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/Dry_Guest_8961 nidan Apr 14 '25

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

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u/jephthai Apr 14 '25

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.

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u/Dry_Guest_8961 nidan Apr 14 '25

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.

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u/jephthai Apr 14 '25

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.