A short insight into the gentle way: Judo
What is Judo?
Judo is a martial art, one of the few that are pure sports
martial arts.
As a fitness programme, Judo can be quite effective, but even more so as
a personal development sport. In today's society, touching other people
is getting sadly rare in the western world. Although many new judokas (a
judoka is someone who does judo) might find this unusual or even frightening,
close contact of this kind has been proved to have a positive effect psychologically.
Judo is a full contact sport without kicks or punches. In practise, this
means that you do not need any protective gear, and the danger
of being injured is close to non-existant. This also means that it
is a cheap sport - the only equipment needed is a Gi (a Judo suit). The club
where you practise will have mats to train on.
Strictly, as self defense combat, Judo is pretty much useless, but this is
not what the sport is about. (you might be able to defend yourself on the street
using Judo, but if it is self defense you want, I'd suggest you'd have a look
at Jitsu or Tae Kwon Do instead.)
Even though Judo is a great fitness sport, there are plenty of opportunities
to make it more serious and compete at a range of different levels, all from
Dojo championships to the olympic games.
What do you learn practising Judo?
The ranking system in Judo
Judo, like many other martial arts, uses a belt system to symbolize how far
a judoka has come.
- White (not really a belt - this just keeps your pants up :)
- Yellow
- Orange
- Green
- Blue
- Brown
- Black
- The black belt has different gradations, from 1st Dan and
upwards
Historically, the ranking system wasn't a range of different belts. Martial
artists would just never wash their belts. When they started out, the belt
would be white. After many years of wear and tear, the belt would get darker
and darker, eventually being black.
A very short history of Judo.
Judo has its origins in Japan. It was founded in 1882 by Dr Jigoro Kano
(1860 - 1938), as a form of Jiu Jitsu. Judo translates into "The
Gentle Way"
After the second world war, the occupation forces forbade all practice of
martial arts (because Japanese soldiers had been taught martial arts during
WW2), except Judo. Naturally, this had strong influence on the popularity
of Judo.
In 1949, the Japanese Judo Federation was formed, led by Risei Kano, the
son of Jigoro Kano
The history of how Judo was introduced to Europe is a rather funny one: (copied
from a leaflet from the British Judo Association):
"With the intention
of establishing a ju-jutsu school in England, Mr E W Barton Wright sponsored
a visit in 1899 of a team of Japanese judo experts. The project failed but those
who stayed took to the stage to earn a living. Best known among them was Yukio
Tani, who toured music halls offering challengers £1 per minute for every
minute they lasted beyond five and £50 if they defeated him. The prize
money was rarely (if ever) paid. Over the following decade or so many Japanese
"showmen" performed on stages around the country performing frivolous
tricks linked with ju-jutsu. For all their showmanship, these men were very
capable ju-jutsu players. Their real contribution to the growth of judo outside
Japan was made in the books they published and the instruction they gave."
"Tani remained in England after his compatriots had returned home and in
1920 was formally appointed chief instructor to a new club for "the study
of systems developed by the samurai":the Budokwai. Neither he nor the club's
founder Gunji Koizumi, could have foreseen that they were creating an institution
soon to become the most famous judo school outside Japan."
In 1964, Judo was introduced as an game in the Olympics. Currently,
millions of people are active Judokas.
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