A New Rule Rumor and My Suggestions! 

Best way to bring back leg grabs: only allow one hand below the belt. That would keep the upright posture, and keep most of the great throws like Kata Guruma, Te Guruma, and Hand Assisted Sode. It's clear, unambiguous, and leaves no room for interpretation.

It is so simple: Do not stop newaza so super early. Fake attacks give up position, let them be punished by getting pinned or choked. No need for complicated rules. 30 seconds may be excessive but yes - as long as they work, do not stop it after 0.001s.

My suggestions: - Leg grabs - maybe allowed in Golden score or last 2 minutes of the match - referee signals leg grabs are on - Gripping - Remove Shidos from gripping - give shidos if they are constantly breaking grips for passivity - Scoring - Bring back yukos - these will be for throws where judokas twist and roll mid air and land on their front, they have to go past 150 degrees though ( lets face it , on the streets and you threw someone and they landed on their front it would hurt more than the back probably) - Ne-waza - A seperate 20 sec clock starts when they both hit the floor and they have 20sec to initiate.

Judokas are fighting to not lose rather than fighting to win

1. If I remember correctly, Neil Adams mentioned at some event that they are going to be bit more consistent with 90 degree landing, because right now they are scoring some landings more towards front, even though it quite clearly says 90 degrees in the rules. 2. To me by far the biggest problem right now is that negative judo of dropping down with minimal rotation just to get the opponent penalized gets rewarded, they need to be way more stringent with false attack calls. You need time to set up the attack if you actually intend to throw, instead of spamming as you grip/get pressured, so intention is quite clear in those situations, it's very negative to me. Watch Deguchi vs Huh at Worlds or at this Olympics for perfect illustration. Especially as soon as someone has two shidos, opponent just tries dropping for the 3rd one. 3. I'd say 2nd biggest problem, even though it's been less prevalent, is head diving. Either only give shido for it, or separate dangerous ones (like Uchi-Mata with 90 degrees in the air, full force coming down to the neck) vs benign lower entries with less pressure on the neck. 4. Breaking off grips are bit obscure at times, maybe only penalize when it's very clear break & separation from judoka. 5. If you give 30 seconds in ne-waza when there is no clear advancement, it's going to be biggest stalling tool after a score. 6. Mat referees being overruled is a good thing to me, not only because of the access to the replay angles, but also the fact that 1 referee is more likely to make wrong judgement call (for example passivity shidos), then multiple ones. If the situation is more debatable, they tend to not get involved and give mat referee authority, they only overrule clear mistakes.

That Korean girl’s false attacks against Deguchi were outrageous, I’m just glad the referee in that match called her out on what she was doing. He should have warned her earlier in the match though, then maybe she’d have fought properly and given us a better match to watch. False attacks to keep your opponent from acting or just to pretend you’re not being passive have to go.

Concerning head diving injuries: I still remember Gella Vandecaveye's broken neck in 1998. Attempted to counter an o soto gari and went head first into the mat - could easily have been worse. I don't like the current rule either, but a broken neck is nothing to scoff at.

Judo isn’t a game of inches like baseball or tennis. This is a FIGHT: a little kid should be able to tell who wins, without significant knowledge of the rules. The fact we need a group of refs in suits huddled around a computer to determine if a competitor breaks some new rule shows we’ve missed the point. That said, to me, here are the easiest ways to move the sport in that direction - to me, the ultimate goal should be to minimize ref discretion and let the fight decide itself: 1) button-up ippons and wazaris. I see too many soft throws and iffy back contact receiving scores. I also see a lot of scores given just because the attack was an uchi-mata and there was airtime, even if there was no back contact. Scores should be clear and indisputable. If that makes them rarer, so be it. I’m not sold on the fact that more scoring = more tv viewership. There is not much scoring in a 90-min soccer match and it’s the most popular sport in the world… 2) head diving: this one was ridiculous to begin with. These are professional athletes with strong necks who train these techniques. However, if we want to penalize it, give it a shido. 3) grip breaking: let them grip fight. Doesn’t need to be an immediate regrip. To me, it’s redundant to penalize grip breaks if you have stalling penalties as well. 4) false attack: this is controversial, but if there is sufficient ne-waza time, I don’t think false attack needs to be penalized at all. The person who did it has put themselves in a super crappy position as long as there is an opportunity for the person still standing to follow up on it. Maybe in the final 30 seconds-only does this need to be penalized. 5) ne-waza time: before the final 30s of a match, guarantee a minimum amount of time for a person to set up an attack on the ground, and don’t stop progress if it’s happening. 6) golden score period: I actually prefer ref decision over a match being decided by shidos in overtime. So maybe the OT period can be limited to 4 minutes to reduce the amount of matches decided by penalty, and then if no one has scored by then, ref decision.

I pretty much agree with everything said here. I would say that I think a lot of this stems from an over-bureaucratization of Judo, however. I recall a recent Shintaro Higashi (who I actually like a lot) video where he was very smitten with all the referee protocols and conferences. I personally had the opposite impression. My sense is that when you're doing stuff like that, it rapidly shifts a lot of Judo towards the ref's. Beyond that, I think the IJF does an absolutely horrific job courting regular viewership. It feels as if many rules exist for their own sake and zero audience or Judoka input has been considered. It feels as if its just refs discussing with other refs. From that Shintaro video, he quoted Neil Adams as saying "real champions won't complain about rule changes, they'll adapt," and with as much respect as I have for Adams, I found that pretty arrogant and out of touch. It seems a majority of people have been clamoring for leg grabs--even if their reintroduction is in a compromised form--for *years* . The response of the IJF has more or less boiled down to "well, we know better than you." There is some truth to that; I'm sure all the refs are professionals. But you also cannot claim to be presiding over an audience-friendly ruleset that incentivizes positive Judo while also just completely ignoring the discourse around what people (average viewer and professional Judoka alike) would like to see. My genuine sense is that the rules are being developed in too much of a bubble, divorced from the groups those rules principally serve. It isn't a great look. The IJF needs to talk to Judoka on the circuit, they need to take audience surveys, they need to make all that data accessible to the layman, and then implement things based on this feedback. I'd be also quite happy to accept that the IJF and the refs know better than me if they *produced the data informing their decisions* . Where is the internal document on head-diving injuries, for example? What harm is there in letting us all see that? Why not just film ever single ref conference and post it? Sports nerds like us love statistics and minutia like this, it will ony *increase* engagement. But who am I, I guess. Hopefully the next cycle is healthier.

