I'm a little surprised it's not being discussed on this forum. Especially because we have some experienced high level competitors that post here. Anyone have any thoughts on the restrictions placed on World ranked judoka, or the response from the president of the IJF? 
Also, does Rhadi still post here? Was going to give him a shout out if he does.
Have not seen Rhadi post in some time. You might want to hit him up on his Facebook page.
Personally, I don't usually engage in discussions unless I have enough facts at my disposal. I have some thoughts on the matter, but that is just what they are. Thoughts.
I will admit I am stunned that Marius Vizer released the letter yesterday that is now on the bjjee.com website. They are reporting they took the letter down from both the Facebook and website because of the blowback it created. I can't believe anyone in his media department did not have the guts to tell him it was a bad idea.
What is factual is that this impacts only the athletes on the World Ranking List. What is open for debate is if it would withstand a legal challenge at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. That would take an interested party suing the IJF in that venue. Only time will tell if any athletes are willing to do that.
Yeah, I found the letter from the president much more disturbing than the actual ruling. The ruling really changes nothing for the vast majority of judoka.
Can anyone tell me if what he said about wrestling being taken from the Olympics because of its involvement with MMA was true?
And, I saw a Rhadi at the sunshine State games this year where I competed. Didn't get a chance to talk to him tho, so I was just going to give him a shout out here. Because it was cool that he was there.
Many of us lower level judoka get the reasoning a little later. I know there are many in judo who dislike MMA(including me) but USA judo made some type of partnership agreement with them. OK, but this doesn't make US judo better/worse so I moved on. The athletes the new IJF ruling pertains to in the US is about 20 judokas. Travis Stevens is the only one out of this 20 who has competed internationally in BJJ. The new ruling takes effect 1/1/15. Travis can apply for authorization from the IJF to compete in BJJ. I am more curious how this affects all the world ranked judokas. I hear the Mongolian judo team competes in Sambo also and does very well. Stay tuned.
jbb,
You should read the communication from Vizer that is on the bjjee.com website.
That letter is an absolute disaster. It could not have come across as more corrupt and outrageous if it had been written as deliberate parody.
I read his statement. 1) I agree whole heartedly that the IJF has invested in judo for the future to preserve its unique contest skills and heritage.
2) the part about contamination from other grappling sports by allowing judokas to compete I question this strong language since the new rules do not encourage this. My own opinion is judo on a world level is so hard competing in other grappling sports would not be of any benefit to the sport. When I watch Gerbi her choke that was banned was cool and ok with me. Travis is using more sacrifice throws and ground work transitions but all are judo techniques made better by his BJJ. The IJF went overboard somewhat in my opinion.
Here is something interesting to ponder:
Think about this. You can count on the one hand and have fingers left when you discuss the judoka who compete in BJJ on an international level.
BUT, on an international level there are lots of judoka on the WRL who compete in Sambo.
The original memo went out on November 17th. The World Sambo Championships began on 11/21 and run for 3 days. On Day 1 two WRL judoka from MGL took gold medals. One MGL player took a silver.
There was a Grand Prix event this week in China. These WRL players skipped the IJF World Tour in favor of the Sambo Worlds.
That is interesting and more than likely what prompted the "edict" from the IFJ. Mongolia is very competitive in Sambo as a country from what I have read but I ddn't know many of their top judo athletes were also competing in Sambo. Thanks,
There are many countries that their judo athletes still compete in folk wrestling arts such as Mongolia, Georgia and Russia,etc. It is because of their strong roots in folk wrestling that judo is second nature to them. I find this ban ridiculous.
Chuck Jefferson's Judo posted this video on his Facebook page.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX9llURIFdA
It is interviews with three judo legends Yamashita, Nobuyuki Sato and Kashiwazaki at the World Sambo Championships. The comments are very interesting.
Takem from the E-Judo Forum.
"It looks like the IJF has removed Mr. Vizer's statement but it's still available in cached form. I've copied and pasted the entire text so it doesn't get lost.
"Dear Judokas,
With regards to your worries towards the IJF decision to limit the migration of judokas to other sports and disciplines, I would like to make the following clarifications: IJF, the Continental Unions, the National Federations, as well as the Judo clubs made serious efforts in these past years on all levels, in order to support and participate in the development reform of our sport.
