JUDO RON 55-Olympics Inspiration and Dilemma PDF

ZUIHITSU-Random notes on Judo by Ronald Désormeaux

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JUDO RON 55- Olympics Inspiration and Dilemma

On July 27th

2012, in London England is where the enigma begins. The Olympic events of the past have

provided unique stages for the exhibition of technical excellence within fraternal surroundings. Again this year,

International representatives of the judo world (Men and Women) will assemble to compete in what is

considered to be the ultimate Shiai to be witnessed by millions of spectators and billions of TV viewers. All

participants would have made enormous efforts to sustain their goals, endured training hardships, often cried

and at times, have been exalted by the progress accomplished along their individual path. Now that they have

made the selection list of their respective nations, they will get the opportunity to demonstrate to the world

just what level of self-improvement they have made.

The winners of medals and those less fortunate have a unique occasion to demonstrate their personal values

and spirit, let alone their courage and humanism. As they are elevated into the ranks of “immortals” of the

Olympic Movement, we expect them to have no anger, remorse nor sorrows because they did their best.

Will they continue to inspire others, by going beyond their ego and seek new opportunities to make their

achievements profitable and at the service of others? Will they still retain their pride although not fortunate to

wear a medal and rejoice for having participated in this unique experience and foremost, to have performed to

the highest of their abilities?

Historical synopsis

The Olympics are named after the city of their origin: Olympia in Greece. The ancient Olympics or Games were

one of the many ways that the Greeks worshipped their pagan gods. The city of Olympia was one of the oldest

religious centers in their Commonwealth of city states. There, athletes, performers, musicians, religious priests

and laypersons gathered to pay homage to the Gods for their respective blessings. Under the protection of a

Truce, they came from all parts of the colonies to display their savoir-faire, their strength and their courage.

Every event abounded with vitality and offered true expression of human accomplishments. Records of the

game have been traced back to 776 BC.


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The ancient Olympic Games reached their zenith in the sixth and fifth centuries BC. They later fell into lesser

importance, prestige and popularity during the Roman Empire who considered them to be anti-roman cultural

events. Nevertheless, over the years, several other kingdoms emulated them periodically and have known

some degree of success.

Partial pursuit of the Games

The numerous international conflicts, overt racism, zealous patriotism, wars and financial burdens have been

their principal enemies. In the last century, prominent nations have continued to hold national competitive

events to enlist national pride and overall fitness. Some international games were held strictly amongst allied

and Commonwealth of Nations as a mean to strengthen their alliances, consolidate their political ties and show

their superiority.

Rebirth

The Olympic Movement was reborn in November 1892 at the Sorbonne Conference in Paris where

international delegates answered the call of Pierre Frédy also known as Baron Pierre de Coubertin to revive the

Games and make it a socio-cultural movement aimed at tightening the bonds amongst nations and seeking

international peace through excellence in sport contests.

The renowned educator, social reformer and propagandist that were the hallmarks of Baron Coubertin had

succeeded after a decade of interventions and international presentations to obtain sufficient consensus and

enlist participation from across a wide range of Nations to hold the next Modern Olympics in Athens in 1896

and possibly in Paris for 1900.

There were 245 contestants from 14 nations who participated in 43 events at the 1896 “Rendezvous”.

Contestants at these first Modern Olympics had to be athletes and participants who had been classed as

“amateurs”. They were expected to compete with fair play for the intrinsic pleasure of the contest and not

represent their nations as “professionals” having obtained some sort of remunerations for their efforts. The

growth and importance of the games continued to expand over the years. There are now winter and summer

games and over 300 separate competitions of sort. In London this year, there are 302 events with over 100

nations participating.

This success story was predicted and earlier reports from the Sorbonne conference mentioned that Baron

Pierre de Coubertin expressed his feelings of the Games in the following terms: “Nothing in ancient history

inspired more revering in me than the Olympics.”

Allen Guttmann a researcher at the University of Illinois expressed his awe about the movement as follow: “A

large number of Olympics actors have testified that receiving their gold medals meant more to them than

setting world records or triumphing in other less symbolically weighted competition”. i Today, the world media

apparatus will cover most events with detailed, live coverage and capture all the associated suspense and

drama they can. All the events are expected to light up the screens and the bleachers. Such exposures will

surely lead to a gain in popularity for all the sports, judo included.


