Olmps

JUDO

28 July–3 August 2012

ExCel Arena

Athletes: 336 | Golds up for grabs: 14

Olympic presence

Men 1964 & 1972–present; women 1992–present.

Olympic Format

Seven weight categories for both men and women.

Contenders:

At Beijing 2008, Japan was the strongest judo nation

but China’s women were very successful. . Competition will be coming from the South Koreans, the stars of Mongolia, Geor- gia and Azerbaijan, and the best European nations, especially the French, Germans and Dutch. . In the men’s heavyweight and open divisions, look out for Japan’s Daiki Kamikawa and the French Guadeloupian Teddy Riner.. Masae Ueno ( Japan) will be going for her third consecutive Olympic gold in the women’s under 70kg..

Past Champions:

Japan: 35 | France: 10 | South Korea: 9

Why Watch Judo?

In the Kojiki, an eighth-century chronicle that gath-

ered the foundation myths of the Japanese people, the god Takemikazuchi fights a divine wrestler called Takeminakata for control of the earth, winning the islands for the sun goddess and her

descendants – the people of Japan.. Literally translated as ‘the gentle way’, Judo is a ritualised duel that may be seen as a manifestation of the Japanese soul.. It is the embodiment of a profound tradition of self-discipline and self-improvement, while also being one of the purest expressions of sport as ruthless competition, hence its global popularity..

Judo bouts are sometimes tactical and wary, with each contestant – or judoka – searching for a micro-advantage.. Some are bruising and apparently unstructured tussles.. Some are drawn-out battles of fitness as much as of technique..And some are over in a moment’s flurry of jackets and limbs – so you need to concentrate on the action right from the start..

The Story of Judo

In medieval Japan unarmed combat was widely practised

among the warrior elites, but it was always seen as second best to the real business of killing with weapons..That said, a whole school of armoured wrestling was devised for samurai who, dismounted and unarmed, still wished to fight on..

In 1603 the Tokugawa shogunate began its long rule over Japan.. Sidelining the emperor, the dynasty created a centralised state that was powerful enough to defeat and then disarm the samurai clans who had spent much of the previous five hundred years terrorising the country.. In this new context, martial values were maintained largely by the practice of unarmed combat systems or Jujitsu – best translated as ‘the gentle technique’ or ‘the technique of pliancy’..What had previously been the poor cousin of swordsmanship flourished in a hundred different schools: in some it was infused with an aesthetic that privileged the beauty of a fighter’s movements; in others it served to train new generations of thugs and enforcers..

The shogunate lasted until 1868, when the old order was overturned. .The Meiji restoration returned symbolic power to the emperor, while keeping real executive power with a core of modernisers, who embarked on half a century of systematic

consisted of pinning holds, strangle holds and joint locks;

and striking (atemi waza).. Judo would forge ‘noble and vigorous characters’ who, imbued with the values of self-perfection, mutual welfare and maximum efficiency, would be perfectly equipped for the social complexity of the new Japan.. Its style of fighting – always seeking to turn an opponent’s strengths and weaknesses against him, applying minimum force for maximum results, favouring technique and style over size and power – chimed with the ethos of Meiji Japan, a rising power in a world of giants..

Within a few years judo was on the curriculum at Japan’s teach- er-training institutes, police and naval academies, and its most prestigious universities.. By the eve of the First World War it had become a central element of secondary school education, and was widely taught in the armed forces.. For Kano, judo was a discipline rather than a competitive sport or an adjunct of nationalist ideology.. But after the invasion of China in 1937 and Kano’s death the following year, judo became inevitably aligned with the imperialist ideology of Japanese fascism.. Consequently it was banned by the US occupation authorities in 1946, along with all other martial arts..When judo was finally allowed to re-emerge publicly in 1951 it was as a sport rather than a martial philosophy..

The following year the International Judo Federation

(IJF) was created, with seventeen founding national associations, signalling an end to Japan’s automatic role as the heartland of the sport..The new judo nations were primarily European.. Jujitsu had been popular in Britain and France since the early years of the twentieth century (‘Jujitsu is everything!The streets,the newspapers and magazines, the theatres, the music halls – they all sound the triumphant clarion of this almost magic world,’ proclaimed Le Sport Universel Illustré in 1906), and after the FirstWorldWar a plethora of judo clubs – many led by Kano’s students – sprang up in England,

France, Germany and the Low Countries..

Meanwhile, in the Soviet Union,Victor Oshchepkov, an-

other of Kano’s students, was commissioned with jujitisu expert Viktor Spirindov to devise a self-defence system for the Red Army.. He created something that blended elements of the many different combat sports of the new Soviet republics with the core

dynamics of judo.. In 1937, though, Oshchepkov fell victim to the great purges and his name was obliterated from the official records, along with all references to the foreign and imperialistic influence of judo on the Red Army’s SAMBO self-defence system.. Closely aligned to judo, SAMBO followed its own independent path for the next two decades, but after Stalin’s death a generation of Soviet judoka emerged, bringing a level of disciplined but high energy aggression to the sport that no other nation had achieved..

Game On: Judo Basics

The Playing Space

Judo bouts are conducted on a tatami, based on the

traditional Japanese domestic floor mat but now made of foam and covered in vinyl..The tatami must be scrupulously clean - in the event that blood is inadvertently spilt during a fight, the contest will be stopped and a maniacal cleaning process will follow..The contest area is a bounded inner square at least 8m by 8m and no larger than 10m by 10m.. Bouts last for five minutes for men and four for women.. If no one is ahead at the end of ‘regular time’, the contest continues on a ‘first to score wins’ basis..

New Kit

The difficulty of distinguishing white-clad judoka in

action has led, at the insistence of the IJF, to the introduction of contrasting coloured suits, a move bitterly opposed by the All Japan Judo Federation.. Japanese competitions continue to be conducted in all-white judogi, with one contestant wearing a red belt..

