The Object of Judo

The main focus of Judo is to throw your partner directly to his or her back from a standing position.  This is called an Ippon throw, meaning a "full point" throw.  The focus of Judo is not to take your opponent down, or to gradually improve your position over your opponent, but to achieve this kind of perfect throw.  If you almost achieve this throw in the eyes of the referee, you can get a Waza-ari, which is a half point.  Two of these kind of throw of course add up to a full point.  A full point wins the match.  There are lesser scores, which are for very weak and mostly ineffective throws, called Yuko and Koka.  These are not even real scores, but are actually 'advantages', originally conceived to help with a fair decision if the score is tied at the end of the match, thus eliminating referee bias as much as possible.  The best players don't actually try for these low scores, they always try for Ippon.  This key principle of going for the Ippon is called "Ippon Judo", and is what Judo is really all about.

While Judo started out with precious little in the way of rules, and enormous match time lengths, Judo is now contested in matches of 5 minutes' time, and has lots of rules to stop players from stalling and force them to keep attacking.  Instead of memorizing them all, all you really need to know is that you're supposed to always be on the attack.  It's pretty simple really.  So, things like bending down and simply holding your opponent as far away from you as you can without trying any attacks, are clearly going to be penalized.  Also, keep in mind the traditional Japanese, samurai actually, attitude of all-out aggression.  Judo, as a Japanese-originated sport, much prefers offense over defense.

When the fight goes to the ground, if a less than ippon throw is scored, or for some other reason, such as a non-scored takedown technique or someone slips, you can score an Ippon with a 25 second long pin, supposedly the time needed to draw out a knife or sword to finish off an enemy in war, or alternately to beat him or her into submission with fists, knees, heabutts et cetera.

Chokes and elbow locks can be employed while standing or on the ground, or can be started standing and finished on the ground as parts of combination techniques, which can sometimes be quite spectacular.  Making the opponent submit by tapping or calling "maitta" is also scored as an Ippon.  If the opponent does not submit, you still win if he or she is choked unconscious or is injured.  Submission victories are actually less common than pin victories due to the fact that they are much easier to defend than pins.  In old books, such as Mifune's "Canon of Judo", submission techniques seem to be presented most commonly as responses to opponents trying to escape from pins, or as threats or tricks as parts of combination moves in the standing stage, such as using a thrusting choke to lead to a sudden pulling throw. It is much easier to win a match with a pin than with any of the other moves.

In club fighting, you might often get stuck in a non-scoring position on the ground but gradually tire out your opponent and eventually score a pin or submission.  In a Judo match, however, if you get caught in this kind of thing, and neither of you are really making any obvious progress towards scoring anything, you will both be stood up to continue the match from a standing position, allowing you both to attempt for an Ippon throw again.  Part of the reason for this is the 50% throwing to 50% ground fighting emphasis of judo.  However, it also has a lot to do with the fact that match time is so short, and the full 5 minutes is often not even enough time to muscle through an opponent's strong defenses on the ground.  And while this aspect of Judo's rules is decried by some grappling afficionados as "unrealistic" and so forth, and perhaps justifiably so, the real culprit is the 5 minute time limit, which is unfortunately a necessary evil in these kinds of competitions: partly as a way to reduce athlete burn-out, but mostly as a way to get all the scheduled matches finished in a reasonable amount of time.  Back when Judo had 20 minute and longer match-lengths, there was a lot more groundwork involved, but then tournaments took an awfully long time to complete, and some competitors might be so exhausted after one or two matches that a third, fourth and fifth would be quite ridiculous: skill and alertness would be compromized.  All the same, it is possible to spend the entire 5 minutes on the ground if there is ongoing movement and at least one player is actively trying to progess his or her position. Ground fighting is an extremely important part of Judo!