The Judo rules changes, how will they impact Judo's value in MMA?

This may be absolutely true, however that would kind of come back to creating the issue of making Judo less viable in self defense overall. Or in MMA. Though I think there is still value, some people are skipping Judo to do BJJ and/or Wrestling in light of these changes.

(Now, if FREESTYLE JUDO continues to grow, it won't matter.)

Capoeria and Wushu are far more exciting to watch then more practical styles. But the question is does the Judo community value excitement to spectators or viability in combat?

 

The IJF doesn't care about Judo's self defence application. It cares about getting TV money into the sport.

Freestyle Judo will stay on the fringes because the Olympics is a huge draw for people starting Judo.

And the Judo community by and large cares about it's value as a sport and as a pastime. No martial art that completely ignores striking can really claim a great deal of viability in combat.

 

Fair. But the OP was basically asking how the Judo rules changes would change Judo's value in MMA.

 

Not sure I agree for that philosophy.

Firstly if you you were thinking of Self-Defense you should consider the possibility of your attacker trying to tackle you to the ground should occur. Therefore practicing against leg attacks will help with that.

Secondly I think if you were looking to take the opponent down in self defense doubles, singles and knee and ankle picks are a very viable option. Especially the single I don't believe the majority of non MA are going to have very good balance and a lot of single leg stuff is misdirection anyway.

IJF is actually more of a European organisation than Japanese: http://www.intjudo.eu/Organization

The rules don't seem to have benefited the Japanese all that much TBH

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judo_at_the_1996_Summer_Olympics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judo_at_the_2000_Summer_Olympics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judo_at_the_2004_Summer_Olympics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_World_Judo_Championships
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judo_at_the_2008_Summer_Olympics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_World_Judo_Championships
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_World_Judo_Championships
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judo_at_the_2012_Summer_Olympics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_World_Judo_Championships

Japan has consistently performed well both before and after the rule change, consistently coming top 5 and usually top 2 with France (boourns) behind them. In fact the only time I saw Russia outperform Japan was after the rule change.

The one thing that was quite high profile was Naidangiin Tüvshinbayar defeating Keiji Suzuki who was a favourite to win his division and got gold in 2004.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xhm0Nbs3J5U"]Beijing 2008. Naidangiin Tuvshinbayar (MGL) v Keiji Suzuki (JPN) - YouTube[/ame]

Now he did train in mongolian wrestling for a good majority of his life, however he also had about 7 years of judo training before winning his gold medal. In addition he's performed well since 2008 winning a silver medal in 2012 without the use of leg attacks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naidangiin_Tüvshinbayar

Now I agree that wrestlers can show up to a lot of local and regional contests and open up a few cans of whup ass. But it doesn't work like that on the international scene, there's skills you need for Judo that wrestling doesn't prepare you for. The ground game is a lot different but the main difference is the grip fighting. You also have to consider that they way wrestling and Judo score a takedown are different, wrestling if you put a guy on his back or front that's a score but for Judo it's just on you're back. This means that if you get double or single legged in judo you could just turn onto your front (like the majority of freestyle guys do) and it would be no score.

Think about it if you could just learn wrestling then enter high level Judo then America would be doing a lot better. You would get guys who didn't quite make the olympic trials throw on a gi and start winning in Judo, but that's not the case.

In 2008 and before there was a lot of stalling due to people just shooting in, turtling up and then the fight would be reset on the feet. Now I don't think banning leg grabs was the right way to go about the situation, they should have called the people on their stalling or given more time in newaza for the guy who was attacking.

Now the rule changes do seem to favour a more upright style, this can be good and bad. On the one hand it benefits forward throwers and I don't think forward throws are that high % but I wouldn't totally discount them either. It's also beneficial to most ashi waza which are the best (imo) Judo takedowns for mma. The upright posture is more in line with how you would stand in mma and arguably is a closer representation of an over under clinch which is a common mma position.

The thing with Judo it has some skills that are going to translate to mma, some throws, some of the pinning,the turtle reversals, armlocks etc. However you're still going to need wrestling and wrestling is going to prepare you much better for leg attacks than judo will, which is why I don't think removing it from judo is that big a deal.

 

All the stuff that differentiates Judo from wrestling is still there, so in terms of marginal value, it removes nothing.

 

so pretty much sambo with trousers ... not that I'm saying that would be a bad thing.