The Art of Judo

Judo is a beutiful form of martial art that developed in Japan. It has been derived from the even older artform, jujitsu, not to be confused with today's jiu jitsu. The father of judo, Jigoro Kano, studied and mastered the art of self defenses and put them all into one category that we now know today as judo. The sport is often reffered to as the 'gentle way,' becuase its focus is on simoly stopping one's attacker and difusing a situation. The popularity and efficiency of the artform allowed it to make its way into the military and law enforcement. The methods are still taught today in law enforcement and military, of course, they are slightly modified. It is a beautiful and thriving martial artform used to this very day.

The proper dress for anyone on the mat is a gi and belt. The gi is very much like a robe with light-weight pants, the gi top itself is made from very heavy material that is strongly woven together. Added to that is a belt that wraps around the waist of the top part of the gi.

The belt is to be wrapped twice around the waist and specificly tied into a square knot in the front. The belt not only secures the top part of the gi, it also helps to identify rank and skill level.

The first rank ever given to anyone just starting out in the sport is always white, then, as one progresses, depending on the group one belongs to or tournament rules, higher belt ranks can be achieved. They go as followed

1. white
2. yellow
3. orange
4. green
5. blue
6. brown
7. black
8. red and white
9. red

Different colored gis are offered, such as blue and black but, white is what most people traditionally wear. When on the mat, all Judo participants are barefoot. Men typically do not wear shirts underneath the gi but women wear white shirts; it is a uniform and not a fashion show. Gis were designed for comabat and the material was menant to withstand arrows during the time. It is a cultural and combat dress from the Japanese.

During a match, each person's objective is to either successfully throw or pin an opponent; we will get to pins a bit later. Ippon is an automatic win during a match, and it can be obtained by successfully throwing an opponent. To many new to the sport, many of the throws may look the same but, the techniques used are all quite different.

The idea of a throw is to get your opponent off balance and have their back hit the mat; this idea is ideal for self defense. Mentioned earlier, many of the throws look similar but, when broken down one can see that they are all executed differently to achieve very similar results. Some are done taking out the opponent's leg using the hip,leg,arms,shoulder, and other ways. Other techniques have the idea in mind that your opponent is moving in a certain direction so, throws are modified to get them off balance whilst moving. If a throw is not successful, it can result in both persons falling to the mat, when this happnes, often times mat work is performed where each person is trying to pin his/her opponent to win the match. This will be covered in the next section.

Once both people are on the mat and have gone to the ground, their objective is to try and stop the other by trying to pin. There are numerous techniques to achieve this and it actually varies with age. There are basic pins that everyone one can do and can all be super effective. You can also wina match by having your opponent tap out or even passout during a match; this is usally done by choking. Choking is legal to do during a match but, the proper age to be able to do this is age thirteen and up. Another way to have your opponent tap out is by using arm bars; these are achieved by almost breaking or damaging the arm and/or other parts of the body but, the age for this is sixteen and up. All of these can be done while both are laying on the mat.