Judo UK

There are currently discussions happening with in the Judo community about the UK grading systems. Speculation has emerged that the UK Grading system could not incorporate Contest style matches where you ultimately fight for your belts.

The idea is that theory or Kata could be more heavily used when trying to obtain your belts. There is no official word about the subject but I have heard speculation from various sources that Kata could play apart.

If match style contests were dropped from grading, what would this ultimately mean for Judo?

Personally, I started Judo because of the fact of its grading system was one of the hardest to obtain your belts within the Martial Art world. Fighting for your belt is, in my opinion, the only way to know if your technique (or your ability in adapting your technique) is effective or not!

And what a feeling when you win your fights and get your belt… no Kata in to world can provide you with such a sense of achievement.

Again, my own personal preference, I prefer the Martial aspect of Judo, than the Art.

This is not to say that Kata or theory doesn’t have its place in Judo or Judo grading. Studying the technique in greater detail and trying to refine and prefect that technique can only have a great advantage to your understanding of Judo, your ability to perform the technique and ultimately, thinking ahead, keeping the Spirit of Judo alive.

I think it is unlikely that the match fights will ever be replaced in Judo, but I think the argument of Kata and theory in grading has been slightly misinterpreted. I believe discussions (or maybe decisions) have been conducted to how Kata can be incorporated into Judo in the UK and all in all I think this is a great thing because it will ultimately help us as Judo practitioners to understand our Art in a depth that competition can not.

For those of you that do not know what Kata looks like in Judo, here an example:

Today, at the grading in Cardiff WIS, I was graded to 6th Kyu (Green Belt) level! Two fights, the first fight was lost to a stupid sacrifice throw on a guy that was a few stone heavier than myself. Not great! The second went better and won by Ippon with Tani Otoshi. What I found was I rushed into the first fight, rashly trying to create opportunities which ultimately off balanced myself and thus I lost.

The second I found myself capitalising on the mistakes made by Uke, which is an important lesson, especially at the lower grades of Judo. As we are still very raw in our techniques we ultimately end up throwing ourselves! So my advice is dominate grips, keep balance and don’t overstretch yourself too much. Wait for the opponent to make his / her mistakes and capitalise.

Watching the higher grades, it is apparent that this technique will not work due to the fact that your opponent will make less mistakes; it will be you on your back! For all you people that want to see my final fight here it is! It’s not much technique wise, but it win none the less!

P.S. Excuse the commentary at the end…

Grading time again for all Welsh Players. The next date for Promotion Examinations in set on the 16th March 2008. Juniors need tp book in 8.30am – 9am and 10am – 10.30am for all seniors (from my experience it always seems to be around 11.30 when we actually get started!).

Examinations will be takening place at the Welsh Institute of Sport (for directions click here!).

Remember to bring your licence and for extra information see the Welsh Judo Association website (or the Calander on the their website).

See you there!