2010-2012 leg grab rules were great, just switch hansokumake with shido

I need to see a rule change or penalty for '"stopping/stalling/false attack" when tachi-waza changes to ne-waza, to allow the ne-waza natural flow rather than immediate mate.

Good video. I honestly really enjoyed the matches this Olympics, and I think the rules are headed in the right direction overall. But there's more tweaking to be done, and now is the time to discuss. I don't like the idea of a score for being thrown on the front. Judo is about throwing people onto their back. Throwing someone onto their back is extremely hard to do; many matches go to golden score 0-0 under the current ruleset. I'm afraid that if we allow scoring on the front of the body, proper scores will become extremely rare as people look to win by "yuko" volume instead. Under the current ruleset, roughly 15-20% of matches end by hansokumake, which means 80-85% end by a proper score, most of which come from throws. If that percentage drops to 50%, 40%, 30%, is that acceptable? If we still see great throws early on in bracket (where mismatches in skill are more common), but high level matches are always decided by "yuko," is that acceptable? I think the identity of judo would change a lot from such a rule. I've been going back and forth on the idea of referee challenges. Earlier this tournament, I was calling for them, especially after what happened to Nagayama. But in thinking about it for the past week, I think I've come around to the opposite position. If the video review refs are currently watching every throw (and I believe they should), a challenge call wouldn't change anything. The same refs would watch the same footage a second time and render the same verdict. In the meantime, both judoka get a chance to rest, and as we saw during the Gaba-Abe match, a minute or two of rest time can have massive consequences. I could accept a 30 second time add for false attack, with some modification. A person who is down on score but has no shidos could use it to gain more time to try for a score. You could make it so that false attack only adds time if the person fouling has a score advantage, which would solve that problem. I am absolutely in favor of a liberalization of gripping rules. The IJF has gotten a lot looser on gripping in the past few years and I think the results are very positive. Let people cross grip, let people belt grip, let people bear hug. If they're using grips to stall, call stalling. If they refuse to come to grips, call refusal to grip. Punish the behavior, not the grip. And yes, punish people for refusing to attack with dominant grips! The purpose of gripping is to create the opportunity to attack, not to force shidos! If you have a dominant position and do not attack, you are stalling! A flat 30 second time allotment for newaza is much, much too long in my opinion. It would open the door to a lot of stalling, and it would empower sumigaeshi/tomoenage, which are already highly abused. Since you can enter directly into newaza from sumigaeshi, and you cannot be thrown in newaza, it already provides a very strong way for newaza specialists to enter their domain with minimal risk - a strategy that players like Tsunoda use to great effect even with the current limited time frame. I think I have a solution to this problem, though it may be controversial. As it stands now, there are two rigidly-separated phases: tachiwaza and newaza. I would like to see a designated time period, perhaps ten seconds, where these phases overlap. In those ten seconds, the referee cannot call mate for lack of progress: top and bottom player alike can work to set up their newaza attack. Additionally, in this period, the top player could still score with a throw, similar to how it works in Greco-Roman wrestling. I think this would provide additional counterplay to the current meta of seoiotoshi and sumigaeshi spam, as daki wakare and daki age could be used during this time as a counter. After these ten seconds elapse, the match would be said to be fully in newaza and full newaza protections and limitations would apply. I am in favor of loosening the head diving rules as well. I've gone back and forth on this issue, since the laudable spirit of the rule is to preserve the safety of athletes, but I don't like what it's done to attack diversity. Uranage and uchimata have become much less common due to the fear of accidental head contact. Something has got to give on this front. I would like to see leg grabs back in some capacity - I think we all would. As far as I'm aware, the IJF has never explicitly stated their reasoning on the leg grab ban, but I don't believe the narrative that they were banned to differentiate judo from wrestling. There are two styles of international wrestling, and one of them (Greco-Roman) prohibits leg grabs! Judo used to sit somewhere between freestyle and greco, and banning leg grabs only shifted further more toward the latter. I think that IJF believed that leg grabs were the source of bent-over, "low scoring" judo. If that's the case, they could ban shots: make it illegal to grab legs while on one knee. We would lose some important waza (kataguruma, the drop ouchigari switch into morotegari) but it would be a small price to pay to see te guruma, kuchiki taoshi and khabarellis back in the mix. Finally, I'd like to see a small change made to the mixed team competition format. Since the matches are 3 against 3, ties are a common occurrence, and the tiebreaker system is too volatile. Whoever is selected to fight for the tiebreaker will have already fought before, and the result is pretty unlikely to change when contested a second time. Random selection therefore nearly amounts to a coin flip. This is unacceptable. It takes the match out of the players' hands, and it creates a worse viewership experience for spectators. Nobody thought Saito was going to pull out a win against Riner in the tiebreaker. We had seen the match before. The match was an execution. I think that in the event of a tie, the results should go to criteria. First, the team with more ippons scored should win; if the two teams are tied on ippons, the team with a higher overall score should win; and finally, if the two teams are tied on both ippon and overall score, THEN they can roll the roulette and give us a tiebreaker match. The outcome of the match would be back in the hands of the players, and it would provide an additional layer of strategy/incentive not present in individual competition. A player who is up by waza-ari might choose to look for waza-ari-awasete-ippon, because doing so provides a greater benefit to the team. Less randomness, more ippon hunting, more unique identity for the team competition... win win win. In competitive video games, developers sometimes create a "test server" where they soft launch planned changes to game balance. This allows the developers to observe the effects of their changes and make adjustments before the changes go live. Sometimes ideas are proven bad and are reversed before they go public. Sometimes they get additional tweaking and are rolled out in a different form. I believe MLB has a similar program with its minor leagues: they roll out potential policy changes in the minors, playtesting them before bringing them to the big stage and affecting the lives of all professional players. Maybe the IJF could do something similar by creating a pre-season or tournament with a modified ruleset. Just a thought.

