The top 10 trends of the Judo Worlds

The 2019 Tokyo World Championships is over. JudoCrazy is the top analyst of the World Championships and Editor in Chief Oon Yeoh observed a few trends in Tokyo that you might want to keep in your system, learning from the best moments of the World Championships.

* Lots of sode-tsurikomi-goshi, both in standing and drop forms but not so much in the one-handed version. Perhaps the Abe siblings have really popularized this technique or perhaps it's just a technique that works well in today's gripping environment.

* Soto-makikomi was very popular. Some did it the classical way, with a leg tripping uke over. Some did is more as a throw with uke hoisted into the air and some did it as drop. But wrapping uke around your own body and doing a sacrificial throw has become a mainstream technique.

* Takato-style ouchi-gari, which is characterized by a low lunge with the attacking leg and a grip around uke's waist with what is normally the hikite (sleeve) hand was very common among Asian and Western players. This seems to be the latest trendy throw.

* Front uchimata (or Zantaraia style uchimata), which is actually a form of utsuri-goshi, was also popular especially among the European players. Mongolians also do it a lot but it doesn't seem to be popular with Korean or Japanese players (Takato is the only notable Japanese player that uses it regularly).

* Tsurikomi-goshi done in a modern way, with a grip around uke's back (usually with the arm under uke's armpit) was also seen quite a bit, surprisingly. Maybe this will become a trend.

* Many players are making a habit of holding onto uke after a throw in case the ippon is downgraded to waza-ari. They want to hold on for osaekomi, just in case. This is a good strategy as there were a few cases, notably one involving Kelmendi, where ippon was called and after she let go of uke and stood up, it was downgraded to waza-ari.

* Tipping uke over or literally just pushing uke down is being scored and many players are utilizing this move. Traditionalists don't like this. They don't consider it a "real" throw but the rules are the rules. Players have to play by the rules, whatever they may be.

* Transition throws, where uke is thrown when his/her knees are on the ground but the elbow is already up, are very, very common now. Certainly the top players have all incorporated this into their fighting strategies.

* Most players have adapted to the rule requiring them to tidy up their gis each time matte is called. Not many penalties for messy gis anymore.

* Fast two shidos but the third is avoided. Referees are general quite slow to the give he last shido in situations when a player is head by waza-ari, down by two shidos and there are only a few seconds left in the match. Sometimes those players are clearly blocking off, or running away or even dropping, yet they did not receive the last shido. The on-air commentators are saying that's because they don't want to encourage a match to be decided by shido. But our stance is if a player is clearly retreating and avoiding proper play, they should be penalized.