The International Judo Federation and its Member Federations have extensively invested in training and competition programs, setting up of structures, equipment donation and media coverage. All these investments must be preserved, like in any other sports, having in their rules a return toward the formative structures.
This extensive development program has an impact on the complexity of the competition program, the media and marketing strategy, the promotion, the IJF solidarity programs worth several million dollars every year, the Sports Department, the Refereeing Department, the Financial Department, Judo for Children, Judo for Schools, Judo for Peace, as well as prize money for athletes and coaches, all of this as part of an idea of radical change of our sport, reflected by the inclusion of Judo, for the first time in history, in the third category of Olympic Sports among the five existing categories and meanwhile having as major aim the introduction of the Team Event in the Judo Competition at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
All our achievements, as well as our objective to have the team event for the first time in Tokyo 2020, strengthens our conviction that we must maintain our sport in a homogenous, unitary, clean and integral community, in order to achieve all our other objectives for the following period. Judo wishes to preserve its heritage.
It is important to remember that when wrestling was temporarily removed from the Olympic program, one of the reasons was also the fact that this sport assimilated the MMA community, Grappling and other disciplines.
IJF does not exclude collaboration and partnership with other combat sports disciplines, but these must be carried out within the limits of mutual advantages and without the migration of athletes from one community to the other. Some agreements were established with federations that specify the conditions of participation.
In this period of reforms and development of Judo, other sports and disciplines noticed our evolution and they showed to be more and more interested in attracted our athletes ready formed, due to the investments made by their clubs, their National Federations, their Continental Unions, as well as IJF, in order to benefit from their services and to generate financial benefits in the interests of certain leaders from other sports, as well as in order to promote the image of these sports through the performances of our athletes, achieved with a lot of efforts and hard work in the Judo competitions at all levels, as well as the Olympic Games. Moreover, private bodies of match organization exploit the work of our federations without any compensation.
At the same time, the migration of athletes to several sports would only represent a spiritual contamination of our sport once these athletes come back to Judo, a sport whose spirit and values were acquired and transmitted through generations, from Jigoro Kano onwards. We should not forget the history of Judo and the merits of all the heroes and legends of our sport.
Freedom is one of the supreme values of humanity and each of us is free to choose a path in life, just like I myself did, when I chose to immigrate to a free world in my youth, but we should not forget that before Freedom, Honor and Loyalty are primary values of any community or generation. The principles and values of our sport are more than enough for individual perfection, on a sports level as well as on the formational level for society.
The values of our sport, together with the Honor and Loyalty to Judo mean a lot more than a few extra dollars for which we could sell our identity and than a bleeding on inhuman face on various podiums of other sports that never made any efforts for the education and sports preparation of the athletes involved.
I can reassure you that the IJF decisions always serve the interests of our sport and our athletes, and that they preserve and continuously develop the values of Judo and the welfare and integrity of our community.
I consider that for all of us, Judo is the true path in life, in sport and in society.
We have to keep Judo strong and united!
With friendship,
Marius Vizer"
" At the same time, the migration of athletes to several sports would only represent a spiritual contamination of our sport once these athletes come back to Judo, a sport whose spirit and values were acquired and transmitted through generations, from Jigoro Kano onwards."
Translation
"The migration of judo athletes is a serious threat to our investments and Power structure"
Screw the IJF on this one.
judo man,
They pulled the original and put up a statement that is worded differently.
http://www.intjudo.eu/News/cikk3288
Still, the sentiment remains close to the same.
A more kinder explanation. His original wording did not reflect the true spirit of judo. The IFJ has done so many positive things for judo and its future growth this contamination prevention phrase was not necessary. Many in judo dislike MMA and wrestling has been linked to MMA. SO maybe he went overboard in "preserving" judo by exclusion to other grappling sports.
We can add Sumiya Dorjsuren of MGL to the list of IJF World Tour athletes who competed at the World Sambo Championships and took a gold medal. She is currently ranked #10 on the WRL. That is 3 gold medals and 1 silver for the Mongolian National Judo Team. It is also a minimum of 4 MGL judo athletes who bypassed an IJF World Tour event for another combat sport tournament.
Congrats to the Mongolian judo team on their Sambo performances. Once again judo is the dominant grappling sport on the planet. Its top athletes can x-over into other grappling arts and do well.