I would add a couple of mine: 1. I do not think that counting front throws is a good idea. Someone will score Yuko and stall for the rest of the match. 2. Allow leg grabs, but DO NOT SCORE THEM. They could be still used as a counter or as a transition to Newaza and then winning a match on the ground. It will stop everyone running blast double legs (the reason why leg grabs are banned), but it will allow new tactics to emerge. 3. Count a turtle as Yuko if he stays here for 10 sec, then stand them up. This will punish people who get front-thrown but in an entertaining way because they would have to try to either get up or pull a guard from it. 4. Count the rear mount as a pin. It is one of the most dominant positions you can be in it will make funny scrambles with people trying to get up from turtle. 5. Get back flying submissions. Sorry, but people with blue belts in BJJ and in amateur leagues in MMA can do them so can do judokas and they are dope and funny to watch. 6. Allow gripping without kimono. It can many times lead to very good and fast counters. 7. Improve kimonos There should be less fabric to grips to be easier to strip. It is sometimes funnier to do Judo in BJJ Gis, than in Judo Gis, because in Judo Gis the grips are so strong that you have to use both your hands to clear them, practically disengage from a fight. This would also allow to end a shido game on gripping. 8. Score pins as Wazari Pins are far less entertaining than submission, giving the athletes a reason to go for submission even in a good position. Otherwise, after 10 seconds give Wazari and stand them up. 9. Reform Newaza. Stop standing up people so quickly, MMA is entertaining and there is a lot of ground fighting. Then punish the turtle and rear mount as I said. Then legalize armlocks (except wristlocks), leglocks (except heel hooks) and choking over the chin. Stop standing up people if they lift opponent from the ground. Do it after they lift them over their belt. Under that the attacker can still try to attack and on the other side be slammed, in MMA and many BJJ tournaments it is legal from any high and it is pretty dangerous, but I think that from the belt height, it is pretty safe. 10. Make judges more accountable. Sorry, but they should be punished if they do something blatantly wrong, for instance, that mate.

I heard someone mention possibly only being able to grab 1 leg, that could be a good compromise. For the head dives, I think you just shouldn't be allowed to use it as a pivot, if the side of your head or back of your head slides along the mat no issue. I felt so sorry for Abe in the teams, he would have won that fight comfortably if there was no golden score, and judges were used.

Man, I am currently making the same type of judo rules rant video for my channel and you now uploaded the exact same video 😅 Still gonna drop it in a few days

IJF doing all they can to make judo even more mysterious to the general public. People genuinely don't understand what we're doing, it gets no publicity and BJJ is taking over in every town...

Oh sweet, I had the front score idea too! Will be interesting to see how it works out (if applied)

Judo rule change is called baka Tari Allow maximum creative diversity within kodokan syllabus Unless unsafe it should be allowed That includes leg grabs more allowance for ne waza Should allow judo and kosen judo rules should be incorporated

Yes - to ko-uchi gari to ankle picks. As a Jiu Jitsu guy - who has also wrestled - nanturally I'd love to watch Judo with leg grabs thrown back in .. and of course (my bias) more ground time - as per Kosen judo. Selfish view.

Ne waza is regularly used to burn the clock. Make newaza run the clock backwards. Running away from the match is against the spirit of Judo. Han sokumake. Running away and avoiding the match (especially when ahead in the last minute) should be grounds for disqualification

Make judo great again. Allow leg grabs, let judokas work on ne-waza. Bring old school judo back

Great idea to review the rules. I'm all in favor of reducing incentives for playing the shidos game. In my time (30+ years ago), we had 3 referees where there would be a decision on the winner in case of tied scores. This would cut down the incentive for both false attacks and passivity. (I really don't think that golden scores have improved the quality of competitive judo.) I'm also in favor of more time and attacker discretion allowed for ne-waza rather than calling a quick mate after 20 seconds. I also agree that the gripping shidos should be relaxed, as should restrictions on previously legal leg grabs.

Even a smallest score for front landings happening as it would be the biggest change to the sport I could think of, Personally I started Judo after direct leg attacks were banned so I don't miss them, I get people want them back because it makes Judo more cross trainable but I also don't really care about that, if I'm going to do another sport I'd rather do something total different than a different form of grappling. I watched a fair bit of the Olympics and my main complaint is a fairly common one which is the spam attacks like described in the video, think generally it got better the heavier the weight of the players but still there. Weird that the team event the refs were prepared to say no more penalties throw if you want to win but early in the comp is was three and out in under 3 minutes sometimes

About the front score, let's suppose it's a yuko: I would make that if you get 3 shidos, you don't inmediatly lose, but rather that you lose if the other person scores anything; yuko, wazari or ippon. Thus, there is no situation in which you can win without throwing the other person, but 3 shidos still let's you in a big disadvantage. About the leg grab: if you don't want judo to become wrestling, which wasn't happening anyways. Allow leg grabs with one hand only. No morote gari, which maybe was the big problem, but kata guruma or te guruma. also, there are lots of techniques that are much better if you can grab one leg: ouchi gari, sode suri komi goshi or tani otoshi.

My rule suggestion small but i feel is important, let the Judoka celebrate when they win.

I think it is ironic that the reason they give for getting rid leg grabs is to make judo look less like wrestling. They even claimed the japanese lobbied for this change. We now have a more upright judo game with less ippons and more shidos. The japanese currently have more gold medals in freestyle wrestling than judo in these olympics.

As a wrestler I can notice that Judo has some problem. And I don't want to see Judo go through the same fate as wrestling of almost getting eliminated from the Olympics. That was a scary time for wrestling. Something have to be done. Also in wrestling there is 1 challenge per coach each match and it works great. I hope Judo gets back to throwing people! Good luck!

