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Aaron's Answer to Your Problem: A Loose Judogi Is a No-No at Competition, But AOK for Daily Training
What
a nice, easy question for me to respond to this time around—no
tears, no tantrums, no twisted tales of unrequited love. But
let's get real here, mate: This isn't a problem, it's a perk!
The International Judo Federation states that it is an offense for
any judoka 'to intentionally disarrange his own judogi or to untie
or retie the belt or the trousers without the referee's permission'.
Ignoring this directive will result in the awarding of a shido penalty
against you, thereby upping your opponent's score by three points.
Why? Because it's deemed a signifier of 'negative judo' i.e. an
attempt on your part to interrupt the match or otherwise hinder
play.
A prime example of this behavior occurred during the 1999 Pan-American
Championships final between the United States' Hiriam Cruz and the
Dominican Republic's Juan Bautista.
'This was by
no means a classic final,' writes IJF chronicler Barnaby Chesterman,
'as Bautista infuriated the crowd with constant stalling tactics
and the referee struggled to give the right scores. Both fighters
were penalized shido early on and then Bautista took the lead with
yuko from kata-guruma. Cruz hit back scoring koka with o-goshi but
he conceded another penalty as Bautista resorted to time wasting
tactics to break up the fight. It was unnecessary from Bautista
who looked a good fighter, but he turned the crowd against him as
he strolled around the mat after matte was called and took long
periods of time to tie his belt, which he did loosely so that it
kept coming undone again giving him more excuses to rest. Cruz allowed
himself to get frustrated and was again thrown for yuko as Bautista
held on for victory...'
So—messing
around with your gi during competitive play is definitely
considered a no-no (although it's worth paying attention to
the fact that, in Bautista's case at least, it proved a very
successful ploy for establishing both psychological and physical
dominance over his opponent).
Of course, judogis come loose all the time, especially during
intense combat; no penalty can be given for this natural phenomenon—unless you start to rearrange your uniform without the referee's
permission, in which case you're back to 'negative judo' and
that undesirable shido score. But what impact does all this have when you're practicing at your local club, without a nit-picking referee to get in the way of your grappling?
The answer is zero: You
can do pretty much whatever you want, meaning that if you've got
this guy, and he likes to spar without a belt, revealing a hard
stomach, big pecs, and stiff nipples for your delight and delectation,
then... go right ahead and follow suit! When it's your turn to partner
him, let your obi slip off and prepare yourself for some mindblowing
skin-on-skin, belly-to-belly action. Make sure you're wearing something
with plenty of support beneath your gi pants, though—unless you
want him to see just how much you appreciate his beltless bod!
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I'm
still sorta new to the game of judo and its protocol, so this may sound
like a totally dumb-ass question to ask...