How to Win a Bout

Kano envisaged just one way of winning a bout – an

ippon, scored from a throw that puts the opponent directly on to his back, or from a long hold or submission.. For Kano this system aligned judo with the all-or-nothing peril of real combat.. However, the demands of sporting competition andTV schedules have meant that endless bouts without ippons could not be tolerated, hence the introduction of lesser scores for imperfect throws – the waza-ari and the yuko – which function as tiebreakers..

Ippon is scored for a 30-second pin, a throw direct onto the back or a submission in a lock or choke hold..An ippon scores one full point and ends the match..

Waza-ari is scored for a throw not directly onto the back or of insufficient power to qualify as an ippon and for holds of twenty seconds. When two waza-ari are awarded in the same match they make an ippon and the match ends..

Yuko is scored for a throw of inferior quality to a waza-ari.. One waza-ari beats any number of yukos..

If a bout ends in a draw, the contestants effectively fight a second bout, only this time the first to register any kind of score wins.. If neither scores, the result is decided by hantei – a vote by the referee and two corner judges..

Penalties

A judoka is penalised for inactivity, the use of illegal

moves, and standing outside the mat area..The first penalty received is a warning, the second is a yuko awarded to the opponent..A third penalty is scored as a waza-ari and a fourth – called hansoku-make

– constitutes an ippon.. Hansoku-make can also be awarded for a very serious incident of dissent or rule-breaking..

The Finer Points

The Procession

The competitors’ progress to the mat is always worth

watching: each judoka is flanked by an official and his or her coach, rather like a condemned prisoner en route to the firing squad. . The warm-up routines can be idiosyncratic and instructive.. Expect much ear-rubbing to stimulate adrenaline, plus sumo-esque squats to maximise suppleness.. Competitors are called to the edge of the mat, then to their marks, where they must bow, before the call to engage (Hajime!)..

The Battle of Grips

Most bouts begin with a struggle for the best grip as

a prelude to a throw.. British champion Neil Adams says that in the initial exchange of grips ‘volumes of subtle tactical information are picked up ..... in just a few seconds’.. Note also how judoka on the defensive move, bend and use counter attacks to free themselves

looking good on the dancefloor

Judoka constantly move their feet and shift their

weight in response to the smallest change in their opponent’s position and stance.. Look closely and you’ll see that the interlocking footwork of the contestants is suggestive of a dance..

Judo Goes to the Olympics

While judo’s own world championships are central

to the sport,its broader cultural history has been written most clearly at the Olympics..The inclusion of judo as an official sport at the 1964 Tokyo Games made it the first Olympic sport that had been formalised and codified outside the West..The Games themselves were emblematic of Japan’s return to the international community as an economic superpower shorn of its of aggressive militarism.. Rather than epitomising Japan’s uniqueness and superiority, Judo

DUTCH COURAGE: ANTon GEESINK WINNING THE MEN’S OPEN GOLD At TOKYO 1964

appeared in the guise of a gift to the world – albeit one that the Japanese expected to win..

They certainly put on a show..A large corner of the gardens of the Imperial Palace was turned into a building site as the Nippon Budokan, a 15,000-seat octagonal temple to judo, was built – easily the largest purpose-built arena ever constructed for the sport.. In the presence of the emperor, Japan took the first three gold medals, but for the fourth event, the open weight final, the emperor stayed home, afraid perhaps of the humiliation of defeat..

The open weight was for the Japanese the most important judo medal, for in Kano’s conception of judo mere body mass should never prevail over technique..As Japan’s champion,Akio Kaminaga, faced the gigantic Dutchman Anton Geesink, parliament was closed and companies put TVs on factory floors so that the workers could watch the contest..They were to be disappointed: in an imperious display, Geesink ground his opponent down before trapping him in an unbreakable hold. . Dutch spectators leapt to their feet and were about to invade the mat when Geesink stopped them – a gesture that made him a hero in Japan..

Though absent from the Games in Mexico City, judo has been a constant presence since Munich 1972.. Japan continues to be the

strongest nation, but the drug-fuelled winning machine of East Germany was a strong presence in the 1980s, and the French, Austrians and Dutch have produced their fair share of champions too.. From outside Europe, judoka from Brazil, South Korea and most recently China have all won gold.. Perhaps the most intriguing force in modern judo are Cuba’s women, who have won several medals over the last twenty years..

Yamashita: Last of the Old Guard?

If Kaminaga’s defeat was the low point of Japanese judo at the Olympics, the gold medal won in 1984 byYasuhiro Yamashita has been the pinnacle.Yamashita was the most popular and revered judoka in post-war Japan, both for his fighting prowess and for his demeanour and style.Brought to a judo club as an overweight and difficult child, he was soon recognised as a prodigy. Relentlessly focused and a very quick learner, he made rapid progress to the peak of the sport: from 1977 to 1984 he did not lose a single bout. He was meticulous – he studied his opponents in minute detail on video – and had the soul of a warrior.As he said:‘If they could see on my face what I feel in my heart,no one would ever fight me.’Yet in public he remained true to the dignified humility of Kano’s idealised judoka. Japan’s boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games deprived Yamashita of a medal. At the 1984 LA Games,he was favourite to win the last open weight contest, and duly won his first two bouts with ease. But in the second, against the German Arthur Schnabel, he left the mat limping, having torn a muscle in his right ankle. Despite the pain and his restricted movement he swept a French opponent aside in his third bout and faced the Egyptian Mohamed Ali Rashwan in the final.Rashwan went straight for the damaged leg butYamashita, seemingly oblivious to the pain, countered with a foot

sweep, threw his man and pinned him down for the gold.