1. Literally, casse only grabbed the waist for a second then let go. Why should this end a match. Leg grab was shido if people grab to do the old allowed techniques. 2. Head dive should be hansokumake only if you actively try to defend like Zantariia or if you squarely hit the mat with the top of your head, which can be dangerous

The only thing I can think of against this "judoka checking the video" is the potential misuse of such rule in order to recover physically. While tennis is a sport where players are trained to last physically 1-2-3 hours (including many breaks) where a potential misuse of such rule does not bring them virtually anything, such misuse in the context of judo, which is extremely physically draining in a very short time, raises a big question mark. I won my first national championships gold with a Te-Guruma counter attack, so I am personally in favour of bringing back all judo techniques. However, to the best of my knowledge, it was indeed an IJF decision to ban leg grabs but it was based and strongly requested by International Olympic Committee which deemed judo to be too close to wrestling. Video refereeing decision is similar with the cameras in football - remember how many goals have been cancelled based on the "offside rule" in 2024 World Championships, offside positions which would not have otherwise been noticed by human referees. I'd argue this is a positive, though. For me, the most annoying rule in judo now is that if you throw someone on his belly/front side but with a continuous movement/force manage to turn him on his back, you get a wazari (see Bekauri's first wazari against Murao, and many others similar cases in this Olympics) - I believe Nage Waza is about throwing and not pushing/turning. A belly/front side throw followed by turn on Uke's back even with a continuous movement/force should not be, in my opinion, equivalent with a throw on lateral side or flat on Uke’s back.

Excellent commentary. Guys like you keep the spirit of judo alive. I love judo from all my heart and the rules you mentioned are decent if not necessary. Thank you cheers to all judo lovers young and old

Mes suggestions (je te laisse traduire 😉) : • suppression définitive du shido sauf dans des cas où l'intégrité physique est réellement mise en jeu : 2 🟨 = 1 🟥 • suppression du waza-ari awazate ippon • réintroduction des valeurs intermédiaires mais avec un système de comptage de points semblable à celui de la lutte ou du jjb • pour revoir des séquences de ne-waza je propose l'abolition du ippon sur immobilisation et l'introduction d'un système de points accordés sur les renversements, les retournements, les prises de dos et bien sûr les immobilisations • autoriser toutes les saisies sur la veste de l'adversaire : saisie pistolet, saisie intérieure . . . • et évidemment il faut revenir à l'ancien règlement du nage-waza avec les saisies aux jambes autorisées dans les cas suivants : -> avoir au moins une saisie sur la veste adverse -> en enchaînement d'attaque -> en contre d'attaque adverse -> sur une saisie croisée de l'adversaire • éviter le plus possible les interventions de l'arbitre qui hachent le combat

The judo's rules need to go back to the old ones immediately

I agree with the removal of the head diving rule, some preposterous (and inconsistent) calls have been made in the last couple of years. I also think that fake attacks should be more penalized, but I don't know how to go about it since their "fakeness/realness" often depends on the eye of the beholder: the same throw attempt can be seen as genuine positive judo or defensive time-wasting judo. I remember seeing the Khyar Maruyama battle and thinking that Maruyama deserved a third shido for repeatedly dropping to his knees, but I am sure that Japanese-leaning viewers would have had a very different opinion on this... Maybe it would be simpler to just reintroduce yuko and koka...

You could give shido's for 'defensive' leg grabs, and just not count the throw if you grab the leg when trying to throw, just don't give a shido for it.

Here's the only thing i am interested in: for tachi waza, clean powerful smooth ippon with a kodokan recognized move. You should end standing. no grip rules. No dive rules. no wazaris or anthying else. no kani basami. for newaza, only submissions, chokes, and strangulations count. No drags or fake drops but also no time limit if both are still active on the ground. I want to see tori strive to perform textbook moves and not land on the ground if the move does not require it. if they happen to be on the ground they should also survive and score.

When I was competing in the 80’s and early 90’s leg grabs were still allowed. Ridiculous rule banning leg grabs.

I agree with that part where the high official of Judo said that people wan to see people holding someone down and doing a strangle on someone else as well , because ne waza has been neglected and “it is” part of judo .

I believe leg grabs were banned more because they were such a reliable 'false attack' the same way you see drop and sacrifice techniques are. Just hunch down, take some legs and try run people into koka... or turtle up if it fails. Unlike drops and sacrifice throws, it can be quite hard to discern if they're false attacks. And because ne-waza was broken up so fast around then, the result was really boring to watch. I certainly don't believe in the idea that they were banned because similarity to wrestling- that was also under threat of being removed. Like so many rules, its because they just wanted to encourage positive Judo. In fact, leg grabs did continue to exist in a limited capacity for some time until their complete removal because the rulings got too confusing. But I think if we go with the framework of encouraging good Judo, I don't think there's no reason they can't come back. I don't clamour for it as much as other online judoka, but I don't know any Judoka that outright hates them either. But straight up allowing them again is not going to make Judo better without some conditions. This might be radical, but perhaps to keep them from being abused to run the clock and rack up some silly 'passivity' meter against the opponent, any technique that results in ground contact with anything other than the feet gets you a Shido unless you are able to either move the opponent just short of scoring, or you are able to stand up and get out from a bad position. That means shitty leg grabs from your knees, drop Seois and bad sacrifice throws will be penalised. Otherwise they should score like any other technique and potentially even win matches. This way, they won't be used to disrupt matches, become more effective as genuine 'surprise' attacks, and makes Judoka a little more 'martially dynamic' for nerds that care about that sort of thing. Leg grabs makes the grappling more complete, but we also punish judoka for going into bad positions like turtle or guard without a way to get up. With this, we hopefully get more standing, upright Judo with minimal disruptions. So no more of that Deguchi vs Huh shit. Huh would have HSM herself out with her nonstop drop and flop. When leg grabs happen, they do so as big, dramatic throws instead of shitty bum rush for koka or clock burning. I don't think we need any rules against leg grabs in the vein of rugby- the mats are padded and such techniques are fun to watch. No need to remove them.

