Judo
Judo (柔道, jūdō), meaning "gentle way," is a modern Japanese martial art (gendai budō) 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 executing 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 (koryū). Practitioners of judo are called jūdōka.
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Getting Started
Judo Explained
History
Although a fully featured martial art, judo has also developed as a sport.
The first time judo was seen in the Olympics was at the 1932 Games in Los Angeles, where about 200 judo students gave a demonstration. Judo became an Olympic sport for men in the 1964 Games in Tokyo. With the persistence of Rusty Kanokogi, an American, and many others, judo became an Olympic sport for women as well in 1988. It is often stated that the men's judo event in 1964 was a demonstration event, but according to the International Judo Federation (IJF) and International Olympic Committee, Judo was in fact an official sport in the 1964 games. Dutchman Anton Geesink won the first Olympic gold medal in the open division of Judo by defeating Akio Kaminaga of Japan. Judo then lost the image of being "Japanese only" and went on to become one of the most widely practiced sports in the world. The women's event was a demonstration event in 1988, and became an official medal event 4 years later. Men and women compete separately, although they often train together. Judo has been a Paralympic sport (for the visually impaired) since 1988. Judo is also one of the sports at the Special Olympics.
Characteristics
While judo includes a variety of rolls, falls, throws, hold downs, chokes, joint-locks, and strikes, the primary focus is on throwing (投げ技, nage-waza), and groundwork (ne-waza). Throws are divided in two groups of techniques: standing techniques (tachi-waza), and sacrifice techniques (捨身技, sutemi-waza). Standing techniques are further divided into hand techniques (手技, te-waza), hip techniques (腰技, koshi-waza), and foot and leg techniques (足技, ashi-waza). Sacrifice techniques are divided into those in which the thrower falls directly backwards (真捨身技, ma-sutemi-waza), and those in which he falls onto his side (橫捨身技, yoko-sutemi-waza).
The ground fighting techniques are divided into attacks against the joints or joint locks (関節技, kansetsu-waza), strangleholds or choke holds (絞技, shime-waza), and holding or pinning techniques (押込技, osaekomi-waza).
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Some content adapted from Wikipedia.org.
