20/06/2026
By: Zain ul Abedin (Shodan in Judo)
Likewise, if players train both Ne-waza and Tachi-waza equally, it creates more probability to win.
Due to a lack of interest, most judokas such as Amandine Buchard (French judoka) lost in the Tokyo Olympics 2020 final from Abe Uta (former Japanese world champion) because she got into the hold (Osaekomi), and she couldn’t escape it.
Likewise, if we go back to the late 90, there was this legendary and undefeated Japanese judo player known as Yasuhiro Yamash*ta who had a calf injury in the semi-final of Los Angeles 1984, and despite that, he played against Mohamed Rashwan of Egypt countered his O-soto-gari (outer reaping throw) and immediately went for Yoko-shiho-gatame (side four-corner hold) Now two things are highlighted here firstly he wasn’t ready for that and secondly he didn’t know the way to escape or get out of it.
However, despite torn muscle, Yamash*ta showed what true and strong judo is.
As per the rules of judo, if you have already got Waza-ari (half point), then you will just have to hold your opponent for 10 seconds on the ground, but if you don’t score any points, then you will have to hold for 20 seconds.
However, if one of them goes directly for any submission and makes his opponent tap, then it’s an ippon (full point) for him even if he/she didn’t have any points.
Most of the athletes try to save their energy and strive to go for ippon or submission as soon as they can because you have to play for 4 minutes and despite that, if both of them don’t get any points they go for a golden score in which one of them will have to score with unlimited time.
After all, these athletes are now more focused on Ne-waza rather than just Osae-komi because it opens another door to start a new battle of winning and losing for whoever submits his opponent with a huge variety of ground techniques.
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