Shohei Ono defends leg grab attempt

Competed in both the Green Belt and Brown Belt divisions, and it was a hell of a tournament.

In the Green Belt division, I secured a clean ippon, followed by a choke—only to be told after the fact that chokes weren’t allowed. Both my coach and I had checked, and even one of the organizers admitted they changed the rule earlier in the week. At least I wasn’t disqualified from the event, so I kept pushing and won my third match. Even though I beat the guy who took gold, he got me out of the 1st Place because his fastest ippon was two seconds quicker than mine.

The Brown Belt division was a battle. Had a tough, all-out match with a teammate, where I had to pull out a Makikomi, which I’ve never used in competition or dojo, to get the win. In my next match, my opponent got dominant grips, and I panicked, and decided for a sacrifice throw that the ref ruled as a Kosoto Gari. After watching the footage, I have to agree, it looked like kosoto gari and I should’ve just taken the shido.

Overall, it was an amazing experience. For the first time in a tournament, I felt strong, energized, and ready to keep going, instead of drained after every match. Now, it’s just about bringing that same energy to the next one and refining the little details.

Added the full sequence but my question is around the head lock variation at the end. I hit a lat drop to start the sequence but what is the actual judo name to the throw at the end? (last match of the day and I was beat so ignore how sloppy everything is)

A friend of mine took part in a tournament and was asked to remove mouth guard by the referee. Why? I can not find a clear section from the judo rules which prohibit using mouth guard.

Has this happened to you? If has, what has been the explanation?

Here are some pictures from last weekend! Our team, High Noon, ended up defending our overall team title from last year! We are based just outside Washington DC! It’s awesome that USA Judo provides an opportunity like this. It really encourages dojos to bring as many people as possible and it’s really helped build club culture. The team was really excited when we won last year and it really created an awesome dynamic. Thank you to USA Judo for a great event.

I’ve noticed many novice judokas at local tournaments do little more than wait for their opponent to attack so they can counter with tani otoshi. It seems to be the easiest way to win a novice tournament. And since referees at local/novice tournaments rarely give shindos for passivity, this seems to be the best strategy if winning is your goal

I went to a tournament where a yellow belt kept sliding in with tani otoshi (with no regard for knee safety) and won most of his matches this way. I couldn’t blame him because it was working so well. But in his last match, his opponent, a brown belt, anticipated the tani otoshi and tried to respond with ouchi gari. Their legs became entangled, and the fall resulted in a knee injury for the brown belt... ahhh I felt so bad for him

Also, a different brown belt at my club has a beautiful uchi mata and kata guruma. But at the tournament, he didn’t use them and mainly scored with tani otoshi. The funny thing is, he almost never goes for tani otoshi in randori lol

Just an observation from my neck of the woods. I’m curious whether this is a common strategy in your country and at your level as well. Any tips on how to deal with it?

Hey everyone. As the title says, I won of an autistic kid. I feel so bad. I genuinely feel bad because I saw him arrive in sandals with his parents, he had a huge smile on his face and I could see how excited he was to compete. We are both 15.

While weighing I heard we were in the same group, which meant we were fighting each other.

My name gets called and I arrive at the mat and I see I have to fight him, I already thought I would be winning the fight. So the fight starts and he goes for o-goshi. I counter him with an ura nage and he flies and lands very hard on the mat, I score an ippon. I could see in his eyes that it hurt and I asked him: “are you okay??” He said he was fine and we bowed and shake hands and I get the win.

I’d say about 5 minutes later I see him hugging his mother and crying. I felt very bad so I went up to him. I told him im so sorry and asked if he really was fine. His mom told me it’s okay and he is quite sensitive (im a pretty strong guy but very light, that’s why im in the same weight class)

I end up winning 4 out of 5 fights and I place 2nd. He placed last. I went up to him again and told him it was a great fight and he is a good judoka. He told me it was all okay and it was his first time competing. I said goodbye and went home.