I appreciate brainstorming and stirring up conversation constructively. I didn't agree with some applications but I could see the intent. I wrote a massive essay while watching since the thoughts just came pouring in, but it would've been 4 max length comments. So I replaced it trying to make a more compact summary of the thoughts. To summarize I don't think the athlete being able to review the video mid match would bring much difference. They would still disagree and I don't think we want to see strategic mid match review calls for breather. And what I don't want to see judo have more, with athletes already protesting on tatami, is the scene where the US tennis star started literally crying and yapped first to the referee and then to the supervisor for about 5 minutes on a call that was reasonable and didn't and wouldn't have changed anything. A world ranking 2 in a match where she lost the round 2-6. It was terrible to witness. Also I don't want to see judo going to what football was previously. The sport was ridiculed for how bad the refereeing was. The higher ups fought against video replays for like decades, it was atrocious to see blatant misbehavior and rule breaking from broadcast while the couple of referees were looking in the wrong direction at the wrong time. I don't want a situation where at extreme hansoku make gets ignored because the ref didn't see it and the athlete had spent their video review. Or the opponent doing small rule breaking all the time hiding it enough from the ref and you having just one review call, they take one shido and keep breaking the rules. I think the rules are at fault, too absolute and general and even have remnants from leg grab ban messing things up. They should be changed, not good referee calls (from video or not). Like the below belt should have a subtext where unintended and inconsequential touch should not be penalised. There was one obvious leg grab preventing the opponent from spinning and it wouldn't have worked with a jacket grip, but I think that's also a skillful play and shouldn't be penalised. On the other hand pistol grip is like doping, you get mocked and called petty if you speak out loud about something unjust that people commonly do but don't get caught. Remove the rule so everyone can openly do it or keep penalising even from video ref. But for a bad metaphor you don't make society better by ignoring crime, if the law is not working well/as intended, you change the law or remove it. Which is a funny thing to say because somewhere and sometimes crime is totally ignored when it's too small and inconsequential to spend resources on while you can't change the law easily. And I really like the idea if there was a yuko like score for stomach landings, because it has every other aspect of a great ippon, even though you might have lacked the control for finish and the opponent showed great athleticism dodging shoulder dip. On that thought, what would you think about a smaller penalty than shido for all those interpretable things like passivity, dropping etc? I don't know what the interaction with shidos would be, but statistics would probably direct for a decent balance. And agree 100% dropping shouldn't count as good throw attempts. Nobody jumps on their stomach if they believe they have a good initiation and a chance to throw, it's done to fish for shidos or to protect yourself from counters. If that changed, it would change the pressure from someone not even getting to touch the gi before Mimi Huh dives on the stomach. I think it's also a demonstration of the lack of grip and positional understanding that the Japanese have. Rarely you see a Japanese judoka be afraid of the opponents grip, for some others it's panic evade the moment the opponent gets the grip. I used to think leg grabs caused silly crouched and diving judo, but I've started to change my mind. I've seen upright judo with them being present. Some ankle picks like to finish kouchi as you said would be pretty safe and bring more to the table (the argument many love to make about richness of judo), especially mandating jacket grip to control the fall. Just keep kani basami banned which is reasonable. I'd like to see them come and then go, but as long as it's the Olympic committee's call, who knows. But just today I thought about how there's like 10 different running sports where the only differentiation is the length of the match, but wrestling and judo are too similar. I also like the idea of restricting head diving. It might just be something that's universally applied but directed to lower level judokas than the top competitors. Hindering top level but being of great benefit to the safety of lower levels. So have an age restriction, competition level restriction. It might just be one of those things that is a reasonable risk on paper, but in practice doesn't happen in the given context. And you can't have drop seoi nage be legal at the same time, it's much more dangerous to uke than uchi mata head touch for the tori. But the devil is in the details, how would you frame that rule unless you fully allow it (that's why I like the idea of restricting based on age/level). Discussed the problem of head diving rule and its effects and intention with my instructor just last weekend watching the team event. In the end the issue is that it's a professional sport. People are there to win so they use any loophole possible. Rules or no rules, there will be bad matches to watch that don't resemble good judo. On the other hand if the judokas are there to play judo and throw each other, like Bekauri - Murao, it will be a great match no matter the rules. Let's hope the next cycle has fun rules, people are gonna be upset about the matches and ref calls anyway.

Judo is a style of wrestling, you cant make it not wrestling. the sport of judo should be made to express the art of judo, whatever rules allow for that. I can't make any concrete suggestions but the main problems are stalling, and refs getting involved. i think an interesting rule change would be regarding knees touching the ground. to what extent I'm not sure, but honestly it wouldn't be too crazy to pretty much not allow it. judo is already very upright, this would emphasize this. most attacking moves that involve knees touching the ground are a drop variation of another move, and are mostly used because they are harder to counter in judo, because if you fail you can just turtle. this would also make leg attacks very different if they were introduced. I think there should also be an incentive to fight your way back to the feet instead of stalling waiting for a mate. folk style has a one form of it implemented and it makes for an interesting ground game, but no other Olympic wrestling does. i think this could make newaza significantly more interesting. the point of sport judo should be as a means to express the art, I think many changes recently have been made in a negative direction.

Just some feedback on the first suggestion: Speaking as a ref (although not international) we check just about every controversial situation that happens. I don’t mind the players or coaches being able to demand it, but little would change as if it was controversial it would have already been looked at.

So, so many good points and recommendations. On another note, I'm in favor of replacing golden score for corner judges with white/blue flags. They could potentially override the video judges' decisions too.

