For the second year running, I was helping referee the judo at the Kent International 2010. This is an event with more pedigree than I initially realised: Roger Down received an award for service having assisted as Referee In Charge for 25 years!
It is held at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre. Some improvements have been made since I was last here. Most noticeable was the fancy new gym downstairs, complete with ‘iPod room’. I never actually visited that room. Hey, there was work to be done…
The issue I have with the venue as a whole is that it doesn’t really hold a candle to more modern ones. This especially applies when we have a hot weekend like we did this time around: Glass features heavily in the construction! As a result, the sports hall area becomes a greenhouse. This is compounded by the heated swimming pool being adjacent and essentially in a shared space. Thankfully, I was able to hunt down a mildly air-conditioned room in the catacombs of the building during my breaks.
Of course, I’ve only been doing this event for two years. Others have been involved for much, much longer and it is known by them as the ‘home of British judo’. I think this is one of those things where the two camps will never see eye to eye.
Enough of the venue. What about the judo?
The rule changes (principally the ‘anti leg grab’ ones) are now well in effect. While this is meant to promote more traditional ‘stand up’ judo there was still evidence of the bent-over wrestling stance creeping in but this was being penalised as appropriate. I’m very ‘hot’ on wanting to penalise negative judo as it is all part of appreciation! Yes, we must appreciate judoka when they are performing amazing techniques and being positive but at the same time anyone involved in judo can help with stamping out the negative aspects. See also: Stepping out, excessive grip fighting, those dreaded false attacks…
Thankfully I only had to disqualify one competitor during the two days for leg grabbing. My team also had cause to disqualify a player for attempting a strangle in the Junior section, unfortunately. This event attracts a lot of players from abroad and despite best attempts to communicate the allowed techniques for each age band here, sometimes it either does not get through or a player lapses!
An interesting recent directive is that ‘bear hug’ grips are not permitted. This includes hands around the waist, overhooks, underhooks… the key is whether it is of a hug style! The hands also do not need to be touching. Current advice is to ‘Matte’ the first time it happens and penalise after that: Techniques employing it are not scorable. Only had cause to refer to this rule once which was a shame, in all honesty, as it was a wonderful and technical throw!
There were some lovely throws being demonstrated and some contests with real passion behind them. In particular I did notice some spectacular progression in newaza and it is a joy to watch that unfold when refereeing. It is certainly a refereeing skill to spot when that progression is happening and to give Tori ample time to set things up. Very few contests went to a ‘flags’ decision for my team and in addition all of those decisions were unanimous. We did need to explain to at least one coach that those decisions are now based on the entirety of the contest now though as opposed to just the ‘Golden Score’ component.
I was assessed and recommended to go for my National ‘B’ qualification next year. For now, it is a case of getting in further experience at senior events. I’ve picked up some valuable feedback so it will be interesting to see where this goes…
British Judo Association Forums discussion thread on the event.
