What Judo Lost when IJF Banned Leg Grabs 

I strongly believe Sambo has a better takedown scoring system than Judo, Two things that stand out to me were: if you use a drop technique you'll get half the points, and only if you stay standing after you have thrown your opponent on their back do you get an ippon. I like them because 1. drop techniques don't have much amplitude (Seoi vs. drop Seoi ), not as exciting to watch, also on the Streets you don't want to wreck your knees on the pavement doing drop throws, 2. Staying standing after you have thrown your opponent shows you have control of the throw, I believe this is where the self-defense part of judo comes in, throw your opponent if needed then run. Sometimes I see some ippon where people get their back taken after throwing their opponent, what good is that? Funny enough BJJ not being a takedown center art, has a better rule of what is considered a good takedown, Staying in top control for 2 seconds after the throw is better than what judo has at the moment.

The leg grab ban was one of the strangest chain of events and it all revolved around the Olympics. First the IOC dropped wrestling because it was unpopular with spectators as it had basically become no Gi Judo which meant no cool throws, then wrestling partially reinvented itself to be cooler and the IOC brought it back which scared the IJF as they figured they might get dropped by the IOC if wrestling was more exciting now, so they banned leg grabs to try and maximise the use of cool throws xD

The leg grab ban has very much been met with criticism. Also, I feel it's going to make Judo weaker against other grappling styles. I remember watching "challenge matches" where wrestlers or BJJ guys with a wrestling background would dive for the leg and the Judoka would reverse or sprawl out against the takedown and work from there. Well, they don't have to worry about THAT anymore. Now, Judoka's will become so accustomed to NEVER having to worry about being shot in on their legs that they will have no reflexive or experienced sprawls or reversals against leg grabs. So, for myself, I strongly disagree with the leg grab ban. Not that anybody cares.

I think banning leg grabs outright was a mistake. I think a good middle ground would've been requiring that all leg grabs must start from an upper body grab first. Just my thoughts, but there could be some other implications that I'm missing.

I am new to Judo and even I think leg grabs should return. Judo is incomplete without leg grabs.

Sometimes I think about if leg grabs were reintroduced but any "ippon" made with it were counted just as an "wazari".

great video, hope that leg grabs come back

I would personally like leg grabs to come back because my goal with Judo is to do big throws with efficiency, control, and force, and I think te guruma is such a gem 🥲 But I also totally get the low hips nature of wrestling making it less dynamic. I wish there was a middle ground! Maybe like no shooting, but let leg grabs from standing be allowed?

I think the ban on leg grabs was an accidental gift in that it forced a refinement of nage-waza that we might not have seen otherwise. No style is 100% complete and I'm happy if Judo relegates itself to these techniques and range as THE AUTHORITY on throwing within the broader martial arts community. Imagine If boxing also allowed leg grabs? I think the result would have been that, in concerning itself with sprawls and wizzers, etc, it wouldn't have the same level of refinement in striking. Put simply, all cross trainers NEED the hyper-specialists. Secondly, leg grabs w/o a balancing treat to the face inculcates a very chin forward posture which is not the best strategy from a self-defense perspective. If you were you bring back leg grabs it would need to be accompanied by atemi with the face being a legal target.

Funny timing, I just got back from our last practice of leg throws. My dojo in Oregon, Ojukan, has started doing August as a No-Gi month to deal with the heat and practice more diverse kata like the leg throws. I absolutely loved getting to throw and receive Te Guruma. I think it's a great way to work in the leg throws and talk about why they aren't allowed in competition. My sensei talks about an Olympic year where Judo and Wrestling where held next to each other and looked almost the same. We're more of a casual dojo with a good location. I started competing at the start of 2022 and lost in 3 tournaments but got second in one earlier this year!! I'm 29, been doing judo for 3 years after only doing soccer before and I really love the sport and philosophy and especially ukemi, just a wonderful skill and body knowledge I've never had before.

Leg grab bans have made judo less effective against other grappling styles in grappling matches, as well as the lack of time for newaza in the current rules, but I think if we ever saw an "MMA in clothes" ruleset the upright Judo would be crucial. just look at sambo

I love how information dense these videos are. It's like reading a textbook.

Gold. More content like this please!

Nice video Higashi sensei! Thank you very much for that one

Another highly informative video. Thank you.