Hello, thank you for your video. I understand your point of view and I agree with you with the fact that judo is currrently facing a major crisis and that changes must be brought to save our beautiful sport. However, there are some points in your reasoning that I find "problematic" regarding the rules. I think that adopting a "fence-sitting" position will not save the problems with IJF Judo. People want more throws, less shidos, less passe fighters but they don't want the sport to be "too dangerous". The head diving and leg grabbing rules are absolutely ridiculous. And I don't agree with you when you say that we should bring back the leg grabs but punish them when the legs end up higher than the head. So what ? Oftentimes with numerous techniques like O goshi or Sode uke ends up head on the ground and feet towards the sky, should we ban these techniques because it causes a dangerous position for uke ? I think that judokas need to acknowledge the "dangerousness" of Judo. We're talking about a sport that allows you to choke your opponent unconscious. Judo is and should be dangerous, to some extent of course, because it is a fighting sport. Allowing the judokas to perform "dangerous" techniques might save the shido game problem... If people want a fighting sport that is not dangerous than maybe aikido (all respect to aikido) would suit them best... Otherwise why not ban everything that is dangerous ? Chokes, armbars, counterattacks, uranage... Anyways cheers to you and thank you for your work, the bottom line is that regardless of some disagreements we all want the best for Judo. Well, maybe not the IJF...

I don't know if anybody knows about the VAR system in Taekwondo, but I think it's really great and something the IJF can look into. Both of the coaches get a card they can use to let the var interfere, in case they think a decision isn't right or when they maybe saw something the referee didn't. When the VAR confirms the coach's view, they keep their card and they can use it again. When the VAR doesn't confirm the coach, they lose their card and can't use it again during that fight.

Hell yeah let's bring back leg grabs.

The false attack +30 seconds rule is a good idea. Don’t agree on the other ideas though, I think the video ref is very important and can be very precise, you want the match to be as fair as possible.

Overall I like the suggestions, here is more detailed thoughts: I like the idea for the +30 secs on the clock but I d like it to be added only if the penalised guy is ahead, otherwise a judoka behind could purposely get a shido to have a bit more time to score. I also really like the idea of mandatory action for the guy who has the dominant grip (depending on how dominant he is, not necessarily an attack but working on the kumikata, getting yourself set up) For the ne waza time addition I like the idea but I m affraid you could abuse this system to spend time "fake attacking". I only see either stopping the clock or adding time to the match the same way you suggested for shidos, up to a certain limit. Yes for the leg grabs (obviously), I wonder if teachers would know how to teach it though since it s kinda lost Also do you know where I can find the official rules? I never know where to actually look up and be sure

Interesting video - in the end, it seems there is no simple answer to a widely perceived problem

In my humble opinion, Judo has verd too far from it's most basic concepts. Sportsmanship seems to have de-evolved. "Back in the day" the kinds of displays we see out there were unacceptable and would have constituted a severe penalty, elimination from the tournament and even future tournaments. Another change that cheapened Judo was allowing purely strength moves/techniques. To just pick up an opponent using strength without technique was a serious offense. Of course, it wasn't until the 70's that "head diving/bridging" was ruled illegal, but that change was a good one. Some of the techniques that pass as legitimate technique amaze me, but apparently the need to make Judo more of a spectator sport (and profitable) is more important than the purity of the sport.

I agree, the video referee should only be able overrule the mat referee if there is an egregious error. Otherwise the refs on mat decision should stand. It's definitely the other way around at the moment. If the on mat referee doesn't notice a foul it shouldn't be awarded. I really like idea of adding 30 seconds for drop attack shido (something has to be done about the spamming of drop attacks) but couldn't someone abuse it to get an extra minute on the clock if they were down a score and chasing and time was running out. Just throw two false attacks and they have got another minute to play with. I would consider saying that if you throw 2 drops in a row, even if they are what would be considered legitimate attempts under the current rules (off balance the opponent), if there is no score, it's an automatic shido. I think the problem with your idea to penalise the person with dominant grips if they don't attack is that first of all you would have to define dominant grips- if you just say a big hand over the top is a dominant grip then you are just punishing taller fighters who are more likely to take that grip, and shorters guys who would never get that grip anyway wouldn't have to worry about it. Also I think it would encourage people to play a really passive style of judo where they just look to counter because they know that if they get out gripped the other person has to attack or risk being shidod.

Bring back leg grabs is number 1. Make judo great again

I really hope they make head diving just a shido

100% agree Get rid of grip shido,keep the old rules no thumb inside is fine if you get saw,but if I want to break the grip i can do it let me fight my way Headdiving i agree just like you said,even here in Italy you are NOT allow to chocke or do armbar until you are in highschool,do the same with head diving Leg grab....do you think it is notmal for a sport to get rid of 50% of their fondamental tecnique with a rule change? 😂 such a stupid thing to do,do you want to stop everyone from doing kata guruma on their knees wrestling style? Just get rid of that!!! Not all of leg grab tecnique!!!! Thanks for this video!

Simply back to the old judo rules.Validate again koka, yuko and wazari scores.The actual ippon criteria must be changed, no more "takedowns" without a clear techique or soft rolling ippons.The golden score must be eliminated and back to the hantei.

One problem is the passivity penalty. Fighters have to attack to avoid shidos. This often leads to those terrible drop attacks. Also, fighters can force passivity shidos onto the opponent by continuously attacking with weak drop attacks. I think passivity shouldn’t be judged just based on attacks. A fighter with an upright posture who is constantly moving forward and has a positive, non-defensive grip shouldn’t be penalized just because the opponent keeps on dropping on the knees.

If you want to make the athletes play actual judo then the excessive grip fighting must be punished. I mean if somebody takes a grip on the lapel, which I call a "non-dominating" kumite, there is no need to break the grip. If you do break the grip you have to attack. Just replay Riner vs Saito. Riner was constantly preventing the kumite of Saito. Also I fully agree that if you have a dominating grip like the "Russian arm" on the back, you have to attack within 5 seconds. The same goes for double lapel grips.

I think leg grabs should be allowed if you attempt them from normal grips. Just like how you can body lock after having a normal grip. This way we dont have issues with constant diving shots making judo look like wrestling, but allowing the return of many great techniques

I think overall adding one more score is going to be good, i agree with the "coaches challenge" rule, for the leg grab my proposal would be that you're allowed to grab the leg and lift in any way you want, as long as it's done with one hand, and the other hand is gripping somewhere else, this way you guarantee more control and from judo techniques you're pretty much only losing morote gari. And this would also remove the idiotic sequences where the video referees are giving shidos based on whether or not a hand touches 3mm below the belt.