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Politics and Finances

The attention given to these events is bound to attract the attention of politicians, government officials,

commercial elites and social associations desiring to make an imprint before such a wide international

audience. Kings, Queens, Royals, Czars, Emperors and Social leaders have participated in the past alongside of

commoners. The uniqueness of such gathering rivals that of the United Nations Special Assembly and a World

Fair Exhibition. Associations and groups desiring to make a statement to attract sympathy or adherence to their

cause or product will no doubt plan such a sortie during the numerous presentations and events. It is a golden

public relations opportunity.

Continuing the tradition of past Games, serious and strategic business and political consortia as well as bi-

lateral talks are to be expected. International monetary situation, social tension issues, racial diversity,

bickering over tenure of offices and the choice of the next host country are but a few scenarios on the menu

list.

Financially, all such Olympics are costly. Host countries spend enormous amount of money to build the

infrastructures, the preparation of the venues, the transportation of visitors and athletes, the hotels and

residences, the administrative support staff etc. The security requirements alone may represent more than the

annual budget of many small countries. Public funds and private resources are combined to support such

expenditures. Canada experienced such a financial stress with its Montreal Games in 1976. Several years were

needed to recover from that financial adventure.

Current investors are looking for returns on investments: Broadcasting TV rights, publications, tickets sale,

memorabilia and photos make up some of the returns. Spectators will pay a high price to attend some events

as tickets are restricted in numbers and a large portion of them is attributed to corporate sponsors and pre-

selected audiences. For most of us, we will have to be contented with watching the events selected by the host

broadcasters at the time of their choosing. Even thousands of miles away, we, at least, can “participate and

rejoice at seeing excellence in sports”.

Amateurism

As the athletes make their entry, we are about to witness an array of participants. Men and women will be

covered in national uniforms of multi-color fabrics and wearing patriotic emblems to distinguish them from

other contestants. The parade of “amateur” athletes will embrace all walks of life from the five continents.

The concept of amateurism as declared at the Sorbonne meeting has since been somewhat modified or altered

by various interpretations and twists occurring at different periods and under different political settings. We

now witness a more general application of the rules at different scales depending upon the participating

nation.


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The Games are open to all who qualify.

Athletes come from a cross section of different milieu. There are enlisted soldiers, policemen, social workers,

students, athletes from rich and poor families alike and representing all walks of life. The affluent countries

have generally benefited from good training venues, excellent coaching structures and administrative support

organizations. Some of their members received direct funding, financial assistance through national

associations or obtained grants, bursaries from governments as well as sponsorships from commercial

companies or through gracious donations of concerned philanthropists.

In contrast, the athletes from developing countries are not so lucky; often, they have to train with very basic

structure and equipment, rarely do they have direct access to experienced coaching and research

establishments. Sometimes, they have to go abroad and train under the good will of host nations. Many are

debt leaden and can hardly suffice to meet their essential needs of providing for food and shelter.

Nevertheless, the Games remain open to all those who have met the selection criteria of their respective

national and governing bodies. Coming from every corners of the earth, they will appear proudly at the London

Rendezvous in July.

Sports for everyone

At the onset of the Games, not everyone was included. There were difficulties but progresses were more

dominant. The Olympic Movement has adapted to the changing world. Women were allowed to participate in

the Games for the first time in the Paris Olympics of 1900, but only in golf and tennis. Women participation in

all sports grew throughout the 20th century. At the Rome Games of 1960, the Paralympics’ Games were

introduced. In 1967 the Medical Commission was raised to tackle the drugs and substance abuse with testing

and the first Youth Olympic Games took its launching in Singapore in 2010.

Olympics Spirit

With the renewal of the Olympic Games, Baron de Coubertin expressed his ideal philosophy of athletic

competition as follow:

"The important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle.

The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well."

In the Olympic Charter we can read in part that "Olympism is a philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a

well-balanced and sum total, the qualities of body, will and mind. (Une âme saine dans un corps sain). It

accomplishes that goal by blending sport with culture and education. It further seeks to create a way of life

based on the joy found in performing well , providing the educational value through good example and

displaying respect for the universal fundamental and ethical principles.

