Official Judo Thread

Yesterday Aaron Wolf won the gold medal in the -100 kg division. He is Japanese but his father is American. He won everything in judo (All Japan Championship -100 kg, All Japan openweight Championship, several IJF international championships, the Asian Championship, World Championship and now Olympic gold medal).
 
Emanuele said:
Yesterday Aaron Wolf won the gold medal in the -100 kg division. He is Japanese but his father is American. He won everything in judo (All Japan Championship -100 kg, All Japan openweight Championship, several IJF international championships, the Asian Championship, World Championship and now Olympic gold medal).
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I believe his father was a German descendant, but it might be that he holds dual citizenship, not sure.

Wolf also trains Sambo with one of my old teammates, Ando Yoshimoto.

As a matter of fact, the level of cross-training in the current Japanese Olympic Judo Team is unbelievably high.

A friend of mine, Daniel Dichev (BUL) who was up and coming Sambo/ Judo player from Bulgaria, winning junior Sambo Worlds in 2009, was recruited to train in Japan, with the best of their HWs (he still does).
As a result, Japanese HW players got familiar with Eastern European style and ways to overcome it, while he was made to play more "Japanese" and as a result, his results deteriorated, while theirs got better :)
 
It's been awhile since I've watched Judo but I saw some of the matches last night.

Is it just me or is turtling more prominent than it used to be? In particular when Riner was up by wazari vs. the dude from Israel (I think was Paltchik), he just stalled through the rest of the match flopping onto his stomach whenever his opponent attempted anything. I feel like Riner should have gotten at least a few shidos for passivity.
 
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ChickenBrother said:
I've been awhile since I've watched Judo but I saw some of the matches last night.

Is it just me or is turtling more prominent than it used to be? In particular when Riner was up by wazari vs. the dude from Israel (I think was Paltchik), he just stalled through the rest of the match flopping onto his stomach whenever his opponent attempted anything. I feel like Riner should have gotten at least a few shidos for passivity.
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I don't think turtling has increased since I started watching/training judo (2008), but fortunately, the time given to punish it has.

As for Riner, as long as he was putting in attacks, then he cannot be punished for passivity. You can be punished for flopping down, just not for passivity rules.

I've not seen the match (or any matches this Olympics) so I can't whether Riner deserved the more shidos, regardless of what for.

I should point out that gaming the rules is something we see quite often from the French judo team. I recall being very frustrated with Riner's Olympic performance (not sure if it was '12 or '16). On the IJF circuit, he'd been smashing everyone but on the biggest stage, he was content to grip-fuck people into getting DQ'd for passivity. Autome Pavia used to use the edge of the contest area rules to make sure that her opponents wouldn't be allowed to get in a counterattack.
 
However Riner should have won against the Russian. I've watched the video several times, it was a push, not a technique.
 
Emanuele said:
Normally there is shido for pushing.
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Without grips yeah. Dude clearly had grips and the attack followed the previous attempt. The IJF panel reviewed the attempt from multiple vantages before awarding the score.

It's been great seeing all the French people whine about it though.
 
RJ Green said:
As a ref, I think we need to head in a direction that takes the trajectory of the matches out of our hands and back into the players'. We've done a good job in recent years giving people more time in newaza, but there's still far too much time in every match where players just stop and stare at the referee.

I absolutely want leg grabs back, but not just for the throws. Where Judo is really awkward from both a grappler and spectator point of view is the lack of scrambling. There's this sentiment that somehow scrambling situations would be *dangerous*, but I don't give much credence to arbitrary dangers in a sport where the objective is throwing someone ass-over-head on their back as hard as possible.

I'd seriously considered getting my national ref certification, but I just don't find Judo competitions that enjoyable anymore. The techniques and the practices? Absolutely. Lifelong obsession. But the current competitive meta? Meh. I think it's doing a disservice to some spectacular athletes, and I think it's hindering the development of an entire generation.
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Do you think they'll ever bring back the leg grabs?
 
Hotora86 said:
Do you think they'll ever bring back the leg grabs?
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Most of the folks making those decisions seem pretty pleased with themselves. It's frustrating since they want to broaden the appeal but also keep it a niche sport. I can't imagine anyone being happy with the way the recent Olympics was played, but if I've learned anything about the IJF it's that they're great at finding new ways to disappoint people.
 
RJ Green said:
Most of the folks making those decisions seem pretty pleased with themselves. It's frustrating since they want to broaden the appeal but also keep it a niche sport. I can't imagine anyone being happy with the way the recent Olympics was played, but if I've learned anything about the IJF it's that they're great at finding new ways to disappoint people.
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As a Karate guy I was often frustrated with the sheer amount of styles and orgs in every style, making world tournaments meaningless since they could only encompass a tiny % of all Karateka. I've always pointed to Judo's IJF as "the proper way to do this" but it seems this has been a double edged sword for you guys with the IJF making unpopular decisions which impact everyone globally. Being a ref, do you feel like the pros of one global org outweigh the cons or not?
 
as a global sport there's absolutely utility in having a global organization, global rankings, global rulesets. my biggest gripe with IJF is the constant and significant changes to the ruleset which drastically affect how the sport is played. they're transparent in many areas, opaque in others.

regarding the US specifically...usa judo seems to have a few cultural problems. our most successful olympians generally have less-than-pleasant things to say about the organization. i've known quite a few folks who have made long (and unpaid) trips to national events for national referee certifications that had such poor experiences they abandoned their ambitions to do so altogether. i can't have much of an opinion without better data, but anecdotally it seems that the referee population is both aging and shrinking, and isn't doing much to endear folks to take their place.

i was fortunate enough to come up in one of the larger schools in the population center of an especially small state. i felt compelled to help continue providing successive generations the same opportunities i've had. unfortunately, participation in my home state has taken a pretty significant dive in the past 5 years, and most of us in a position to step into a more proactive role decided to move elsewhere.
 
Some great Facebook comments I've read on Travis Stevens' videos today:
-What happens if he wants to keep fighting on the ground?
-That wouldn't work on a good wrestler.
-Try that with a boxer punching you.
-So your opponent has to be wearing a full business suit for this to work?
*All with their spelling mistakes fixed

The logic of people who are untrained, or more likely think they are trained, never ceases to amaze me.
 
Bluesbreaker said:
Some great Facebook comments I've read on Travis Stevens' videos today:
-What happens if he wants to keep fighting on the ground?
-That wouldn't work on a good wrestler.
-Try that with a boxer punching you.
-So your opponent has to be wearing a full business suit for this to work?
*All with their spelling mistakes fixed

The logic of people who are untrained, or more likely think they are trained, never ceases to amaze me.
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Were they replying to judo specific videos or were the videos MMA focused? I'm always amazed by the depths trolls will go to. You'd think they'd have better things to do then find judo videos to make nonsensical complaints about.
 
TheFakeMacoy said:
Were they replying to judo specific videos or were the videos MMA focused? I'm always amazed by the depths trolls will go to. You'd think they'd have better things to do then find judo videos to make nonsensical complaints about.
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They were all judo specific videos. I assume these troglodytes just came upon them by chance and didn't understand them.
 
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