for this valiant competitor. Our present system of a single
ippon being the completion of a Judo contest often fails to determine the best
competitor. A well-qualified competitor could make one mistake and be
eliminated by a far inferior opponent. A well-qualified and unbiased referee
could make a small mistake of course1 by calling an ippon when something less
should have been awarded and the reverse of this is also true. It should be
realized that under the present officiating system, an unqualified or biased
official could create a great hardship on a competitor. The present system of a
single ippon ending a contest leaves our spectators without the excitement that
could be generated with an improved system of competing and awarding wins. If
we had a pre-set time period for each match, a coach could train his
competitors for a contest and the spectators would know how long each of their
favorite players will be on the mat.
Villain Number 3: The Corner Judge
The use of one or two corner judges is often helpful but
quite often this system is misunderstood and misused. As we all know, many
judges will vote the same way his fellow judge does. Also the judges have no
authority to make any form of call or award. Very often a judge will go to
sleep because he has so little to do.
Villain Number 4: The Five Penalty
Scoring System
The present system of scoring under the 5 penalty point
system often leaves a tournament with no finals and no chance to announce to
the spectators that the contest now going is for the first, second, or third
places. We must be able to build each tournament to a climax if we want to
For all of the above reasons and for many
others, I believe that we should implement a new judo competition system. I
hereby propose the following system for this purpose.
1. Scoring: Utilize the double elimination
system.
2. Competition: All contest or bouts will be
for a pre-set time period, i.e. 3, 4, or 5 or more minutes.
3. Referee: The referee will not award ippon
or waza-ari for throwing techniques. He will call osae-komi and shine-waza, and
kansetsu-waza. He will be responsible for the safety of the competitors. He
will stop and award the contest to the winner if one contestant wishes to
default or if in his opinion one competitor is far superior to the other, based
on the demonstrated performance during that contest. The referee will collect
judges score sheets at the end of the allotted contest time while competitors
arrange judogi and based on the judges’ scores he will declare the winner
of that contest.
4. Judges: A total of 4 judges will be used,
they will be located, one on each of the 4 sides of the contest area, (just
outside of the safety area). Each judge will record points gained or lost by
each competitor based on the following scale.
a. An effective off balancing of an opponent
1 point
b. Off balancing opponent to the point of making him put his hand or knee on
the mat 2 points
c. Loading opponent for a throw but being unsuccessful in completing the throw
3 points
d. Throwing an opponent with any degree of completion less than a waza-ari 4
points
e. Throwing an
opponent for a waza-ari 6 points
f. Throwing an
opponent for an ippon 10
g. Securing a hold-down to
the point of osai-komi being called by the referee 1 point
h. Holding opponent for:
5 seconds 2 points
10 seconds 3 points
15 seconds 4 points
20 seconds 5 points
25 seconds 6 points (wazi)
30 seconds 10 points ( ippon)
i. Being awarded an ippon for
shime waza 10 points
Points will be deducted from a competitors total for
violation of the rules.
1. Stepping out of the contest area 2 points
2. Forcing opponent out of contest
area 2 points
3. Putting
hand or fingers inside of opponents sleeve or pants leg
4. Striking opponent
without malice 4 points
5. Disarranging Judo
uniform 2 points contest
It should be realized that the referee will be fully
responsible for the safety of the contest and will have the authority to stop
the contest and award the match for unsportmanship
conduct, repeated violations or injuries.
JUDO-GI
The pants will be designed in such a way as to prevent
them from falling or being pulled off during a contest.
The jacket will have belt loops starting on the side of
the jacket and continuing to the other side around the back of the jacket. This
would prevent jacket from coming out of the belt. The belt will be made with 3
pieces or sections of Velcro locking material. This would prevent the belt from
coming untied.
I have given you my ideas, now--how about your ideas? Why
not try this system, and then give me your opinion.
Rick Mertens
USJA Executive Secretary
The late Rick Mertens was
Executive Director of the Armed Forces Judo Association (AFJA) and the United
Stated Judo Association (USJA) for many years. Rick published many articles in
the AFJA and USJA magazines and "The Coach" that was sent to Judo
instructors regularly from the late 1960's until 1978. Rick passed away on March 1, 1999.