I love this vid. You make so much sense. I also love that you explain clearly why the leg grabs make for stalemates and such.

Shintaro ... at 5'5" and 205lbs I fought many players over 6' tall. I WORKED the lower body and leg grabbed, especially when they extended that long leg. 😉

Awesome techniques my friend!

❤ Wonderful insight! I am looking forward to some videos on these leg grabs 🤙🥋 oss

Thank you for sharing this video gives me more appreciation for our BJJ academy where we do a good amount of Judo and Wrestling takedowns.

Love the new hair style! Cool video as always, too :)

Glad you made this, still frustrated they got rid of leg grabs

Really like the shorter hair style. Awesome video as usual. Thanks Sir!

I've always thought that the best solution is just make takedowns non scoring. Can touch legs for defense, can grip the leg and sweep etc... But the best you get is waza-ari (if anything) maybe for like a counter or something. Encourages standup for big ippons, discourages takedowns because they're inefficient, but still allows for good judo with wide threats and gives more options to ne-waza specialists.

The big issue was Morote Gari? Allow for a single grip under the belt, that way we get lots of moves back without people bulldozing each other's legs like wrestlers.

I almost missed that king of the hill bit towards the end there!

Judo lost kikuchi daoshi and the original kataguruma. Which were great reversal or saving techniques, but I'm sure you'll be teaching them as BJJ techniques soon😂

When martial art sports start limiting techniques, I think it diminishes the art as being an effective martial art and makes things more nonsensical. I saw this in TKD back in the day and, me being short, it was just ridiculous me trying to out kick someone, but if I got to the inside I could punch but there was so many limits on where and how you can punch, but a kick to head was ok. That really makes no sense. A kick is far more powerful than a punch. I definitely saw more equality when I started BJJ, I could adapt my game to the person's height.

Freestyle judo (which sadly is only practiced a bit in USA afaik) has a very smart rule imo. Can do leg grabs, but only if you have kumi kata - no shooting without grips, to prevent that undesirable wrestler stance. Ofc, you can still use them as bailouts, but really what is the difference with the modern, omnipresent, ludicrous drop seoi that everybody and their dog knows had 0 chance of working? I say none, actually at least that leg grab bail out/counter has a decent chance of success. And if not, you could punish the false attack with shido just like they are supposed to do for drop seoi (though they are almost always _too_ late to do it imo).

nice good old bjj critique ;)

There was a chain of weird rules that needed to pop up due to the leg grab ban, biggest in my mind was the ban against the "bear hug" takedown. Because you could no longer duck under and Gari a bear hugger, the bear hug became so prominent they needed to ban it.

Pls don't mention it, i always get sad again when i remember this rule 😭

My tokui waza in kenka yotsu was a hybrid deashi/kosoto lifting the leg to my other hand, grabbing at the knee, and then steamrolling them. I miss it!

The problem of stalling and having a lower defensive posture can easily be fixed by forcing both players to initiate a clinch (or have both of their hands grab onto the gi) before doing any attacks. This way when we allow leg grabs again, we will see less stalling, less people having less a lower defensive posture, and no more shooting for the legs from a distance (or removing the long range judo game altogether). Also, leg grabbing from a clinch is much harder and both players must put more effort and set up to achieve it than simply just shooting for the legs from a distance. Also, we will see more of a balance between hip throws and leg grabs.

Te-guruma looks cool throw I’m still trying to get hiza and koshi.

I specifically hate the REASON they banned so many moves, and also why they basically removed newaza from competition. It was all done for commercial reasons. They wanted more distinction between wrestling and judo in the Olympics, and the corrupt IJF complied. And made judo a lesser art for it, because most dojos train for competition and only teach techniques that are allowed. Judo is still awesome, but it is diminished compared to before the bans.

I get why no low shots from low stance because of kicks etc for self defense/fighting. But no reason cant safely use the high double leg, knee taps, etc from close range where you are already touching. 🤷🤔🧐

I'm lucky my coach has his black belt in both judo and BJJ, we have learn a lot of the leg stuff as well as pins that are very useful in a BJJ competition.

I think it's whatever in terms of competitions, as long as it doesn't cause the art to lose more techniques because no one trains them because you can't use them in competitions.