Another stated goal of Olympism is to ensure that sports are rightly placed to serve the harmonious

development of human being and encourage the establishment of a peaceful society concerned with the

preservation of human dignity.


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Judo enters the Olympics

While the social Olympic movement was taking shape in Europe, elsewhere, in a Continent away, a Japanese

educator from the Imperial University named Jigoro Kano had embarked on a mission to transform the

educational system of his country. With the introduction of his Judo in 1882, he aimed at ensuring that the

glory of the past martial art of Ju Jutsu would not be forgotten with the rapid change of the society. He

transformed it to render it more practical and safe and he introduced it as a physical education system and

philosophy that would bring health and pride to the nation.

After graduating from the Tokyo Imperial University, Dr Jigoro Kano founded Kodokan Judo in 1882. He served

for 23 years as principal of the Higher Normal School and the Tokyo Higher Normal School, which were

forerunners of the University of Tsukuba. During those years, he devoted himself to educational reform, the

promotion of physical education and sports. He had the opportunity to make frequent travels abroad and

exchange with prominent educators and social reformers.

Dr Jigoro Kano was well aware of the influence of the German gymnastic system “Turnen” developed by F.L

Jahn who used the activity as part of the public school system to improve general conditioning and serve to

highlight the German strength. His other researches abroad and in particular England, France and several

European countries provided first hand opportunities to watch and discuss the relationships between sports

and education. He was very interested into the American interscholastically programs and the English sports

syllabus in vogue at elite schools as promoted by Sir Thomas Arnold, as they were shown to contribute to the

overall moral education of students. He also was able to watch some of the French combat arts which were

popular at the time and compared their applications with his Judo system.

By 1909 Dr Jigoro Kano’s reputation as an education reformer was well known and he was nominated to serve

on the International Olympic Committee (IOC). In May 1909 he attended his first meeting in Berlin. At that

session, the IOC under the leadership of Baron de Coubertin unanimously elected him as the first member of

the IOC from an Asian country. Participating actively on this platform, he continued to reinforce his Kodokan

teaching syllabus and devoted himself to expand the adhesion of several other disciplines from Asia and Japan

into the Olympic Movement.

In 1921, Dr. Kano headed the first yet limited Japanese delegation to the Stockholm Games. Since then, Japan

promoted sports and cultural exchanges with other countries around the world. Dr. Kano emphasized the

integration of the spirit of martial arts and the Olympic creed. Through this, he tried to enhance the Olympic

Games as a true international event. The European IOC members recognized Dr. Kano as a "true educator of

youth" and "a man of character in sports education".


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Tokyo 1964

In recognition of his efforts and considering the economic reforms advanced by Japan, the IOC awarded the

1940 Games to Tokyo but because of the War, the Games were cancelled for both 1940 and 1944. Tokyo was

reconfirmed for the 1964 Games and this is where Judo first made its appearance. On that occasion, there

were over 5000 participants from 93 nations who competed in 163 events. Judo has since been on the agenda

of the Olympics for the past 11 games. The oldest judoka to fight was 43 and the youngest was barely 15 years

of age.

Several transformations did occurred to modify the rules of the judo competition, amongst them: refereeing

rules were adapted to permit greater participation and the scoring formula was altered several times, the two

colored judogi came into being, more weight classes were added and the fighting elapse time was shortened to

five minutes from 20-10 and then to 5 minutes.

Post Tokyo

47 Canadian judokas have already represented our country in past events. (28 men and 19 women). All those

distinguished judokas were inspired by a dream of excellence and chose to pursue that dream under the

guidance of excellent coaches. They, like other judokas had to endured the various training drills and programs,

accepted the separation from families and contributed with all their heart and energy to accomplish what they

sought after. We can be proud to have had such high caliber sport ambassadors.

Interesting Statistical play

There is a tendency to rank the participating country in accordance with the number of medals they have

obtained. In the Judo event, Canada is currently ranked 27th

on the international ranking list having won two

silver and two bronze medals. (Nicolas Gill: (2) silver and bronze, Doug Rogers (Silver) and Mark Berger the

bronze).

This year’s delegation is composed of seven judoka (5 men-2 women) who will confront their colleagues from

116 nations.

