By Steve Scott

Some people have asked what the purpose of freestyle judo. Freestyle judo adds another dimension to competitive judo, plain and simple. It doesn’t replace  the existing rules of sport judo as set forth by the IJF, but simply adds another avenue of opportunity for judo athletes.

In exactly the same way folk style, freestyle and greco-roman wrestling have specific rule differences and aims, freestyle and IJF rules in the sport of judo perform the same function.  Wrestling is wrestling, no matter what the rules are and the success of American wrestlers in world and Olympic competition bears out the fact that college wrestlers quickly adapt to the international (freestyle and greco) rules of wrestling.  I’ve thought for some time; why not in judo as well?  Good judo is good judo, and offering judo athletes more opportunities to develop their abilities in competition; the better for them and the better for judo.  Competition breeds a better product and freestyle judo offers another opportunity for athletes to compete and excel.

Freestyle judo’s rules encourage athletes to use all the skills of judo placing equal emphasis on tachi waza and newaza. The Ippon is retained, but points are awarded instead of yuko and waza-ari.  Points are awarded for active and aggressive ground fighting and athletes who lay on their faces and avoid action in newaza are treated the same as those who are overly defensive in standing judo situations.  In other words, freestyle judo offers a lot of ways for any athlete to score points on an opponent and have them objectively evaluated.

Another feature of freestyle judo is the way the officials conduct the match.  The center referee is assisted by the two mat judges who are allowed to move about the edge of the mat to get a better view df the action.  Allowing the mat judges to do this enables them to get the best view possible of all the action during the match and assist the center referee in making accurate, fair and objective calls during the course of the match.

When I hosted the first freestyle judo event in October, 2008 with the assistance of Mike Thomas at his judo tournament in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, the intent wasn’t to replace the current rules of judo or develop a new “style” of judo.  Freestyle judo is simply judo competition using points (and retaining the Ippon) and allowing judo athletes to fully use all the skills of judo, both standing and in groundfighting.