My unpopular opinion is that we need to divorce judo (and other martial arts in general) from the idea of self defense and focus on sport. Sport is what keeps the interest alive. Too many people have these notions that what they're doing is going to be super effective at protecting them in the streets, while they live in some peaceful suburb. Even if you were a master of every martial art, we don't live in a vacuum, and all anyone needs to do is graze you with a knife and a lot of your training goes out the window. We need to stop comparing styles and their efficacy. Each style exists in its own little world and if it makes you happy to train that and use it in its appropriate way, then awesome. I personally don't care if we have leg grabs or not; if anything I like that my opponent can't grab my leg, because it emboldens me to try more exciting throws. There are enough techniques and variations left for the GAME of randori to be fun without leg grabs. If you're so keen on doing something different, then go do something different. Go wrestle, go do BJJ, go do Sambo, go do MMA. Sports evolve. They change over time. People will always game the rules. New metas will develop when rules change. New innovators will force rule changes. Life IS change. Reverting back to some more archaic form of the sport doesn't revive some lost respect it had, it alienates the people currently practicing the modern rules. People need to accept what is, instead of wishing for things to be different. Nobody is forcing you to do judo if you hate the ruleset so much. If you stop looking at judo as some deadly martial art that doesn't change over time and is currently being taught in a way that excludes vital information, and instead look at it as a sport that is alive and dynamic, you will stop being so miserable about it. It's supposed to be fun.
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u/JaladinTanagra ikkyu Jul 07 '25
My unpopular opinion is that we need to divorce judo (and other martial arts in general) from the idea of self defense and focus on sport. Sport is what keeps the interest alive. Too many people have these notions that what they're doing is going to be super effective at protecting them in the streets, while they live in some peaceful suburb. Even if you were a master of every martial art, we don't live in a vacuum, and all anyone needs to do is graze you with a knife and a lot of your training goes out the window. We need to stop comparing styles and their efficacy. Each style exists in its own little world and if it makes you happy to train that and use it in its appropriate way, then awesome. I personally don't care if we have leg grabs or not; if anything I like that my opponent can't grab my leg, because it emboldens me to try more exciting throws. There are enough techniques and variations left for the GAME of randori to be fun without leg grabs. If you're so keen on doing something different, then go do something different. Go wrestle, go do BJJ, go do Sambo, go do MMA. Sports evolve. They change over time. People will always game the rules. New metas will develop when rules change. New innovators will force rule changes. Life IS change. Reverting back to some more archaic form of the sport doesn't revive some lost respect it had, it alienates the people currently practicing the modern rules. People need to accept what is, instead of wishing for things to be different. Nobody is forcing you to do judo if you hate the ruleset so much. If you stop looking at judo as some deadly martial art that doesn't change over time and is currently being taught in a way that excludes vital information, and instead look at it as a sport that is alive and dynamic, you will stop being so miserable about it. It's supposed to be fun.