Introduction To Judo

Developed in Japan by Jigoro Kano in 1882, Judo was originally designed to help physically weak people overcome those who were much stronger. From this noble and obscure beginning a great sport was born. Now a modern, progressive Olympic sport, Judo has evolved considerably from its roots in the Tokyo Kodokan.

First seen as a demonstration at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 1932, Judo did not become an official Olympic sport until the men's category was introduced by the Japanese at the Tokyo games in 1964, with Anton Geesink of the Netherlands winning the gold medal in the men's open weight event. The women's and Paralympic categories were introduced for the Seoul Games in 1988.

In keeping with other martial arts, Judo is sub-divided into weight classes as well as being differentiated by gender and grade. Each gender is divided into seven weight categories, with men's weight categories starting at under 60 kg then 60 - 66, 66 - 73, 73 - 81, 81 - 90, 90 - 100 and over 100 kg. Women's weight categories are under 48 kg, 48 - 52, 52 - 57, 57 - 63, 63 - 70, 70 - 78 and over 78 kg.

The grading system in Judo also competitors to be more equally matched at events. The Judo grading system incorporates nine different colour belts, starting at white, then red, yellow, orange, green, blue, brown, black and red/white striped. The red/white striped belt denotes a grade of sixth Dan or higher. Competitive Judo is broken into two categories, blue belt lower and brown belt or higher. It is rare for competitive events not to be organised this way. To attain Dan grade in Judo, judoka must be at least 15 years old. To progress to a second Dan grade judoka must be minimum age of 20 years old.

When competing, there are up to five ways that an individual match can be won. These include throwing your opponent and landing them flat on their back, forcing your opponent to submit with either a choke, strangle or arm-lock, holding your opponent flat on their back for 25 seconds, referees decision and by points. To win by referee's decision, the match needs to have finished with both judoka level on scores after five minutes and an additional three minutes of golden score. Golden score is the scenario whereby the first scoring technique wins. The scoring techniques are known as ippon or full score (throwing to flat on back, hold-down or submission), waza-ari or half score (landing your opponent on their shoulder/side of body or holding down for 20 seconds) and yuko (hold-down for 15 seconds or throwing onto the side of the leg).

In Judo competitions two bronze medals are awarded alongside the silver and gold medals. When a judoka loses the semi-final of an event he/she must fight what is known as a repecharge bout against the finalist's defeated opponent from the quarter final. The winner of this match is awarded a bronze medal. Currently, Judo is the only Olympic sport to offer two bronze medals.

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