Judo

WHAT IS JUDO?
Judo is a modern Japanese martial art (gendai budo) and combat sport, that originated in Japan in the late nineteenth century. Its most prominent feature is its competitive element, where the object is to either throw one's opponent to the ground, immobilize or otherwise subdue one's opponent with a grappling maneuver, or force an opponent to submit by joint locking the elbow or by applying a choke.

Strikes and thrusts (by hands and feet) - as well as weapons defenses - are a part of judo, but only in pre-arranged forms (kata) and are not allowed in judo competition or free practice (randori).
Ultimately, the philosophy and subsequent pedagogy developed for judo became the model for almost all modern Japanese martial arts that developed from "traditional" schools (koryu).

History & Philosophy

The early history of judo is inseparable from its founder, Japanese polymath and educator Kano Jigoro (1860–1938). He based the technique on jujutsu.

What does the word judo mean?
Judo means "gentle way". The word shares the same root ideogram as jujutsu, and may mean "gentleness", "softness", "suppleness", and even "easy", depending on its context.

Practice & techniques
Practitioners of judo are called judoka, a judo teacher is called sensei. Judokas traditionally wear white uniforms called judogi. A blue uniform, suggested in 1986, is worn (outisde Japan) by one of the two competitors for ease of distinction by judges, referees, and spectators. The belt is usually coloured to indicate rank.

While judo includes a variety of rolls, falls, throws, hold downs, chokes, joint-locks, and strikes, the primary focus is on throwing (nage-waza), and groundwork (ne-waza). Throws are divided in two groups of techniques, standing techniques (tachi-waza), and sacrifice techniques (sutemi-waza). Standing techniques are further divided into hand techniques ( te-waza), hip techniques ( koshi-waza), and foot and leg techniques (ashi-waza).

Sacrifice techniques are divided into those in which the thrower falls directly backwards (a-sutemi-waza), and those in which he falls onto his side yoko-sutemi-waza).

The ground fighting techniques are divided into attacks against the joints or joint locks (kansetsu-waza), strangleholds or chokeholds (shime-waza), and holding or pinning techniques (osaekomi-waza).
A kind of sparring is practised in judo, known as randori, meaning "free practice". In randori, two adversaries may attack each other with any judo throw or grappling technique.
Striking techniques (atemi-waza) such as kicking and punching, along with knife and sword techniques are retained in the kata. This form of pedagogy is usually reserved for higher ranking practitioners (for instance, in the kime-no-kata), but are forbidden in contest, and usually prohibited in randori for reasons of safety. Also for reasons of safety, chokeholds, joint locking, and the sacrifice techniques are subject to age or rank restrictions.

In randori and tournament (shiai) practice, when an opponent successfully executes a chokehold or joint lock, one submits, or "taps out", by tapping the mat or one's opponent at least twice in a manner that clearly indicates the submission. When this occurs the match is over, the tapping player has lost, and the chokehold or joint lock ceases.

Kata (forms)
Forms (kata) are pre-arranged patterns of attack and defence, which in judo are practiced with a partner for the purpose of perfecting judo techniques. Knowledge of various kata is a requirement for the attainment of a higher rank.

There are seven kata that are recognised by the Kodokan today:

• Free practice forms (Randori no Kata), comprising two kata:
• Throwing forms (Nage no Kata)
• Grappling forms (Katame no Kata)
• Old style self-defence forms (Kime no Kata)
• Modern self-defence forms (Kodokan Goshin Jutsu)
• Forms of "gentleness" (Ju no Kata)
• The five forms (Itsutsu no Kata)
• Ancient forms (Koshiki no Kata) [4]
• Maximum-efficiency national physical education kata (Seiryoku Zen'yo Kokumin Taiiku no Kata)

There are also other kata that are not officially recognised by the Kodokan but that continue to be practiced. The most prominent example of these is the Go no sen no kata, a kata that focuses on counter-attacks to attempted throws.

STYLES

Kano Jigoro's Kodokan Judo is the most popular and well-known style of judo, but is not the only one. The terms judo and jujutsu were quite interchangeable in the early years, so some of these forms of judo are still known as jujutsu or jiu-jitsu either for that reason, or simply to differentiate them from mainstream judo. From Kano's original style of judo related forms have evolved, some now widely considered as distinct arts:

• Olympic Judo: This is the predominant form of Kodokan judo.
• Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: Mitsuyo Maeda introduced judo to Brazil in 1914. Maeda taught judo to Carlos Gracie (1902–1994) and others in Brazil. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu did not follow later changes in international judo rules that were added to emphasise the standing phase of the fight, nor those rules that were introduced to ban the more dangerous techniques.
• Judo-do: In Austria, Julius Fleck and others developed a system of throwing intended to extend judo that they called Judo-do.
• Kawaishi-ryu jujutsu: Teaching in France, Mikonosuke Kawaishi developed Kawaishi-ryu jujutsu as an alternative approach to instruction that continued to teach many techniques banned in modern Olympic/Kodokan Judo competition.
• Kosen Judo: As a sub-style of Kodokan Judo that became popularised in early 20th century Japanese inter-scholastic competition, Kosen style has the same range of techniques but greater latitude is permitted for ground technique. This style of judo is much closer to the original early 1900s judo than current Olympic judo is.
• Russian Judo: This distinctive style of judo was influenced by Sambo. It is represented by well-known coaches such as Alexander Retuinskih and Igor Yakimov, and mixed martial arts fighters such as Igor Zinoviev, Fedor Emelianenko and Karo Parisyan. In turn, Russian judo has influenced mainstream judo, with techniques such as the flying armbar being accepted into Kodokan judo.
• Sambo (especially Sport Sambo): Vasili Oshchepkov was the first European judo black belt under Kano. Oshchepkov went on to create Sambo from judo's influence, integrating other combative techniques into his new system. Oshchepkov died during the political purges of 1937 for refusing to deny his education in Japanese judo under Kano. In their History of Sambo, Dr. Brett Jacques and Scott Anderson wrote that in Russia "judo and SOMBO were considered to be the same thing" - albeit with a different uniform and some differences in the rules.

Organizations
The worldwide governing body for judo is the IJF International Judo Federation. The other important body governing the art is the Kodokan Judo Institute in Japan.

/source: wikipedia/