This development came as a consideration to players that are not able to represent their countries at the highest level of WC. Since the new Olympic qualification system is based on the World Ranking, the athlete owns his place, not his country as it was in the past, which will provide a much more fair environment to fight for their qualifications.

This new rule reminds me of the European Champions League in Soccer or Basketball, where you have countries that send 2-4 teams (and sometimes 5 teams, like when Liverpool won the Champions League but didn’t finish in the EPL in the top 4).

This is a great opportunity for players that wouldn’t have been considered before to compete for the right to represent their country in the Olympic Games. On the other hand, we already have WC with many fighters in most divisions, such as 73Kg and 81Kg, with over 60 and sometimes over 70 competitors. If all nations will send 2 athletes, the pool for the draw will be extremely huge, which means a lot of fights in order to win a medal. In addition, since the new repechage rules that only those who reach the quarter-finals are entitled to compete for a medal, players will have to fight 4-5 or even more fights just to get to the quarter-finals. The challenge is for the IJF to manage such Championships.

The bigger issue here is that the richer nations that can afford sending a second athlete will use the extra player to block players from other nations, which will prevent them from qualifying to the Olympic Games.

Having said all the above, in order to be a true champion, one needs to beat everyone, even if it means beating 2 from each country.

From 1 January 2010, there will be no warning of Shido, but a direct Hansoku-make. This is a very harsh penalty, as some referees will be ‘trigger’ happy to disqualify a player that grips or blocks the opponent’s leg.
One exception to this rule is when a player, Tori, take a cross-guard grip, i.e., gripping with his right arm over Uke’s right shoulder (or vice-versa, left over left) – provided that there is contact between Uke and Tori – Uke is allowed to attack by grabbing Tori’s leg.

There are a lot of grey areas with this rule, as the referees will have to interpret one’s intentions when attacking and grabbing Uke’s leg. The attack has to be genuine with a drive in the direction of the throw, i.e. if attacking with Kouchi-gari, Tori has to be pushing forward with his upper body in order to throw, and not in order to lift Uke’s foot of the mat to grab it.

On the other hand, this will lead to a more straight posture Judo, as players won’t be afraid that their opponent grabs their legs every time they get close.

The new rules dictate that a player mustn’t grip legs either to directly attack or block the opponent. Attacks such as Morote-gari, te-guruma, kata-guruma, Sukui-nage, Kibisu-gaeshi, Kuchiki-taoshi are not allowed anymore.
Any such attacks or blocking will be first penalised with a Shido and the second time with Hansokumake.

The important part of the rule that needs to be emphasised is the word ‘direct‘.
Any attack that involves griping of legs as an indirect movement is allowed. For example, when performing Kuchi-gari, and then gripping the Uke’s leg is legal. The same goes for Uchi-gari and grabbing the other leg. These actions are only legal if Uke provides a real reaction where he lifts his leg to avoid the attack.
As for counterattacks, once Tori performs an attack, Uke is able to grip Tori’s legs such as Te-guruma.

Another rule is related to the Golden Score part of the contest, where until now when a contest went into Golden Score, the score board was cleared. From 1st January 2010, the entire marking of the initial contest will be preserved during the Golden Score period. This is to allow the referee to take a decision, in case of no score during the Golden Score period, for the initial time and the Golden Score. Also, it means that if up until now first Shido in a Golden Score did not count as a winning score, with this rule, a first Shido can decide the winner (in case there were penalties in the initial part of the contest).

These rules can be a double edged sword. On the one hand, it can bring the classic Judo back, where you won’t see much ‘wrestling’ kind of techniques and will force players to be more creative with their Judo.
On the other hand, these rules might introduce some negative tactics, as players will try to prevent opponents from attacking for the sake of a leg movement to catalyse a leg grip, which will make players more rigid and static. Until today, there were some players that all they did was wait for others to attack and they will counterattack with Te-guruma. In case two of these players meet, the contest can be very boring and unattractive.

