Since the Japanese Judo Federation announced that leg grabbing would be allowed (with restrictions) and, subsequently, since the IJF said will announce some new rules in January 2025, speculation on this issue has reached its peak.
So far, nothing concrete has been announced, but there have been some alleged leaks. A famous judo YouTuber even made a video based on some of these alleged leaks. Are they reliable? Nobody knows.
But we’ve heard three things that are supposedly likely to happen:
a) Some leg gripping will be allowed.
b) Shido will not be penalized for leaving or pushing.
c) Hansoku-make will not be declared when the head lightly touches the tatami during a projection.
Let’s take a look at these three possibilities:
First of all, about the leg grip. I think most people agree that upright judo is more attractive to watch than judokas who just lunge for their legs. At the same time, I think many people also agree that it is a shame that dynamic techniques such as kata-guruma and te-guruma, performed with leg holds, are not allowed.
Basically, the general opinion among most competitors is that some form of leg holding should be allowed. The question is what restrictions should the IJF impose to prevent judo from becoming something like wrestling?
One approach is to require that at least one hold be secured before attacking with the leg hold, just as in the case of the bear hug. If you do a bear hug without any grip, it’s a penalty. If you do a leg grab without any grip, it can also be considered a penalty. This will help limit jumping towards the legs. It means morote-gari won’t be an option, but most people won’t care.
What about the abuse of the leg grab for shido playing purposes? What if someone keeps grabbing the leg to look busy without making any real attacks? Well, the rules should reflect that simply grabbing the leg without any serious effort in an actual technique attempt will not count as an action and a judoka who constantly grabs the leg could still receive a shido.
Secondly, there is no shido for leaving the competition area. A lot of people may have forgotten about it, but there was a period in the 2010s when the IJF experimented with it. And during that time, many athletes wrestled with one leg outside the competition area. There were also many cases where bouts were diverted outside the competition area, without penalty.
At that time there was no problem and there was not much abuse of that rule. I don’t remember many jcompetitors going out on purpose or pushing their opponents on purpose. The judokas fought freely and if they strayed outside the competition area, mate was declared so they could return to the fight. It didn’t really hinder the flow of the fighting.
I felt it was a good development and was surprised (and disappointed) that the IJF later tightened the rule so much that even an accidental step outside the competition area resulted in shido (and sometimes cost competitors the match).
Again, there must be rules that penalize very brazen attempts to leave the competition area. But if two judokas are fighting hard and the one with his back against the edge accidentally comes out, that competitor should not be penalized. Just bring him back and let the fight continue.
With this rule change, you eliminate a way of playing shido where the intention is to pressure uke to come out. You want more projections and more ippones, so you eliminate the opportunities for this possibility.
Third, the head dive. When there is a reckless dive by Tori, all audience members cringe because they can imagine that person (or themselves) being seriously injured. Maybe it will even result in paralysis. Nobody likes to see that. That kind of head diving needs to be punished with hansoku-make. But not if Tori’s head briefly brushes the tatami.
Under current rules, too many judokas received hansoku-make when their heads barely touched the tatami. The rules on that were too strict. It’s not fair. Hopefully the new rules will fix this problem.
FUENTE: JudoInside/JudoCrazy
PHOTOS: IJF/Gabriela Sabau/Xavier Araújo
