Judo instructor defying the odds against cancer

Canadian Judo instructor refuses to let cancer stop him teaching!

New judo club is looking for players

Cumbernauld judo club is a new senior judo club training in the Tryst Sport Centre on Wednesdays between 7 and 9pm.

Judo | South Shields Based Terminus Judo in the medals

Terminus Judo club, based in North Shields, saw seven of their young judoka bring home the medals in a recent Senior and Under 12 competition

Judo | Chris Sherrington takes a silver in Havana ahead of Glasgow 2014

Team GB Judo athlete, Chris Sherrington, warms up for Glasgow 2014 with Silver in Havana

Judo | Glasgow European Open October 2014

The 2014 Glasgow European Open takes place at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow on the 4th October 2014 and sees British Judo's top female stars take on some of the best judoka in Europe.

Judo | Team Scotland Squad for Commonwealth Games 2014

Scotland has announced the 14 athletes that will form their Judo squad competing in the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Martial Arts: A Great Way To Exercise And Beat Obesity.

There is a great deal of publicity nowadays about obesity and the food we eat, with more and more people looking for ways to get fit and, according to the health reports, live longer!

Judo | Team Wales Squad for Commonwealth Games 2014 in Glasgow

Team Wales have selected a team of 10 judo athletes to represent the Principality at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Judo | Team England Judo Squad Announced for Commonwealth Games 2014

Team England have named the 14 Judo athletes who will represent them at Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014. 

Gemma Gibbons, who won Silver at London 2012,  is just one of a squad of 14 who will all be making their Commonwealth Games debut as this is the first time Judo has appeared on the games schedule since 2002.

Also joining Gemma will be London 2012 Olympians Ashley McKenzie and Kelly Edwards.

Below is the full Team England Squad.

Name	Event	Training Base	Born
Ashley McKenzie	U60 KG	Camberley	Queens Park
Colin Oates	U66 KG	Thetford	North Lopham
Jan Gosiewski	U73 KG	Bath	Hounslow / Poland
Owen Livesey	U81 KG	Camberley	St Helen’s
Thomas Reed	U81 KG	Bath	Devizes
Gary Hall	U90 KG	Bath	Bristol
Benjamin Fletcher	U100 KG	Bath	Wokingham
Kelly Edwards	U52 KG	Edinburgh	Telford
Nekoda Smythe-Davis	U57 KG	Walsall	Forest Gate, London
Faith Pitman	U63 KG	West Essex	Todmorden
Megan Fletcher	U70 KG	Bath	Wokingham
Caroline Kinnane	U78 KG	Walsall / Aylesbury	Winslow, Bucks
Gemma Gibbons *	U78 KG	Greenwich	Edinburgh
Jodie Myers	O78 KG	SKK	Moreton, Wirral

For more information, please visit the British Judo Website

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London Judo Open | Samurai Judo Club Win 2 Gold and a Silver!

The London Open Judo Championships this past weekend saw big medal success for Kidderminster based Samurai Judo Club.

Samurai Judoka Leah Grosvenor and Bryony Griffiths both won golds with Nathan Gallagher grabbing a silver at the London Open.

Leah Gosvenor added her gold to an already impress medal haul for 2014, winning golds at the Midlands and Scottish Opens, and a silver at the British Schools Judo Championships.


The eventual winner of that final moved up a weight group, making Leah Grosvenor almost unbeatable at the London tournament. She began with a resounding victory over a Pinewood player before an impressive victory over a Wolverhampton opponent.

In the final, she came up against a dogged opponent from Tonbridge but it was still one-way traffic with Grosvenor constantly putting her opponent on the defensive, which secured gold for the Samurai player.

Bryony Griffiths took her first gold in a British cadet ranking event, rising to sixth place in the national Judo rankings. Her route to gold was a little more direct, with maximum point wins in all rounds, and a dominating final.

Nathan Gallacher was eligible for the under 34kg group but decided to move up a weight to under 38kg. After beating opponents for Dorset and London, he secured his place in the final with a winning throw against a player from Berkshire, setting up a final fight against an opponent from Leicestershire.

Gallagher dominated and was soon a point up, but whether it was complacency of just a lack of concentration, he opponent suddenly had him in a hold from which he could not escape.

For more information, please contact Samurai Judo Club

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Judo News | Kendal Judo Medal Double

KENDAL Judo Club members Gavin Towers and Josh Barrett both enjoyed judo medal success.....on both sides of the Atlantic, winning Bronze and Silver medals respectively.

Josh Barrett was enjoying his success at the recent Dutch European Open in Amsterdam, getting a win in the semi-final against a local favourite with a well executed upper quarter hold for the Ippon.