Another rule is the new refereeing system, where instead of having 3 referees, only 1 centre referee will referee the contest, with a “Care” system with 2 cameras filming the contest at 2 different angles will be set to help this unique referee.
This rule can provide some dangerous outcomes as many times a wrong score was given when there were 3 referees, so with one referee it will be even worse. I don’t think that the referee is going to check every decision that is unclear with the Refereeing commission that controls the cameras. In addition, the IJF hasn’t addressed the issue of taking a decision by one referee after an indecisive Golden Score, will he be taking it by himself, or after consulting the Refereeing Committee.

These rules will be further tested in the following IJF competitions: Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi (20-21 Nov 2009), Grand Prix of Qingdao (China; 28-29 Nov 2009), World Cup of Suwon (Korea; 4-5 Dec 2009), and Big Slam of Tokyo (Japan; 11-13 Dec 2009). In addition, these rules will be tested at the European U23 Championships in Antalya, TUR (20-22 Nov 2009), with the exception there will be 3 referees instead of 1.

After you’ve performed the exercises in described in the previous post, and have done around 150 Uchikomis, you should be quite worm and your arms should be very tired that you won’t be able to hold anything in your hands.

This is a good time to perform some leg sweeps.

Stand with your leg a bit more than shoulder width, holding your arms as if you’re holding a Judogi, and perform Okuriashi-harai sweep with your right leg, while simultaneously lower your right arm as if you are pulling and directing your opponent to the ground. Then quickly move your right leg back, and sweep with your left leg, lowering your left arm down. Perform 50 for each side.
The next exercise, still in the sweeps area, is Tsubame Gaeshi. Perform 25 each side. Don’t forget to use your arms to emulate the throw.
Then perform 25 rotational movement sweeps each side. To do this, imagine you’re holding your opponent and pivoting him in one direction and sweeping him.

This should make you’re leg tired, but unfortunately, it’s not over yet.

The next exercise is Tai-otoshi, performed at high speed across 1.5-2 metres. The way this is done is performing right Tai-otoshi, and from that position, step forward to perform a left Tai-otoshi (all in all, 1-2 steps between the Tai-otoshi sides). Perform this 10 time each side (10 right, 10 left).
Note that it is better to perform both sides, as you eliminate the dizziness effect.

The previous exercise is a preparation to the next exercise where you run from one side to another (8-10 metres**) and performing Seoi-nage or Tai-otoshi at the end of each side of the run. Try to perform a 85%-90% sprint. Perform 3 sets of 10 times (back and forth is 1 repetition).
In between the sets I do sit ups, push ups, burpees, Hindu pushups, and squats. I have also prepared myself a short 2″ bar with a weight of 3-5 Kg on a rope to perform forearms exercises (rotating the bar to lift the weight and lowering it in an opposite movement slowly, and rotating the other way to lift the weight and lower it again slow). To make it even harder, try to hold your arms straight in front of you when you rotate the bar.

I try to keep the resting time to minimum as possible and move to the next exercise.

All these exercises, including the Uchikomi, should take roughly 40 minutes.

Although it is not like a session on the mat with real opponents, it provides you with high intensity, dedicated, specific session to promote speed, fitness, and strength into your Judo.

**If you don’t have 8-10 metres to run between, perform more sets of the short distance Tai-Otoshi

The reason given was that some requirements hasn’t been fulfilled in time by the organisers. Given that this championship will put to the test the new rules (see this post) it is important to provide the athletes, referees, and officials with the best possible organisation.

This year we have had 27 countries on the list of medals.
Leading the medals tally, as always, Japan, with 7 medals (3 gold, 1 silver, and 3 bronze), followed by South Korea with 5 medals (2 gold and 3 bronze).
The hosting country, Netherlands, is 4th with 3 medals (1 gold, 2 silver).

Out of 56 medals awarded, 4 went to South America (Colombia with 1 gold, and Cuba with 2 silver and a bronze), 2 to Africa (Egypt with 2 bronze) and the rest to Europe and Asia.

The over all time medal table is lead by Japan with 229(!) medals (97 gold, 64 silver, and 68 bronze).

From this world championship onwards, the world championships will be held annually instead of once every 2 years, as it’s been up until now. The next world championship will be held in Tokyo, Japan on 9-13 September, 2010.