It has been an exciting weekend in Istanbul, Türkiye, as the rule changes for the next cycle were announced and delivered to National Federations during the IJF Technical Seminar.
For some coaches and former athletes, the changes were in fact a throwback to past times, and on a personal level they can easily fall back in to the rhythm, however for their athletes it will be a bigger adjustment.
Speaking with Roy SCHIPPER, Academy Coach for the Women in the Netherlands, he has progressed through his coaching career with many of the younger athletes and now has the task of teaching the U21 and U23 athletes the ropes.
There were some main talking points within gripping, head diving and scoring, so how does Schipper feel it will effect his athletes?
As for gripping, I think it wont affect them so much, not like it would have with leg grabbing. They had no experience for leg grabs so this would have been very challenging, both for us and for them. I think the changes encourage more attacking. There is still the 30 seconds for attacking, and will continue the same way for regular gripping but now allowing an alternative grip is better, a longer cross grip for example, but the athlete still needs to be showing that they’re active. They’ve stated they will also be stricter on dropping to the knees, which is good for us as some of our athletes really struggled to manage this.
When we were talking about leg grabs, the most important reason not to reintroduce it was that so many judoka have never practiced it, and could have caused some real incidents. Look at so many of the world class athletes now who have no experience doing these techniques, there is a great intensity to judo now that we didn’t have before with this bent over style.
Another rule reversal is the allowance of the ‘bear hug’ grip, Schipper believes it can be a good addition, and sees no issue with the comeback, but with it comes safety protocol, that there will be no hand clasping.
As with the previous rules, athletes needed to be very spacially aware, and although now they don’t have to be so sure as the penalties have been revoked, Schipper explained the element of pressure has been removed,
It was tool to use as pressure which we are losing, but overall it’s positive that they can score more and have more chance for reward and not focus on the shidos anymore. It is more about throwing actions which is what we want to teach and what we want to see. What I noticed before is that we had tactical plans to make the disable the opponent and now we can push more to have efficient tactics and attack more, move more.
A major change comes from head diving, which saw so many top athletes disqualified in the past cycle, but is now being permitted, though only from junior level. Schipper agrees this is the best way forward,
I honestly like that they’ve been more open to it, I still think it’s a good decision that it is out for cadets, it can be dangerous when you see some examples, and it is important to teach children. There are spectacular throws but you need to have the power and strength to support it. I’m also very happy about the reverse seoi nage, I believe the whole point is to surprise your opponent in order to catch them, and this really catches the surprise element of judo!
The biggest change for most of the athletes on the tour, and those coming up in the younger categories is the yuko score. Though for those who have been in the sport for many years know the concept, it is a new realm for many athletes, so what was their reaction?
To be honest, I still have to explain it to them. They have a lot of questions! I explained it is positive because you can score a lot more but you need to remember that you’re also at risk. It opens up the fight more because you can’t defend so much. Now during the seminar, the explained they still need to calibrate it but they think it will be the case that up to 90 degrees will be a yuko score. Of course there will always be exceptions and they further took in to account the flexibility of female athletes for example, but it will be all be monitored over the six month period.
Overall, the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive and supported by coaches, and their athletes are excited to get back in to competition, kickstarting the year in the Paris Grand Slam in February.
Author: Thea Cowen