I'm just curious why Judo doesn't practice leg techniques. Is there a historical reason why, like someone once suggested including the techniques but, for one reason or another, they decided that it was better not to practice them? Do they not fit into Kano's principles? Just wonderin.
Prior to WW2, the Judo curriculum included Leg Locks, Neck Cranks, Atemi Striking, Body Locks etc etc. Gradually as Judo began its Bias towards a purely sporting perspective, the more dangerous techniques were only taught to higher grades. Nowadays you'll be lucky to find a Judo Club that teaches anything other than Olympic Judo, as even Groundwork starts to become a lesser element to most peoples practice. The entire Kano Ju Jitsu (for that is what he refered to Judo as) syllabus can be found in a number of books from that time, the titles of which have completely escaped my memory at this juncture. Yellow Cover, dude in White Gi top and Black gi pants...."Complete Kano Ju-jitsu (Judo)" by Hancock and Higashi-ah that's it. Here's a Decent link that has a few old Judo photgraphs on it, clearly there are Leg locks and all manner of fun going on.. http://www.hotkey.net.au/~rodcox/jj.html
why does Olympic judo exclude leg techniques from the competitions? I can understand atemi, maybe neck cranks, and some body locks for the damage that could happen in competition but I thought that leg techniques could still work in competition at full speed. I do think it's a shame that some of these great techniques are lost in favor of olympic rules.
You'd have to ask them that, probably because it's very easy to do damage with say a Calf Crush or Heel Hook without the recipient immediately feeling that they are in imminent pain or danger...'and then it went Crunch'.. Modern Olympic Judo is transforming itself into a Throwing-Orientated Art, Groundwork is gradually being eliminated from Most International Competition, to make it cleaner for consumption,or simpler, or more-appealing to mass-audiences etc (insert alternative POV here). If you could find a Kosen-Ryu Judo club, you could see Groundwork-Orientated Judo which developed in the early part of the Twentieth Century which I believe has retained its leg locks etc, but I don't recall hearing of any clubs outside of Japan....