All have established their presence amongst the top listing candidates and their individual ranking position

varies from 22nd

to a high of 14th. During the Grand prix competitions circuit leading to their final selection, all

players succeeded in securing a count 384 to 582 points depending on the event they were registered in. The

current leaders in these events have scored between 1480 to 2190 points.

Beware of statistics

If someone relies solely upon these numbers, then, the prognostics would favor some of our participants with

a 27% to 39% chance of coming home with a medal. Beware of numbers…It is to be remember, that judo Shiai

results are not just a statistically entity. So many factors need to be considered. We are witnessing a combat

engagement between two well-prepared adversaries and everything is possible.


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Amongst the factors to place in the assessment equation we find: Acclimation to the surroundings, daily

state of preparation, physical conditions and mental alertness, relationships with the coaches and other

team members, number of distractions, Shiai-jo ambiance, selection of ranking for the first round, elapse

time between call and combat, knowledge of self and the opponents, elements of hazard and last but not

least, the degree of focus placed upon the goal.

“The greatest action is not conforming to the world’s ways” Zen proverb

Surprises or patterns to be expected

In the past years, the Japanese delegation was awarded some 65 medals. Their supremacy during the first

eight games since Tokyo has been challenged by many European and Asiatic nations since. This year’s

Japanese women delegation has a strong precedent in showing its dominance. The Japanese men team is

addressing its difficulties by increasing their recourse to perfect Scoring of the IPPON and has

demonstrated increased polyvalence between standing and ground techniques. In recent years, the

French competitors have depended upon good scouting and intelligence about their potential opponents;

they are employing more tactical skills and greater adaptation to the logic of their training programs. The

Russians have proven their worth in conditioning and stamina building, going for a longer match period

while the Eastern Bloc countries have come up with additional non-orthodox and powerful techniques.

Other athletes from smaller participating countries are expected to offer some elements of surprise to

secure their place on the podium.

In their last legs preparing for their first Olympic match, judoka and coaches have to decide how best to

tackle their goals; are they to follow their habitual training patterns and reinforce their weaknesses while

tuning their strengths or will they concentrate on the development of innovative approaches to maintain

some elements of secrecy and surprise? At that high level of competition, all habits and portrait-robots

are scrutinized and analyzed. Defensive reactions and strategies are redesigned by the opposition to

negate their effect or advantage while the weaknesses are turned around to be used to their own

benefits.

There are risks either way: maintain the robotic approach and consolidate the existing style of fighting in

the hope that the opportune moment (Debana) will occur as per magic or work upon adding new tactical

moves or positions ( Tai Sabaki) that are both unorthodox and spontaneous yet remained well suited to

the personality of the respective judoka and hoping that they will produced unexpected outcomes.

Coaches and judokas have to decide the acceptable risk levels before stepping on the tatami. We will only

discover their game plan when they step on the mat.


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The spectator’s expectations

Some ancient sages have told us to look at each event for what they are and learn to appreciate what is

happenings at the exact moment they occur. We have the opportunity before us to liberate ourselves

from prejudices and false expectations and savor the moments of excellence as they will be displayed by

each competing judoka.

Let us not try to predict the outcomes and be attached or centered upon the number of medals our

Canadian delegation can capture. Instead, let us rejoice in having such talented ambassadors who entice

us to carry the spirits of the Olympics with them. Let us hope that they will take pleasure and enjoyment

in participating, knowing they have done their best to implement the judo principles of Seiryoku Saizen

Katsuyo (best use of one’s energy) and Jita Kyoei (mutual benefits and prosperity) through their

participation at the London 2012 Rendezvous.

During the “relâche” of our training session, let us enjoy these sublime moments garnished by

outstanding athletes. They will provide us with a first line view of their physical and mental excellence

and demonstrate true mastery in the sport of Judo.

Ronald Désormeaux,

Judo Teacher, Hart House dojo, University of Toronto

May 2012

Note This article contains copyrights and is registered with the Canadian Electronic Archives library. Reproduction for commercial aims is

prohibited. For more information, please contact the author at: [email protected]

Reference

i Allen Guttmann, The Olympics, 2

nd Edition, University of Illinois, 1992, page 1.

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JUDO RON 55-Olympics Inspiration and Dilemma PDF