When I got home I got very upset and felt really bad. It’s now been two days and I still feel bad. Was it bad of me doing that? Was it my fault? I feel really bad and just need some advice.

I had a rough time at a grading this weekend. I had 3 fights, won 2 and drew 1 and got the last 10 points towards my 3rd Dan (woo!), but this experience made me feel like crap.

In my first fight, I tried to throw a girl with a tani otoshi. I guess my foot placement wasn't great and she yelped as I took her back. Ref called mate, checked if she was okay, she limped but said she was, we carried on and drew the fight. When we came off, she told everyone I was dangerous and wouldn't look at me. She then had 2 fights after this.

Second fight, I threw the girl with a Yoko wakare, didn't pull it off but in groundwork got her to submit to a waki gatame. As we were bowing off, she shouted across the mat that I needed to work on my judo and that I had injured her with my Yoko wakare. Everyone heard this and it was so embarrassing. Then off the mat, she was telling me about how I am using too much strength and fighting her like I am fighting a man. We are the same weight and she went on to have more fights after this.

These probably sound like minor things but I'm a shy woman and as these fights happened one after the other, it was a confidence knock.

Originally I was beating myself up about this but now I realise I didn't do anything wrong. I've never had anyone make these kind of comments on my judo before and I've never injured anyone in years (and obviously that was an accident!).

To make me feel like I'm not alone, tell me your experiences of poor sportsmanship- whether that's at club or a competition 😊

Hi everyone! I'm really excited to share this with this beautiful community. A month ago the college national tournament in Perú took place and i'm really happy i could win it. I wanted also to thank you all because there is a lot of useful information and really nice people here that help nurture judo skills and mentality, as well as training methods or also just provide a friendly conversation. I started judo a year ago and i'm in love with it and i feel like it gave me a reason to live. Anyway sorry for venting out that much i'm just really grateful with you and judo.

Last time I shared a competition match (https://www.reddit.com/r/judo/s/QFbBJYRQPI) - I got some really good and constructive feedback - so thank you to all that gave guidance. Those tips have helped in LvR situations - but I’m struggling in LvL.

Match background: In this match I’m blue (bald guy). For both of us - it was each our 4th match of the morning - I promise our earlier matches were more energetic! I was very impressed with my opponent - he conducted himself really well throughout the day (won 4 of his 5 matches) and hit some really good throws in all his matches.

Is there anything I can do better in a LvL situation? Especially in regards to gripping, movement and general match approach?

Abe was clearly better technician attacking furiously with Gaba being overly cautious. Then in golden score, size and strength started to show as Abe’s attack was getting less and less efficient. Always wondered how Abe would do against higher weights class and this team competition allowed to witness “open weights” competition. What a final!

Source: https://youtu.be/QgMMyK4ETLI

Got my girlfriend started about midway through December and this weekend was her very first tournament. She did amazing, taking home bronze in a bracket of 11 people. This was her very first match after only roughly 8 weeks of training.

Hey, I recently competed in a local Judo tournament as a novice. I am on the left with the blue satch.

It’s been less than a year since i started Judo, and it was my first proper tournament. I had 2 matches, I won 1 and lost 1, came 3rd in total out of 5.

This is the match I lost, I definitely need to improve my kzushi n attacks in randori but if anyone has any other advice to better my game please let me know!

This weekend I went to compete at a local competition, and I'm kidding you not out of the 3 people I fought all they did is try drop seoi nage. As someone who competes at -66, 99% of put this weight class to shame with all the drop seoi nage spam.

To many people complaining because they don’t like the outcome and not enough addressing the absolute spectacle of judo we just saw. That entire final could go up against any other great Olympic moment as one of drama, intensity, and great sportsmanship. Shido are needed as warnings but in the modern sport they have been weaponized and I think sometimes ruin the actual sport of these bouts. I think no member of this match will view it as a stain but as one of their best contests win or lose.