r/judo • u/MasterofLinking shodan • Dec 17 '24

Competing and Tournaments Kouchi while grabbing your own leg.

At a recent local tournament we had this situation, that was a little bit of a controversy. While Tori is not grabbing Ukes leg, in my opinion preventing the possibility of stepping back and thus defending the throw would still fall under blocking the leg. What's your opinion? Would you have given the score or shido?

>! decision was score !<

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u/MarsupialFormer Dec 18 '24

The fact that we have to question whether this is legal, or not, shows how absurd it is to pile on so many rules....to a point where, then, you have to interpret whether such a wonderful technique is.....LEGAL!!!!

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u/averageharaienjoyer Dec 18 '24

What are you talking about, all sports have rule controversies, judo is hardly special here

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u/jephthai Dec 18 '24

Haha, judo makes substantial, strategy changing rule changes at a shocking pace compared to other sports. It's bizarre how the proper look of judo has to change so often. I wonder if people who pretend the judo isn't special in this way just don't really keep up with other sports.

2

u/averageharaienjoyer Dec 18 '24

You're kidding right? As an immediate example, here is Aus the Australian Football League rules are altered almost every year. Some of these are just as contentious in judo, like the holding the ball issue in 2024.

Granted, that example doesn't involve 'changing the proper look of the sport'. So here is another example, the rules changes in the early UFCs. The look and feel of the early UFCs changed quite substantially as it evolved due to rule changes. After UFC 5 a change was introduced to allow the ref to stop the action and restart. UFC 12 introduced weight classes. UFC21 introduced rounds. These and other changes produced something quite different from the early UFC.

Anyway, the changes in judo suggested next year are hardly substantial and are not going to 'change the proper look of judo'.

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u/jephthai Dec 18 '24

All the sports do rule updates; im not disputing that. But the significance of the changes is rarely as high as what judo does every two years.

Your UFC example is irrelevant -- it's a sport that's barely 30 years old. The analogous discussion would be how much judo changed from, say, 1882 to 1902.

For judo to still suffer under constant identity crisis 140 years into its history of having tournaments is just amazing.

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u/averageharaienjoyer Dec 18 '24

What identity crisis? It is the sport of throwing, controlling or submitting an opponent, always has been, and still is?