Man muß es einfach gelesen haben...
The Future of Judo
I am however meant to finish by saying something about the future of judo but
prediction is quite a risky business with very few predicting accurately.
We have I think three trends influencing Judo. Namely Conservatism, Sportification and
Realism. Conservatism with a capital C seeks to keep judo as it is, namely in the
form that Jigoro Kano devised and of course the arch-conservatives are the Japanese.
The Japanese, however, are hamstrung in this regard. Old and successful native
systems (iemoto) cannot be changed except by their founders or their sons if they
continue in the tradition which Kano’s son did not. Sportification (I cannot think of
another word) is what happens when judo adapts to the demands of television which
is led by what its viewers want and copies what other successful TV sports do. This
of course brings it into conflict with the Conservatives. Obviously a healthy balance
has to be struck between the two and in so far as judo has changed slowly in the last
few decades and not fragmented like other martial arts the balance is probably right.
However in my opinion Realism is more of an insidious and dangerous pressure.
Judo is a combat sport which with its throwing, restraint and submission techniques
makes it an effective combat method but we have to be very careful that we do not
end up like Olympic wrestling which has as its primary aim to pin the opponent’s
shoulders to the mat or like Sumo which is mostly won by pushing the opponent out
of a ring. Both methods of winning are in my opinion symbolic and meaningless from
a combat point of view.
Currently K1 kick-boxing, mixed martial arts (MMA), and Cage fighting (UFC) are
seen frequently on TV and people can see what the most effective combat arts are
especially when one is pitted against another. I recently did TV commentaries on two
very similar activities Taekwondo and Kick Boxing in the same week and thought to
myself how can Olympic Taekwondo (or Karate for that matter) possibly compete
against the full contact realism of professional kick-boxing.
I believe a combat sport must be seen as effective/useful in some way or other
otherwise people will slowly stop doing it. I think this is already affecting judo and
other martial arts such as karate which has declined somewhat. For example a top
sumo man Akebono switched to K1 Kickboxing and got decisively beaten and
inevitably people asked what use was sumo. Sumo is the roughest and toughest of the
Japanese martial arts but its rules are not devised for finishing an opponent off.
This is precisely the outcome that Judo must beware of.
In general I think it is important for judo to adhere equally to its three guiding
objectives as formulated by Kano. In particular it should not deviate too far from its
combat origins as Olympic wrestling and Sumo has done. We depend on people to
come and join our clubs and for some of them to train hard as competitors. For them
to walk through the door they must feel that judo has something practical to offer.
They need a reason to do it. Therefore we need more time allowed for submission
groundwork and stress the full Ippon throw not the low score versions we often see in
competition these days. If people see that judo has something to offer in that respect
they will come in and do it otherwise it may go the symbolic way of Olympic wrestling
and Sumo.
As a final observation today I can say that many in Olympic wrestling are also
looking at format changes and are moving closer to judo (throws now score). The
other day I noticed that the International Wrestling Federation (FILA) now includes
Grappling (submission wrestling – locks and strangles), as of 2006, among its
affiliated arts. Judo could have a strong competitor here I think. Judo is a combat
form of jacket wrestling which does not work so well in summer against very lightly
clad assailants. Perhaps judo needs to take a leaf from wrestling’s book and develop
its own form of ‘jacket-less’ judo and affiliate other jacket wrestling forms. A sumojudo
mix of techniques would be interesting. We must beware that judo does not
slowly slide away from us. Judo has many competitors.
© Syd Hoare 8th Dan 2007
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