This is why I train both judo and bjj, but if people ask me which I prefer, I tell them it's bjj, and by a lot. The meta (took this term from gaming) of bjj is ever evolving. New techniques and counter techniques and details for chains/finishes are being invented on the mats all the time. For example, the mikey lock didn't exist until about 2 years ago. Tarikoplata was about 4 years ago. However, if someone invented a new throw in judo, the first thing they would do is ban it, cuz that's all they've been doing for the past 20 years is banning totally valid techniques. No leg grabs, no standing subs, almost no ground time at all, can't hold on to this or that or that for over 5 seconds, no wrist lock or any leg locks...no fun.

Where's the T-shirt where Shintaro shouts "BAAANG!"??

I miss so much Uchi to Ko Uchi to ankle pick more than anything, but so much of my (pre 2008) game was all about what happens when my first throwing attack is stopped, which would give me access to the legs.

I think the Leg Grabs would be good for jiu jitsu! Curious to see them

I just feel like stuff like te guruma could easily be brought back. Also why are we acting like we can't just ban "spamming leg grabs". I mean some of the penalties are already at the ref's discretion anyways, like judging whether something was a false attack or not. So many potential solutions to this: You can't initiate a leg grab before having established proper kumikata.. Only allowing leg grabs as counter or follow up techniques.. Penalizing obvious repeated "spamming" attempts at leg grabs.. Only rewarding at most a wazari from the techniques.. All of these would still allow for them but would value other techniques much more.

Most leg grab fans forget that with striking, posture would go upright again. Upright posture is street fight posture (maybe with armor, then bend down again; but who drops all their weapons and the other guy did too?)

I never understood why they just didnt change the rules so whenever you grab a leg during throw you get Waza-ari instead of Ippon

I like you guys but I think shots are actually more common than upper body throws. I say this as a brown belt judoka who wrestled. I have a fast shot, but I struggled to incorporate my throws in a no gi environment. I wish I was back in NY so I can train at Oishi again. I grew up there

Is there a good source I can use to learn judo throws and keep the leg stuff?

I wish I could find a Judo school that teaches REAL old school Judo, right from the book self defense. Strikes and everything. It's literally MMA before they came up with the word. And I hate not being able to grab a leg. It's basically Greco Roman wrestling from Japan now. Not only that, you won't be hearing squat about BJJ. Real Judo smashes everything else.

I think is would be cool to have both in separate tournaments

we still use those techniques againg georgian grip in sambo))

As a judoka turned MMA, I can't agree with the "streets" comment. I've fought a ton of amateurs who all took a wrestling stance because they wrestled in high school. In street encounters, the most common form of takedown in to shoot for the legs. In the cage the most high percentage takedowns are leg shoots. Foot sweeps are nice, but if the sport wants more foot sweeps they can eliminate the gi and replace it with a clinch. Foot sweeps work best from the clinch.

Hi coach can you go over sukui nage, I catch it mostly in a scramble because people make mistakes. How do I set it up on the feet?

The olympics corrupts everything it touches.

As a guy who grew up with judo in the 80's I don't understand why a different full contact org hasn't become the standard. MMA is mainstream, bare knuckle is gaining acceptance. I guess the choice is non judo grappling tournaments or abandoning judo for BJJ

where can I get this "pocket sand"?

Can do one about gripping rules?

Shihan "Gigoro kanu" if he find out that they forbid Atemi waza he will be mad ... leg grabs !? he surly will curse.

