The Flog!

The IJF (International Judo Federation) has issued rule changes which are applicable to judoka who compete in tournaments nationally and internationally. Since, as a club, we have limited people competing in shiai, we ordinarily don’t pay much attention to judo tournament rules until someone is about to enter a tournament.

We were aware of the rule against grabbing pant legs and various defensive moves, which have long been frowned upon, and the causes of penalties. We were not aware, though, of the anti-wrestling attitude of the IJF. Basically, the IJF wants judo matches to be upright, showing good form and fast, beautiful, strong throws.  Any stance which looks as though the judoka is about to go to the ground (bending forward, grabbing a leg as with kata guruma, or yoko kata guruma, etc.) are grounds for penalties. Four such penalties in a match for a judoka and the match is awarded to the opponent.

The IJF and its proponents have decided that anything resembling wrestling moves are unacceptable. Granted, Butt Flops are annoying and irritating, usually an indication that the competitor is at a loss for a way to get his or her opponent to the ground. I can see penalizing the judoka for this manoeuver. Turtling without having unbalanced one’s opponent is comparable, and equally penalized.

The area of the rule changes which astounds me is that of being penalized for grabbing your opponent’s leg to take him to the floor. If you are successful, then you will have taken him off-balance, and he will hit the mats, and you will follow him and begin grappling. The fall may not be ippon, but the grab of the leg should not be penalized.

I will admit that throws which are high-amplitude and well-executed look spectacular. The number of people in the world who know judo, however, and watch judo, are very limited. It is not a spectator sport and certainly not a sport which lends itself to television: every time the CBC has shown judo competitions, either for the Nationals or the Olympics, a great deal of instruction for the viewer was necessary, and yet, I’m sure the average viewer still didn’t grasp much of the intricacies.

Judo is very complicated: there’s a lot to learn when studying it. People actually spend their entire lives perfecting techniques. It takes years to get one’s black belt. How can a five minute segment on the point system, throws, joint locks, or any other technique in judo, explain to the viewers what is happening?

To make rule changes with the viewers in mind is an amazing step backward. Rather than incorporating grappling into tournaments, the IJF and its members will have forced all those judokas in the world, who want to advance their skills into other areas, to go to other martial arts. I wonder how many people will leave judo because of the IJF rule changes.

At a time when, I believe, judo clubs should be growing from sport judo to judo/grappling, we have the top judo organization in the world telling us we can’t do anything resembling grappling. Luckily, we can teach whatever we want in our club.

ayjay

February 2, 2010

Everyone I know who follows the UFC was looking forward to the one hundredth episode; there were to be three huge fights, GSP versus Thiago Alves, Brock Lesnar versus Frank Mir and The Ultimate Fighter Season 9 coaches’ fight between Dan Henderson and Michael Bisping. There promised to be talented fighters, and, hopefully, some thrilling fights and action (physical, emotional and psychological).

The first broadcast match was between a judoka, Yoshihiro Akiyama, and Alan Belcher, a muay thai guy. This one went the distance, with strong kicks by Belcher, such that Akiyama’s lead leg was continually whacked, resulting in his limping by the end of round two, and take downs by Akiyama (catching the kicking leg and throwing a straight right). While on the ground, Akiyama ground forearms into Belcher’s face and applied elbows. While standing, the judo guy threw some potent punches and was accurate with his kicks.

By the third round, Akiyama was obviously fatigued and Belcher attacked the lead leg again (as far as I could see Akiyama never changed his stance, a useful thing if your leg is becoming tenderized). Akiyama must also have received a poke to his left eye: his blinking was noticeable, but nothing came of it. Despite being tired, he did a spinning back kick. Belcher did a Superman punch, using the fence to gain purchase, basically launching himself off the fence.

Akiyama had a final take down with a solid left-sided o soto gari and remained on top until the end of the round.  It was a fun fight with both men applying themselves well. Although we thought Belcher won round three, the decision was split in Akiyama’s favour.

Next up were the coaches from The Ultimate Fighter Season 9 – Dan Henderson and Michael Bisping. Henderson had made it known during the series that Bisping was not his favourite person, calling him a “douche bag” and wanting him to stop talking. After the finale of the series, in which three of the four finalists were from the U.K., I think he may also have wanted to prove that the U.S. was capable of winning too.

