r/judo • u/Repulsive-Owl-5131 shodan • Dec 13 '24

Judo News IJF announced new rules

https://www.ijf.org/news/show/judo-presents-the-new-rules

No leg grabs. but lest no leg grabs again limitted to legs not lower back.

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u/Ambatus pt Dec 13 '24 edited Dec 13 '24

Glad to finally have them. I’m disappointed on the overall direction of it, and I think this will - when looking back - be regarded as that moment when things could’ve changed, but didn’t.

Some of the decisions are abstract enough in the way they are described to imagine that they will be inconsistently used. Some of them are up for debate and could be interesting (yuko, although without apparently any change in the criteria for ippon or wazari). Some of them are bizarre when considering past arguments: using the head to throw or defend was debated in terms of safety, with “studies” often mentioned, but it seems that either never was a reason or it stopped being a concern. “Positive action in newaza will be taken into consideration”… for what? What does this mean? How does it play out with a 5s yuko for a pin?

It’s actually not an insignificant amount of changes, in absolute terms, but it’s impossible to avoid comparing them with the bigger context and debate around leg grabs. For “grassroots Judo” specifically, the changes are close to irrelevant and do nothing in terms of improving Judo’s arguments in the competition for the hearts and time of those looking to practice a martial art or combat sport. I hope I'm wrong, but due to the mistatch between the (misplaced, perhaps) expectations and what they are, the negative effect can be accentuated.