NATIONAL AAU FREESTYLE JUDO CHAMPIONSHIPS

admin — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 06:34:22 +0000

The first-ever National AAU Freestyle Judo Championships was held Nov. 28 in Kearney, Missouri. Kenney and Michelle Brink put on an outstanding event, and even in spite of the meet being held on Thanksgiving weekend (the only weekend we could get the facility) a really good group of both athletes and spectators showed up. Almost 100 athletes from 12 states competed in both the gi and no gi categories.
As John Saylor once described the rules of freestyle judo; “This is judo the way it ought to be done.” This phrase was repeated by many people over and over all day at the tournament. It was really a lot of fun with skillful, aggressive judo. We saw plenty of Ippons from throws, but the athletes had time to work effective groundfighting skills as well. The new IJF judo rules don’t affect freestyle judo (or AAU Judo in general for that matter) and it showed in the aggressive action throughout the tournament. It was good to see was a good cross-section of judo athletes, Brazilian jujitsu athletes, wrestlers and submission grapplers who all competed under a common set of rules that didn’t favor anyone. One coach came up to me after the tournament and said; “I love these rules!”
If you want to see photos from this event, or look at the rules of freestyle judo, go to www.WelcomeMatDojo.com and go to the Freestyle Judo page. Many thanks to the referees (who worked overtime and refereed a lot of matches), tournament volunteers and staff and everyone who helped in making this event a success, especially the athletes, coaches, parents and spectators who attended.
To those who are skeptical, and even critical, of Freestyle Judo, I ask you to have an open mind and come to the 2010 AAU Freestyle Judo Nationals and give this approach to the rules of judo a fair chance. These rules balance out judo and make it so that the sport isn’t so “top heavy.” Those who are critical of judo for an over-emphasis on throws and neglecting groundfighting won’t say that when they see this approach to the sport. And those who consider themselves “traditional” and want to see skillful judo (both standing and on the mat) will be pleased as well. Both throws and newaza (groundfighting) get equal respect, making for a skillful, all-action approach to judo. The 2010 National AAU Freestyle Judo Championships is planned for May 22 in Kearney, Missouri and we hope to see you there.

FreeStyle Judo » freestyle

NATIONAL AAU FREESTYLE JUDO CHAMPIONSHIPS