Kouchi while grabbing your own leg.

[u/MasterofLinking]

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 !<

[u/jephthai]

I'm trying to think of the last time tennis added a new amount of points you can score... judo has flip flopped on ippon/wazari/yuko/koka multiple times in my lifetime.

American football pushed the two point conversion to the pros awhile back... otherwise, can't remember a new or different way to score points. And when was the last time football banned some popular type of play that the refs just didn't like the look of?

The significant rule changes in sumo since the fricking 1600s fit on one page. In sumo when someone does something weird and beats everybody, they glory in it. In judo they say it doesn't look like judo and nerf it. There is no avenue whereby judo can naturally evolve within a coherent framework with competitive innovation.

Yes, other sports have controversial rules. And they have changes on an ongoing basis. But they usually involve the minutia, not core or classic strategy shifts.

IMO, and i love judo, but it's embarrassing.

[u/Dry_Guest_8961 → u/jephthai]

Tennis changed their scoring system very recently, introducing fifth set tie breakers

[u/jephthai → u/Dry_Guest_8961]

Oh no, my entire logic is broken ;-). One small rule change that affects a few matches in only four tournaments every year stands in stark contrast against Judo rules that nerf whole gripping strategies, change fundamental scoring criteria that affects all matches everywhere, etc., every two years. Judo has the most unbelievable insecurity about its own rules... it's truly amazing.

[u/Dry_Guest_8961 → u/jephthai]

I’m no supporter of the rule changes but major sports are continually changing the rules all the time. Look at football (soccer). Introduction of VAR has led to multiple fundamental rule changes and back and forth on things like hand ball and offside over the past number of years to the point many people no longer understand fundamental rules that affect almost every single game played.

I think we shouldn’t change the rules as often as we do but arguing that other sports don’t do it as often, is a poor argument against it because it’s A) irrelevant, B) not true, and C) not a valid comparison because most other major sports are in completely different situations in terms of the sports maturity and the wider public appeal and familiarity with the rules already in existence.

[u/jephthai → u/Dry_Guest_8961]

I don't keep track of soccer... I did just sit in on an international referee seminar on the koka scoring rule changes. I think trying to pretend that the occasional changes you see in other sports are anywhere close in magnitude to the changes we get frequently in Judo is some kind of stockholm syndrome. We might just have to agree to disagree on your point (B).

On point (A), it's relevant, IMO, because competition is built on shifting sand when the rules change a lot. And relevant to point (C), I think frequently changing rules is an impediment to courting wider public appeal and familiarity. I'll point to the fact that most actively training judokas get confused about how the rule changes are applied, it's hopeless for spectators.