A judoka and grappler buddy of mine, Matt Marcinek, told me about something called Freestyle Judo. I’ve heard about it before from several people but never really looked into it.
I would say it’s an evolution of judo back to its roots and forward to a martial art that is more encompassing of different grappling styles. It takes the parts of judo that make it an exciting spectator sport, and the parts of jiu jitsu that make it applicable for self-defense / MMA scenarios.
Matt also mentioned that they are planning to hold a freestyle judo event in PA sometime this summer (2011). I would definitely come out to support it. It’s very grass roots right now, but much like voting for the Green Party candidate, I think this type of event has a chance of putting enough pressure on the IJF to alter its rules in the less restrictive direction.
It souds interesting, waht are the rules and how do they differ from BJJ rules? I imagine the primary difference will be in the point system. Can you provide a link with more info?
Matt might be able to provide the more interesting aspects of the rule differences. Here’s the link to the rules:
http://freestylejudo.com/2010/03/15/freestyle-competition-rules/
As far as I can tell, some of the big differences is:
- Wazari is 4 points, Yuko is 2 points, Koka is 1 point
- Ippon still wins the match
- 1 point for passing guard, 1 point for sweeping
- There are gi and no-gi divisions
Those are the Major ones Lex. here are some of the minor changes:
1. More time is allowed for Matwork
2. “pistol” grips are legal
3. there are No pins in freestyle judo. Once a player has achieved a pinning situation, he can accrue up to 4 points. once the 4 are awarded the ref will say “red/green (competitors are designated by bands like wrestling) has scored 4 pts” you then have 10 seconds to try and submit your opponent
4. a competitor can win by major decision like in wrestling
5. The AAU does not use belt ranks.
6. in a move that will kill about 50% of the Judoforum, since The AAU doesn’t follow IJF rules, a competitor may wear whatever color gi they wish
Like Lex mentioned we are tentatively planning a freestyle tournament in Scranton this summer and it will probably be the first freestyle tournament on the east coast so I would love to make it big.
I would be interested in learning more about this as well, kind of the type of judo I’d prefer.
Hey Guys:
The info that Lex and I posted is really pretty much all you need to know about freestyle judo, pretty simple and cut and dry. I think the only thing i forgot to mention is.. the hard ippon. just like in “traditional” judo an ippon does win the match. however, freestyle doesn’t believe in “soft” ippons you must “stick” your opponent to the mat.
I’m Traveling to Missouri to compete at freestyle nationals in March. I’ll keep you updated on my thoughts either on my blog, disabledgrappler.com or maybe i’ll work something out with Lex and do a “guest post”
also, i’ll keep Lex up to date about the Scranton Tourney Should be awesome..I hope you guys can all make it!
Great idea. Keep us updated. A bunch of folks from Philadelphia have shown interest.
Sounds like something I would like. I will check out the site posted above, but either way I am all for supporting any tournament that is an alternative to NAGA and Grapplers Quest on the BJJ side and any tournament that that opens up the rules a little on the Judo side.
I dont see anything specifc regaring illegal ground fighting techniques besides the gulitine. What are the leg lock rules? Is it the standard, no leg locks and is it also no leg locks for no gi?
No. there are no leglocks on the ground. Besides the Freestyle rules, the rest of the rules are governed by AAU judo. AAU judo still keeps “traditional” (read: pre Jan 2010) rules alive.
so while there is the word “freestyle”in the title, it is still judo
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