Judo Competition Systems

[Patrick Skerry]

My father competed under the 'bad-point system' in Judo, but he forgets how it works.

I have comprised a number of Judo Competition Systems and their explanations:

1.) The 'Kohaku' Shiai: one of the earliest Judo systems was the 'winner-stays-up' or the Kohaku Shiai, and was determined by size, rank, or experience. The winner of each match would stay up until losing. The person with the most number of wins at the end would be declared the winner.

2.) Round Robin: Used for a small amount of competitors, under round robin every Judoka fights every other player, and the one with the most wins gets first place.

3.) Repechage: Used for a very large amount of players. (See the repechage thread for a detailed explanation), but quickly, repechage is a system in which losers in the first round of competition are given another chance to qualify for the semifinals.

4.) Pool Systems: A random draw will determine who you will fight first in your weight division.

5.) Double Elimination: You compete until you lose twice. The last three will compete for first, second, and third place.

6.) Modified Double Elimination: The Judoka's are moved to a losers division after one loss, and removed after two more consecutive losses.

If anybody cares to add to this list, please do so. If anybody understands the 'bad-point' system, would you care to explain it? Any and all opinions are welcomed. Thank you!

 

[Steve Scott]

Hi Patrick,
The "5 Bad Point System" stunk! One year, in 1973 I believe, Irwin Cohen won all seven of his matches and didn't even place in the Senior Nationals due to the bad point system. All three guys who placed that year lost to Irwin, but had less "bad points" than he did and he placed 4th.
Basically, it worked like this: If you won a match by ippon, you received no bad points. If you won a match by a decision, you received one bad point. If you lost a match by decision, you received two bad points. If you lost a match by an ippon, you received three bad points. When you accumulated 5 bad points, you were out. The people who liked this system were not the athletes! The old cronies liked the system because it "rewarded ippon judo." The reality was that when two equally matched athletes went head to head, an ippon win was usually not going to happen!
Anyway, that system finally went out of use in the late 1970s I believe. We were glad to see it go.
The double-elimination and modified double-elimination systems are quite popular in the United States and work very well I believe.
Steve Scott

 

[Patrick Skerry]

Hi Steve,

Thank you very much for that very valuable explanation. I was wondering, just who is it that devises a new or improved Judo competition system? It seems heavily based on mathematical probability or based on statistics to me? And where would one go to learn how to devise or improve a competition system for Judo?

Again, your expertise is greatly appreciated.