Freestyle Wrestling rules works, passivity, complexity pointing system of takedowns, etc

I really like the idea of adding to the clock for flop and drop stalling. No shidos for defensive gripping is interesting. Not sure how itnwould play out, but i so agree we need fewer shidos ans stops in thr action at all.

I think a meaningful newaza sequence should be seen as an attack. If you drop and I'm threatening you with a choke or almost pin you then that should mean something. To be stood up after that and get a penalty because I havent attempted a throw in the last few sequences, after almost beating you, is backwards IMO.

shido hustling is destroying Judo, bring back leg grabs minor scores and quit trying to orchestrate the match with penalties...shido should be given whenever someone steps foot off the mat can you use Sumo criteria to settle golden score... Simple, I just fixed Judo

wrestling has a good rule where coaches can contest a score once during a match, if it doesn’t get overruled their wrestler loses a point.

Revert to the rules before leg grabs were banned apart from making bending forward more than a quarter of the way down and holding that position illegal. This would prevent excessive leg grabs and encourage a more upright and efficient posture from which to execute the wide array of the original gokyo and allow the judoka to express themselves more fully.

My desiderata rule changes would be: ippon when falling flat on the back with a continous action; falling not completely on the back, every type of back rolling, falling flat on the back with no contonous action should be waza-ari; no trigonometric rule to score waza-ari; falling on a shoulder or on the side should be yuko; passivity shido should be awarded when you don't attack in 30-40 seconds, never mind how many attacks your opponent does, in order to prevent the shido game by just attacking continously with no real danger for uke; being active on the ground should be evaluated as a good attack so that for example a false attack can promote a newaza action of the opponent. I don't remember in which contest at the olympics it happened anyway a fighter worked long for a shime wazathat almost was successful and after mate she got a shido for passivity, which in my opinion is wrong on principle. And finally legs attacks should be legal again, but that's a dream.

I know the standard line is that leg grabs were not taken out because of the Japanese, but you can't ignore the timing and how it very much improved their results.

So the rumor is a new score for been thrown on your front which is even less than Yuko and Koka. They did not remove Yuko, what was a Yuko nowadays is Wazari and some old Wazari are now Ippon.

Love the idea of 30s added to the clock for passivity shido. I would go even further: Pause the clock at newaza, so that you cannot burn time on the ground if you are ahead, and referees don't feel the need for early mate on the ground. I really hope the rumour about points for throwing someone belly down. Was strange watching the Olympics and someone dominating an opponent with throw after throw after throw and receiving nothing for it except avoiding shido. Free gripping (as long as not passive or overly defensive) and leg grabs would be the dream, but I don't see that happening.

I think we could bring back the rule (i think in London 2012 we had this rule) That you only can grab the leg as a counter or when you are doing one intial attack before you can grab the leg

The rules need to be simplified and the ref should be given more discretion to apply the rules. Adding things in like a 30 second added timer for drop throws is messy and unclear. 1. Just re-combine all gripping, false attack, defensive posture into a single stalling or non-combative penalty again. And then you penalize based on a pattern of behavior. Give the ref the discretion to decide if that drop attack is a real attack or one that's designed to just avoid a real grip up. In 57kg Final between Mimi Huh and Deguchi, Huh should have been penalized way more for how often she was dropping with almost no threat of a real throw happening. And then penalize Riner when he has dominant grips but uses it to stall. 2. More time in newaza. I've heard refs will call matte earlier and earlier if they see a player not engaging in newaza, but that's ridiculous. Whenever I compete, I'm not engaging in newaza unless I manage to catch like a collar or a wrist grip, which does happen as players get tried. But players shouldn't be punished for not trying to crack open a super tight turtle position. 3. Tightening up the scoring for wazari and ippon and introduce back yuko. Scoring criteria is back, speed, force, and control. Ippon is meeting all four criteria. Wazari is three. Yuko is two. This opens up some partial front landings as yuko scores too. Also personally I just hate the rolling through scores like with the running kata-guruma.

Leg grabbing wise i prefer what i believe in the 2013 maybe rule not pretty sure .. where you must have a komikata do an attack like a o oshi gari then u will be able to grab the leg.. i hope i make sense

A minor score for belly flops, leg attacks and a special penalty for step outs could fix Judo in a hurry... in fact it was nearly perfect in 1985 but I would add the step out penalty and go to Sumo criteria for Golden score

Bring kokas back! In judo you have to win by throwing not by shidos!

great video, good suggestions 👏

Penalties should be drastically reduced and not added with new rules. I don't know any other sport where 25% of the contests end with a disqualification (source is judodata statistics of the last world championship, data abiut last olympics are not available yet but I doubt there will be significative differences). Do we really want the shower of shidos to be increased? Referees briefings before competitions basically are already about only how to award penalties, that should be changed. Adding 30 seconds to a contest for every false attack is a good idea to have endless competitions. "Coach challenge" in wrestling works because it's point based, in judo there is the sudden death concept of the ippon, how can an athlete be penalized by the challenge rule when he or she has already lost by ippon or by hansoku make? Again, that could bring to continous breaks and endless competition

Judohighlights for IJF president!

allow knee and above leg grab as long as it is on offence. For below the knee possibly allow only hand sweeps but not pics

I think we can fix everything just by adding back yuko. (btw I like these long videos)

They should allow leg grabs for kataguruma (fireman's carry)

I agree with comments that the IJF will not make any major rule changes. However crappy modern judo can look, especially to traditionalists, it is hugely popular throughout the world, and top competitors are able to pull off some amazing techniques. But it is also the case that Kano would roll over in his grave if he saw what judo has become. It is also not the type of stand up judo that many people want to practice if they take it up. The solution is to create a separate, more traditional style of judo. There are two styles of wrestling and there's no reason why judo can't do the same, especially if there is no intention at the outset for this new style to become an international/olympic (read also expensive) sport. But the establishment of this style won't just be a matter of returning to an old rule set, as much of what is wrong with modern judo has arisen out of tactics and strategies designed to nullify traditionally superior technique. (I know because many decades ago that's what I did. I always thought it was crappy judo, but I wasn't much good at throwing and this was a way I could be competitive. Little did I know it was the wave of the future!) Someone should start an online petition to the Kodokan to create the rule set for this type of judo as it will require experimentation, and the Kodokan has the authority and expertise to make it happen and hopefully become widely adopted.