I dig how you brought up the striking. I can't understand the slippery slope fallacy about leg grabs that soon everything other than staring at your opponent is banned. I don't like the bjj style hugging the legs and just falling down all the time or just avoiding any interaction on feet by leg grabbing as an easy way out when you can launch far away to the legs. I much prefer upright judo where both players address gripping and play a lot of strategies on trying to beat the opponents position and grip. Some leg grabs are neat but I'll say it: it just looks ass. And back to the striking point, I've always wondered how people bring up how leg grabs are/would be so useful in a real situation and should be a part of competitive judo, when everyone should have the common sense that the quickest way to address someone hunching over or diving is giving them a huge hammer smash on the neck or kicking their teeth in. Competitive judo is a sport, not a casual self-defense hobby. Amateur and casual judo practiced outside competition has all the techniques all the way from weapons and strikes, anyone is allowed to practice those outside competition if they so please. Nobody complains about lack of bladed weapons in competitive judo. But I want to see competitive judo where there's action and interaction. And I much prefer how leg locks and some other techniques are out as well, prolonging athlete's career and not killing it at its peak, also not driving kids and adults out of the sport when they mess up a joint for life for one bad partner or poorly executed leg throw. Calculated risks are much preferred to high risk high frequency injuries. And if you care so much about that self-defense and "real fight" stuff, learn to run god damn fast. And get a gun (don't get a gun, most countries have greatly restricted owning guns and carrying them for a good reason), both of those will solve your fights much faster and with less damages to yourself than any martial art. And don't mix competitive sport stuff with it (IJF rules are about competitive sport, not self-defense and that stuff). I also think it stands to reason that dojos teach casual and amateur players the philosophy and skills of judo, they have a separate competitive group and even kata group so anyone can find what interests them the most. And for graduating from being a student you actually have to know all that stuff, you do have to know the leg grabs among other non-competitive techniques. To progress in black belts you have to do all the kata as well so you will be taught and learn even the weapon related judo. It's not like IJF is taking away parts of judo from you, you just aren't allowed to use them in international competition (for good reasons many times). And you who tend to write comments complaining about it, I don't know how often you compete internationally, but the international judo players don't seem to mind much. If I want to watch adults fall down all the time voluntarily, I'll watch more soccer.

As a wrestler that wants to learn judo I like the idea just because it makes it less like wrestling with a gi and more like it’s own thing where you get to throw people lol 😂

My favorite throw was Te-Guruma when I was a young green/ brown belt. So, I agree that Judo lost some very dynamic, and useful techniques.

What was the reason for banning leg grabbs?

Please write these comments to IJF.

5:52 I mean not necessarily. Even in MMA there are still guys like Gamrot who shoot the low single without getting booted in the face. If you gave good timing and athleticism, a lot of traditional wrestling techniques that people assume won't work if striking is involved can be pulled off.

Leg grabs don't only happen from a wrestling stance.

Are leg grabs still taught in Judo? I want to take it for self defense but I want the leg grabs too.

I've never practiced or watched judo before, but it seems pretty interesting. I was wondering, what if we increased the number of waza-aris required to score an ippon where a leg grab is worth, say one waza-ari and anything upper body is worth 2 or something like that? Incentivise upper body throws without banning anything lower body.

Allow legs grabs but no ippon, maybe wazari from it but allow people to take the fight to the ground if you are facing an oppent that you struggle with

Just started Judo how ever I have been doing Bjj for many years. I feel in love with judo. I honestly believe if they started no-gi judo tournaments they can add leg grabs. I think it will be great for the sport. I’m a nobody tho just my opinion.

Just a further watering down of Kano JuJitsu. The sissified version of competition Judo is a joke compared to what Judo used to be.

My old Judo coach who was active in the late 70s through 80s told me back in 2005 that the Olympics were both the best thing and the worst thing to happen to Judo. It was great in times past for all the viewers it gave to the sport. It was a bad thing for the fact that it was being turned into what would be "exciting" to see on tv vs what the martial art was teaching at it's core. BJJ wants to be an Olympic sport. They should be careful what they wish for.

Ok can someone please answer a question I have. Were these techniques like leglocks, and leg grab takedowns banned from competition or removed from the judo curriculum completely?

I believe that the IJF and IOC were terrified of being besieged by thousands of "unemployed" wrestlers who would naturally convert to Judo after wrestling was dropped from the Olympic schedule... they've been trying to make the Olympics more attractive to advertisers for decades and wrestling just wasn't drawing in the viewership for marketable demographics of which their advertisers lusted. Most people don't know that wrestling was only reinstated as a TEMPORARY sport through the next cycle so its likely to face the axe yet again. The IJF/IOC knew by getting rid of leg attacks they heavily reduced the chance of judo being dominated by a bunch of Eastern European and Mongolian athletes who don't represent a profitable demographic for marketing processed foods, cheeseburgers, t-shirts and Sodapop🤔

The best solution would have been to only allow one hand below the belt. That way we’d still have big pick ups like Kata Guruma and Te Guruma, while it would still be reasonably upright and remove the mindless spamming we saw in 2008.

they should make that leg grabs could only score a waza ari and cannot win with two leg grabs

“The ultimate martial art: pocket sand” lol

Rusty Shackleford invented pocket sand.