Barrett had the upper hand for much of his final bout, until thrown by his Dutch opponent, just as the bell was rung! Controversially, his opponent was awarded the half point, enough to take the Gold. 

Whilst this was going on, Gavin Towers was competing at the Brazil GP for visially impaired fighters. He lost his his first fight to the eventual gold medal winner, Cyril Jonard from France.

Towers went into the repêchage, executing a shoulder throw and an ankle sweep throw for the Ippon, giving him the chance to go into the bronze medal fight.

Towers was up against Brazil's former BJJ Champion, Marco Barbosa, but Towers was not to be intimidated! Barbosa was constantly on the defensive against Tower's constant attacking.

Barbosa was clocking up plenty of defensive penalties and Towers secured his victory for the bronze as a result.

Congratulations to both Judoka!

For more information please contact Kendal Judo Club

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Leg Grabs, Gripping & Freestyle Judo by Stuart Rich

Someone recently posted this video over on the Judo forum and I found myself watching it again and again. It then got me thinking about the leg grab techniques which the IJF decided to ban from all competition in 2013. 

Back in 2010 they banned leg-grabs as a direct attack which was largely attributed to wanting to differentiate Judo from wrestling to safeguard its acceptance as an Olympic sport. I can’t confirm that, but it’s the widely accepted explanation. In 2013 they went one step further and not only disallowed those techniques as direct attacks, but as follow-ups and counters as well. 

So leg attacks can still be taught in Judo but cannot be used in Competition. But, as most people need to compete to get their black belts, there is little point in spending time learning something that they cannot use, thus the next generation of Judo black belts are unlikely to be able to properly perform throws like Morote gari.

Now I’m sure most of these techniques are preserved in Kata and with the BJA recently making Kata compulsory from 1^st kyu gradings upwards some could say that this will in effect ensure the next generation are at least familiar with leg grabs. However there is no substitute for using a technique against a fully resisting opponent in randori or shiai. Its only then that you learn not only how to perform it correctly but also how to properly defend against it.  

A lot of the now “illegal” techniques which have been removed from Judo over the years can still be found in other grappling arts like BJJ and Sambo and it’s been said that to learn Judo, as was originally taught by Kano, one has to turn to these other grappling arts.

The issue I and many other judoka have with the constant rule changes is that they are watering down Judo’s effectiveness as a combat sport and effective form of self-defence.  I would be embarrassed if I attended a BJJ class whilst they were practicing takedowns and I was the one constantly being taken down with a double leg (Morote gari) because I didn’t know how to sprawl. Or I didn’t know how to defend when someone took a double lapel grip on my gi. You could argue that the new rules makes Judo more exciting to watch with a higher percentage of ippons but who actually watches Judo other than people that practice it? If you do Judo you invariably like watching high level Judo whatever the rules. The lay person is never going to be excited about watching Judo unless someone from their country is fighting for gold in the Olympics.

Another problem with the rule changes is that it makes Judo less effective in MMA. Some might ask why this is a problem, well I’ll tell you. With Ronda Rousey being the current UFC Bantamweight champion Martial Artists are seriously looking at Judo as a viable style to learn to help them in the octagon. However Ronda’s Judo was pre 2010 and therefore included leg grabs, which to be successful in MMA you have to know how to perform and defend against as this determines where the fight takes place. In my limited BJJ training the only time I ever did anything from standing was when we drilled how to sprawl against a morote gari. Therefore if someone has intentions of competing in MMA why would they choose Judo over BJJ when BJJ clearly has enough of the wrestling based techniques most widely used in MMA already incorporated in their training?

So what’s the answer? Local clubs could ignore the rule changes and still teach Kano’s Judo but then, as I’ve mentioned already, this will mean a lot of time is spent on techniques that their students cannot use in competition. That’d be a bit like teaching someone how to kick in preparation for a boxing match. Yes Kicking works in a real fight but you cannot use it in the rules of boxing.  In the US they have taken the matter in to their own hands and created FreestyleJudo which in essence is Judo without all the recent IJF rules regarding leg grabs & Gripping. In addition to the normal way shiai is scored, Freestyle Judo also gives points for things like passing the guard and sweeps which is more akin to BJJ rules but still scores Ippon for Osaekomi-waza. Now I like the idea of this but there doesn’t appear to be a UK equivalent as yet. Freestyle Judo is not a governing body they just have their own competitions which allow Judoka from any org to enter using the Freestyle rules, so you can’t be graded in this form of Judo and neither are any of the competitions point scoring. It will be interesting to see if Freestyle Judo ever reaches these shores.

Guest Article: Stuart Rich: Leg Grabs, Gripping & Freestyle Judo