Judo4Parents.com Blog

Judo Grades and Belts

Judo students are grouped and also rewarded through the awarding of coloured belts representing their Judo “Grade”. Belts/Grades generally start with white for beginners and progress through the colours to the coveted Black Belt. Different countries, organisations and clubs have slightly different systems but generally the core grades of White, Yellow, Orange, Green, Blue, Brown and Black Belts can be expected. Especially in the case of children, “in-between” grades such as White with a Yellow stripe are used to reward progress.

Generally belts are awarded with some ceremony to increase the sense of achievement, but this is not always the case. Some systems involve strict testing and others are rewarded simply on the opinion of the instructor.

On the whole, even with systems using tests, the grading is for show. It is normally an opportunity for the child to display their skills. Instructors will normally have decided what grades each child deserves beforehand, based on their efforts within the class.

The older the child gets the more stringent the testing aspect will become.

How long does it take?

Each grading system puts different times in between grades. Typically though children would be awarded their first belt within a month or two of starting. (often the first belt goes along with the first Judo uniform)

As a general guideline the length of time between grades is roughly double that of the grade before. There are often age requirements that can slow progress. A good quality Black Belt grade would expect to take between 6-10 years to achieve, Judo is not the martial art to take up for a Black Belt in a year!

Parents should remind children that this will take a long time, they should also make efforts divert attention from grades. It is achievements in progress that they should look for. The focus needs to be on improving all the time and being a better Judo player rather than on when they get the next belt.

Judo is a competitive sport, participating in a competition is both a rewarding and a harrowing experience for most people, including children. In competition all competitors will at some time or another lose a fight. There are not too many Judo players out there who can rightfully claim to have won more fights than they have lost. Children are often very upset when they lose, this is natural but can be tempered by instilling the right attitude towards competition.

Competition is a testing ground for Judo players. It is when we get to try what we know on others and see if it works on them. It is also an opportunity to experience firsthand the techniques of other players from other clubs, areas or countries. It is an opportunity to learn more Judo by being attacked (or thrown) by another player.

The standard Judo tournament will consist of a selection of weight divisions, typically in 5kg groupings. All the entrants will be weighed by tournament officials and allocated to their divisions.

Each division will be divided into “pools”, a pool will consist of about 5 players. All the members of a pool will fight one another, and the two with the most wins will go through to the “knock-out phase”.

In the knockout phase, the players are placed on opposite sides of the competition “drawsheet”, the first two players will fight who ever wins will fight again. Then players three and four will fight and the winner would go forward and fight the winner from the first match. This continues until there is one player left on both sides of the “draw”, these two then fight the final, the winner being the champion.

Those who lose at any stage to the two finalists are placed in a repecharge knockout, which operate the same way, until there are two remaining players. These two do not however fight and considered equal third place getters.

This is the most common format for tournaments, but different formats are common and used depending on local preference and situations.

A Judo fight is won in one of three ways:

1. Throwing the opponent for Ippon

2. Scoring Ippon by holding your opponent on the ground for the required amount of time (presently 25 seconds)

3. Earning more smaller scores than your opponent by the end of the contest.

Ippon is scored for a throw that is executed with Force, Speed and Control, with the opponent landing largely on the back. An Ippon score stops the fight immediately. An Ippon is the goal that your child should be trying to achieve at all times.

If the throw is lacking one of the 4 elements for Ippon, (force, speed, control, on the back) it is awarded a score of Wazari, equivalent to half and Ippon. Scoring two Warazi earns an Ippon.

Should two elements be missing a Score of Yuko is awarded. Unlike Wazari, these scores are do not eventually earn a Wazari or Ippon.

Should three elements be missing, then the technique will be awarded the lowest score, Koka. Again Multiple Koka scores do not become Yuko, Wazari or Ippon scores.

The referee can also award no score at all.

Most children and most clubs provide two sessions per week, this is a good level for beginners and children at low to mid level. More sessions per week should be carefully considered as the negative impacts can out weigh the positive.

Children are very different to adults and this should be considered when looking at the number and type of Judo sessions and also when considering supplemental training such as running. Children’s bodies are still growing and developing, so “hard” training needs to be a minority of training. Similarly running and weight training should be restricted as it can cause injury very easily.

For children, the best training for Judo is Judo skill work.

Judo needs to be fun, yet educational. It needs to be good exercise, but not lead to overexertion. Supplementary training such as running should primarily be used to give the psychological impression of putting in extra effort rather than actually making the child work harder.

Allowing and encouraging your child to do more learning of the complex skills of Judo will help them in both the short term and in the long-term. Much like building a house, solid foundations are essential.

The key to long-term Judo success is enthusiasm and regular Judo lessons over time. So

Weight Control

Judo competitions are fought in weight divisions, which leads to the common practise of players working hard to stay under the maximum weight for the division.

This should never be encouraged, it should be actively discouragd by both parents and clubs.

Weight control is generally achieved in Judo through food and fluid restriction over a should period leading up to the competition. This is not healthy and can cause great harm to your childs health. It can also promote serious long term eating disorders, which again can be very damaging for your childs health.

It is also detrimental to performance. Food restriction leaves you without energy, fluid restriction causes dehydration. Dehydration has been rpoven to lower performance.

If a player has dehydrated themselves to “make their weight” in the morning, they will not be rehydrated that morning,nor in most cases that afternoon. So performance is affected for the whole day.

No club or instructor should encourage your child to lose or control their weight, ever!

(Photo by Nick Cariss)