Judo

Judo

Judo (柔道, jūdō?, "gentle way") is a martial art, combat sport, and philosophy which originated in Japan. One of the distinguishing characteristics of Judo as compared to many other martial arts is that the primary goal in a Judo competition is to throw one's opponent to the ground; kicks, punches, and other strikes are not allowed in Judo competition or sparring (known as randori). Judo was founded by Dr. Jigoro Kano in 1882. The sport became the model for the modern Japanese martial arts, gendai budo, developed from old koryu schools. Practitioners of judo are called judoka.
According to the International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles (FILA), judo is one of the four main forms of amateur competitive wrestling practiced internationally today, the other three being Greco-Roman wrestling, Freestyle wrestling and Sambo wrestling.
See Judo techniques for a list of techniques by technique classification and Judo lists for the official Kodokan syllabus.

Combat Phases

Judo assumes that there are two main phases of combat: the standing (tachi-waza) and the ground (ne-waza) phase. Each phase requires its own mostly separate techniques, strategies, randori, conditioning and so on, although some special training is devoted to 'transitional' techniques to bridge the gap. Some judoka can become quite skilled in one phase and be rather weak in the other, depending on where their interests most lie, although most are rather balanced between the two.

Tachi-waza ends and ne-waza starts once the judoka go to the ground. The throw pictured is Ouchi Gari.

Judo's Balanced Approach

Judo's balance between both the standing and ground phases of combat gives judoka the ability to take down opponents who are standing up and then pin and submit them on the ground. This balanced theory of combat has made Judo a popular choice for many.

The Standing Phase: Tachi-Waza

In the standing phase, which is considered the initial phase, the opponents try to throw each other to the ground. Even though standing joint-lock and choke/strangulation submission techniques are legal in the standing phase, they are quite rare due to the fact that they are much harder to apply standing than throws are. Some judoka, however, are very skilled in combining takedowns with submissions, where a submission technique is begun standing and finished on the ground. Strikes (i.e. punches, kicks etc) are not allowed due to their certainty of injury, but judoka are supposed to 'take them into consideration' while training by, for example, not fighting in a bent-over position for long, since this position is vulnerable to knee-strikes and others striking attacks.

The Ground Phase: Ne-waza

In the ground phase, which is considered the secondary phase of combat, the opponents try to pin each other, or to get the opponent to submit either by using armlocks (leglocks are not allowed due to safety regulations) or by chokes and strangulations.

Gradings

White
Yellow
Orange
Green
Blue
Brown
Black

Judoka are ranked according to skill and knowledge of judo, that grade being reflected by belt color: There are two divisions of grades, the student grades (kyu 級), and the advanced grades (dan 段). The kyu - dan grading system was introduced into the martial arts by Kano and has since been widely adopted. As initially designed the six student grades were ranked in decending order (rokyu, gokyu, yonkyu, sankyu, nikyu, and ikkyu) with ikkyu being the last before promotion to Shodan, the first dan rank. There are commonly 10 dan ranks are in ascending order; shodan, nidan, sandan, yodan, godan, rokudan, shichidan, hachidan, kudan, judan. For dan grades the first five are coloured black , rokudan, shichidan, and hachidan were to have alternating red and white panels beyond kudan the belts were to be solid red.