Henderson is thirty-eight, ancient in fighters’ years against Bisping’s thirty. He looked strong and far heavier than Bisping, who, since his change to middleweight, looks skinny to me. 

The first round had Bisping light on his feet, backtracking most of the time, his legs in an extremely wide stance which had the potential for being off-balance. Henderson kept his eyes on the target and followed Bisping around the octagon, connecting with a leg kick, an uppercut and multiple shots and then, when in the clinch, an elbow. Bisping had a high kick and a looping right punch.

When in another clinch, Henderson used his knees. Bisping tried a take down (against a two-time Olympian in Greco-Roman wrestling) and walked into Henderson’s right hand.

During the break, Bisping’s crew told him to move to the right, essentially away from Henderson’s right hand. In the second round, Bisping almost continually moved to the left. Henderson threw a big right, knocking Bisping out on his feet. When Bisping toppled over, Henderson jumped on him and threw another right to his jaw, more than unnecessary. Bisping was unconscious for some time. Knock Out of the Night.

Georges St-Pierre‘s bout against Thiago Alves was up next. In terms of statistics, the most amazing aspect was St-Pierre’s six inch reach advantage, although the men are only one inch difference in height.

Alves is a very strong guy. Taken down by GSP many times (eight?) during the five rounds, he muscled his way up time after time. He was unable to accomplish anything while on the bottom though. St-Pierre did not always control the match and ended up on his back once, an unusual happening for GSP, but he proved that the belt was all his. He took Alves down, would get both hooks in, force Alves to hold all his weight. He would squash Alves against the fence when standing. He switched stances - a useful thing to throw people off and protect your lead leg.

Unanimous decision in Georges-St-Pierre’s favour. GSP was gracious, saying that Alves was strong and young and would become dangerous.

This was GSP’s first fight since “greasegate”, so it was interesting to see how his corner reacted to everything, whether they would change their behaviours. They had maintained that the rubbing of his back was one of the ways they got him to calm down between rounds. That is in fact what they still did. His corner rubbed his upper back, talked to him, forced him to focus his breathing, talked about what they expected him to do in the next round, had him repeat it. When, after round four, he told his corner that he had pulled a groin, they talked him out of focussing on the groin pull. Fascinating psychological aspects to this fighting business.

The main event was between heavyweights Frank Mir and Brock Lesnar. Mir’s background is in jiu jitsu, with most of his fights ending in submissions in the first round. Lesnar is a college wrestling champion and a former WWE guy. Lesnar is also the biggest guy in the UFC right now, weighing in at 265; he might have been 285 on fight night. Mir weighed in at 245. Mir had a haematoma on his right forehead, acquired during practice, and had his left knee wrapped up completely, as well as both ankles.

Lesnar was there to avenge his only loss in the UFC, which was to Mir. He refused to touch gloves to begin the match and, from the bell, attacked Mir. He used an inside leg kick and straight punch, took Mir down, employing all his massive weight chest-to-chest. He held Mir down by grabbing Mir’s neck with his left hand, thumb applying pressure. He then wrapped his left arm around Mir’s head, controlling his head off the mat and punched short shots to Mir’s face and ribs with his right hand.

Round two had Mir on the attack with a flying knee, a variety of punches and a low kick. He was taken down again, though, the same as in round one. This time, however,  he was at the fence and Mir could not protect himself from the onslaught of Lesnar’s punches to the head and face. TKO referee stoppage.

The audience does not like Lesnar and showed their disdain. Lesnar then gave them two one-finger salutes and went around the octagon screaming, spitting and cursing. There was no need for this behaviour. It is not the WWE. He’s rude and obnoxious in the ring.

The final broadcast fight was between Jon Fitch and Paulo Thiago. Fitch is a jiu jitsu guy with wrestling and submissions as a specialty, whereas Thiago is a jiu jitsu guy with strong boxing skills. Thiago also came into the match undefeated.

This match was very technical, mostly on the ground. Fitch took Thiago down multiple times; Thaigo tried front guillotine chokes while Fitch was in his guard. Fitch seemed not to care about the chokes and at one point actually put his head back IN to the choke. Fitch took Thiago’s back with hooks in, applying many punches to Thiago’s face and ribs. In the third round, Thiago was in Fitch’s guard for some seconds, but ended up on the bottom again with another guillotine attempt. Fitch took Thiago’s back, got the hooks in and rolled with him.