I love this channel, the man obviously is well educated in the art and sport. However, the IJF seems to me it spat it's dummy on leg grabs due to Russians and eastern block countries beating Japanese fighters with "leg grabbing" techniques. Nothing more nothing less. I wouldn't say Russian or eastern block fighters were dominating japanese judokas but it definitely ruffled feathers

It lost my membership lol

I don't think any technique should be banned it just gets watered down and lose what judo is

As much as I don't like that judo got neutered, I can appreciate the lack of leg grabs it does teach better habits for fighting. Learn to sprawl and learn some muay thai and it's op. You can put the fight where you want it. They're a striker close distance and throw them, they're a wrestler or bjj and you think their ground game is better keep your distance and if they close punish with elbows and knees. It's abusive. Muay thai clinching isn't as good as judo but it's still improved my judo. I use the punching, parrying, footwork, and closing distance techniques to get better grips most of the time even if I get out judoed later.

Make all throws legal.

Olympic water down Judo, Turing it into a tiger without teeth & claws. It is great that some Judo schools still teach outlawed moves, for the self defense aspect. Rather than focusing on only the sport aspect. Of course in the street’s your not going to stay low because you’ll get kicked or kneed to the face. All about timing, It’s good to know leg locks especially when going against a Sambo or a Catch wrestler.

Want leg grabs do shuai Jiao.

judo is diminished b/c you cant grab the legs.

Not exactly correct about the MMA point. People predominantly go for leg grabs (tbf a disproportionate number of wrestlers), HOWEVER they always have to set them up. So the point about posture is 100% correct, but the takedowns and defense simply become more dynamic and explosive in a real fight. Like what was mentioned about "outside Judo". A good ruleset would recognise this and try to compensate for the lack of punishing strikes, but not remove a vast amount of tevhniques and interplay outright. The other lacking thing in modern Judo is any sort of ground game. It is so basic and so rare that it might imo it's actually being overtaught for competition purposes. This could be addressed even simpler and make the martial art a lot more complete, without ruining viewership (1 min of ground work is not necessarily more boring than 1 min of pointless gi pulls in a standing stalemate". It's all a matter of ruleset. If there were amateur competitions with modofied rules, I'd personally pay to watch them.

So many techniques are banned in Judo. This is why I stopped

What are we talking about. Judo was simple, you have to throw the opponent, throw him... and that's it. Regardless of technique, leg grips or not. The important parameters were: amplitude, control and falling with the whole back on the tatami. Everything else was not a throw, and you get penalties for avoiding fight or positive Judo, with fake attacks. But no, let destroy whole art... Today, Judokas do not know how to defend leg attacks. Would today's multiple champions even be champions under the old rules? Today, there is this height advantage, if someone is taller than me, they have an advantage, but with the old rules and a disadvantage... (because their legs are more exposed to the attacks of a shorter opponent).Sorry for the language, it's not my native language. Good job with the techniques and videos. Thank you.

Shintaro just create an new Judo brother, the Higashi judo or something. Shit on those IJF shit

OSU

The IJF banned leg grabs because the Olympics thought it looked to much like freestyle wrestling so the IJF was scarred that one day the IOC wouldn't put Judo in future Olympics. It doesn't make any sense because judo is jacket wrestling and changing the rules to make it look less like wrestling doesn't make any practical sense to me. Now Olympic Judo looks like Greco-Roman wrestling, with a jacket.

IJF is killing judo

It's great they banned it in competition. It's horrible they banned teaching it in class. As if students are too dumb to NOT use moves they know in competition.

I think they should have split Judo into two sports; self defense Judo and sport Judo.

They now have freestyle judo tournaments and now there schools teach freestyle judo. I don't agree with the new judo. You shouldn't never wash down an art just for a sport. This art is for self defense period not for sport period.

The rules in Judo now are so dumb. There are too many.

I'll tell you another thing they lost. My yearly dues.....

Im tryna get high

Well Olympic Judo has become massively boring to watch. In my dojo we train for real fighting, so leg graps very much in Only 1 in 1000 judokas ever need to Think competition rules so why Care

When they banned leg grabs, they totally 100% ruined Judo. It isn't Judo anymore--just a spectator worshipping spot that bears a slight resemblance to a former martial art. Just as Baseball's integrity was 100% destroyed when they placed a clock on the Pitchers.