Just give 3 wazari inteas of 2, and take back leg grab. Also, leg grabbing and rolling (knee drop techniques) can only score a Wazari!!

Judo has changed many rules over the years. Now I hope they change the rules and eliminate Judo. How long will the fools of the World Judo Federation executives keep doing this?

If players challenge a call, they can get a shido if they are wrong to prevent abuse. Like the coach's challenge in hockey.

there is an easier way to solve the false attack problem, it's being used to shido the oponant for passivity so, simply don't shido someone who is on the defensive for passivity if you can clearly see that they are being spammed with attacks, or allow for longer newaza attack time against opponents that drop to the tatami rather than being thrown.

My suggestion is that they should only keep the ippon and give points to anything else that is not ippon. There is no need to call wazari or yuko or whatever. Ippon is the knockout and if there is no knockout , let's go to the scoreboard

Your so right with that

My suggestion? Let's go back to the when they banned Kani Basami: that's the only thing I can (barely) support, after that they have made only bad rules changing, one worst than the previous one! Let Judoka grab pants, let them grab inside the judogi, let them land whatever way they want: this is what Kano Jigoro thought best, and this is also the best for me.

One change I would suggest: remove the shido for going with your hand underneath your opponents arm if they have a high grip. It is very easy to inflict this just by sliding your high grip inward and give your opponent a shido. I don't see why this would be dangerous or negative judo, you just end up with a cross grip if you don't get mate-shido which is a great grip for many throws. Also I wouldn't mind bringing back leg grabs like with traditional kata guruma or ko uchi maki komi. It is even in the nage no kata, and the distinguishing from wrestling argument is just stupid and outdated i.m.o..

I disagree with most of your points. We dont need new rules, we need to keep one set of rules for a long time. The constant changes is what creates uncertainty, not people being uneducated. Also the more time passes the more athletes will adapt. We all like positive aggressive judo. Also i am not happy when athletes "get away with shidos". If an athlete makes a mistake he should be penalized. If i can have a fairer fufht by using video than by all means use it. Putting a thumb in the sleeve is simply cheating. As is grabbing the pants. I do not want athletes to get away with cheating. There is so much effort put in by these athletes that seeing it being destroyed by a wrong decision would be devastating. Get al tools necessary to have an impartial verdict.

I've had an opponents ippon (which I had countered) overturned by the tv refs which allowed me to win by ippon.

It' seems to be the opposite of what people think when screaming "the refs shouldn't decide", but I think the refs need far more power and discretion. e.g. a ref. should have the power to give a passivity, false attack or gripping shido far more based on his overall impression of what the players are doing and how the fight is going. Not just by counting seconds or attacks in their head or following some other "strict" refereeing guideline. Instead: I don't like what he was doing in the last 30s. He is only destructive and doing everything to avoid a proper, gripped-up Judo Fight. Lets give him a Shido! The Refs on this level all know judo and understand whats going on. IMO its the biggest difference compared to "the old days". Yes, this would open up controvers discussions on bad or perceived bad ref calls, but so be it. It's a fighting Sport, and in almost all fighting sports the refs have and need the power to influence the fight simply based on their impression of whats gonig on. Its far too dynamic for an analysis of every single situation like: was there kuzushi, did he re-grip quick enough, was the grip-breaking destructive or constructive, etc. My 2 cents, Power to the (individual) Ref on the Mat!

YES. Bring back leg grabs. Then I can start throwing my old deashi into an ankle pick in kenkayotsu again.

Very amazing video ❤❤

Same comment I made on the Beyond Grappling videio: I think they do this is in wrestling but I think a great solution would be to make lower level penalties (like grip violations, false attacks, passivity and the like) award points to the opponent (the yuko coming back would come in handy for this). That way, someone who has scored a point couldn't just spam penalties to stall out the match, since they might put the opponent up on points. Also, less matches decided by DQ, which would also be nice. Attack well and properly, otherwise your opponent is getting points

Why must it be only one ippon to win? Why don't we increase to two ippons (or more) instead to win?

i don't see casse grabbing legs!

I definitely think Yuko should come back, Wazari is just way to ample a score for two cycles now, especially when two of them lead to an Ippon. Or maybe bring back the infinite wazari. Maybe just allowing one grip below the belt would be a interesting change. It would allow people to do some of the old throws and complete some techniques to Ippon. However, I would put in the same category as the cross-grip, pistol grip, etc are now, if you have the grip you have to use it. If you just use it defensively is a shido. I completely agree with you on the head diving.

Whenever you have international competition you will always have those who build strategies around loopholes in the rules to win. This is nothing new to Judo. The rules have two purposes. 1st is the safety of the players. 2nd is to keep the competition as close to actual combat as possible while remaining safe as possible. The reason we throw people on their backs is because it allows them to take the fall safely. People doing things to avoid landing on their backs should be penalized. Not the person doing the throwing. In real combat, life or death situation, you want to slam your opponent face down into the ground. The IJF needs to start reading some of Kano's original teachings and get Judo back to being the combat sport it originally was.

Nice points, head diving dont nead to be hansokomake in any level, simple dont give the score. If no score why people will train head diving? End shido. Give advantage and disanvantege if someone get a diference of 5 advantages wins the fight. A throw that today is no score is an advantage, if someone do almost a shimewaza or kansetsuwaza or 9 seconds oseokomi its an advantage. And the comission can play more easily with this. At the end of the match how have more advantages wins if a draw o score the last advantage wins. This way im sure almost any fight will go to goldes score. This is similar to jiujitsu and works well

Honestly they just need to bring it back to 4 shidos instead of the 3 so they can keep giving they're shidos if they want and use them as warning but it won't end the fights so fast