Fitch dominated the match and won by unanimous decision. Unlike Lesnar’s fight against Mir, Fitch offered his hand to Thiago to help him up.

As for Fight of the Night, I can’t decide. Akiyama and Belcher’s fight was exciting and busy. It definitely wasn’t Henderson versus Bisping because Bisping didn’t accomplish anything. GSP versus Alves showed St-Pierre’s dominance in all aspects, including stamina. Lesnar versus Mir showed Lesnar’s strength and size mainly. He put his 900 pound body on Mir’s chest and pounded Mir’s face to mush. Then he was an obnoxious buffoon. Definitely NOT Lesnar versus Mir. I think Fitch versus Thiago had more Fitch than Thiago, so that fight is out.

So it could be GSP versus Alves or Akiyama versus Belcher and I’m leaning toward Akiyama and Belcher.

ayjay

July 13, 2009

p.s. The Fight of the Night was given to Akiyama and Belcher.

Over the last several weeks this topic has been ruminating in the back of my brain, partially because of a comment on judoforum after someone had accessed our brand new website.  This person who was a black belt in judo reacted in a somewhat negative way to our site: he stated that instead of showing judo going to MMA, it should be the other way around, i.e. MMA going to judo. This, of course, is not practical, or reasonable: mixed martial artists are by definition combining skills from multiple martial arts.  They would not go from many to one, unless that one (in this case, judo) were the martial art they started from.

Our club has always had an amalgam of other martial arts: Our previous sempai and sensei had interests ranging from wrestling to aikido. Chris Miller, whom you can see in a number of our videos, practiced kendo for several years. A few years ago, Chris’s wife, Hyekyong, was a member of our class. Her background is in hapkido. Dave practiced the jo for many years and is picking it up again.  We had a Korean fellow in our class for a few months who taught us the basics of taekwondo. We’ve all been to jiu jitsu clubs. Perhaps because of our exposure to these other disciplines, we are more apt to discard the judogi and apply our skills to mixed martial arts.

That does not mean that we have abandoned traditional judo. In fact, to advance in our club, no matter the judoka’s previous experience, he or she must follow the curriculum. If people are keen to learn judo and obtain the higher belts, then they must come to the requisite number of classes and be tested for each belt in succession.

If the class members are not interested in traditional judo on a particular day, we are fine with that as well. We teach and re-teach some traditional judo always, though. Breakfalls are crucial. Many people have come into our dojo saying they know breakfalls and that is definitely not the case. Throws and other techniques are taught the traditional way; however, non-traditional methods are also taught.

If a judo club teaches mostly sport judo, then the traditional judo is essential. The judoka who participate in tournaments must all have the same backgrounds in order to compete in the matches. Other than one person in our wee club, we do not compete. We get together to have fun, learn new techniques and practice old ones.

We rarely bow before the dojo or call Dave, “Sensei”, although we used to do both in our old club at Dalewood. I suspect this comes from two years in the Mouse Room. We have no set rules about judogi. If someone wants to come to class and has no gi or a white jiu jitsu top and black pants or any other variation, we’re OK with that. I’m sure that comment will grate on all those in judo-land who are fanatics about white gis (you know who you are). The point of our club is not to wear a certain garment, but to learn and participate. Eventually people serious about working on judo obtain judogi because they are hardy clothes and appropriate for judo techniques. We can show respect to Dave without bowing and calling him, “Sensei”. We can show respect to the dojo without bowing in and out. We do bow before randori or ne waza matches, though.

I’m not certain why North Americans and Europeans feel a need to be so Japanese and so traditional in their attitude in judo.  Judo really has not been around very long – 127 years – and yet we treat it and Jigoro Kano with a reverence that’s stifling. If judo is to continue, we must broaden our approach, let other ideas in, basically evolve the martial art. We can take the best of judo and use it in other areas, other disciplines. Traditional boxing is going the way of the dinosaur, being incorporated into mixed martial arts. I think that judo is far more complex than boxing and has far more to offer mixed martial artists; however, judo clubs must loosen the rules a bit. Even the English language adds new words continually; although some are stupid (e.g. “meh”), others embrace changing technologies and workplace situations (e.g. “upskill” – to learn new skills).

You know the old definition of tradition without change? It’s constipation. Change without tradition is not any better. It’s diarrhea. We are proposing to meld traditional judo into a non-traditional sport, that of mixed martial arts, using the best of both.

ayjay

January 6, 2008