why is it so much better than now tho george? I don't understand why so many think that.
Look at the amount of time given for ne-waza (it was even better back in '81 and the 70's), the reduction in penalties, the allowance for free form (not allowing someone to touch the legs is artificial to begin with, disqualifying someone for it is beyond stupid - hansoke make is for moves which can endanger your opponent, not for a style element ... its judo, not hair dressing), look at the throws (little over rotating, because a gentle roll across the back wasn't enough to get an ippon, and the referee would allow such a roll to continue into ne-waza, meaning if you over rotated you could end up in osae komi).
I won't get into the practical aspects (self-defense etc), partly because I think self-defense is mainly about weapons in any case. But in general, the more rules, the less its going to resemble anything outside judo shiai. In fact, most randori would get you disqualified in shiai. Judo originally had about ten rules, half of which were about the gi. Rules added for safety have always made sense. Rules added to create style invariably is good for referees egos, but takes away fun.
And that's the core of my complaint: it used to be fun to compete because there was much less interference from referees. Now its hard to get kids (or adults or anyone who isn't aiming at high level competition) to compete because they've learned its mainly about not getting penalties rather than having fun trying to come up with some way to throw the other person. And if you do slip up and let yourself be gently rolled, again the match is over. Almost anything counts as an ippon (that's getting a little better, but not much, certainly not compared to the 60's, 70's and 80's). So you don't want to try anything, because a single mistake sends you home. Keith Morgan, one of Canada's Olympians in 2008 talked about that in an interview - the soft ippon makes you cautious because a tiny slip end sends you home. Under the old ippon rules, you could take chances, because if you were countered you were still in the match 95% of the time.
In terms of the leg grabs, many parents don't take their kids to tournaments any more because of them. Eight year olds naturally grab whatever is available, so being DQ'd from a careless leg grab is still common. Spend half a day at a tournament so your eight year old gets 30 seconds of judo before being sent home because he touched a leg? Parents will do that exactly once. I could understand (I don't like it, but can understand) giving a shido for that. But a DQ? Seriously?
Recreational adults tell me they don't bother competing because its just not fun - half the time on the mat is spent adjusting gi's while the referee comes out with some time slowing mate because they spent a second or two on the ground without progress, held some illegal grip, didn't attack right away, did an attack which the referee didn't think was legit. And of course, after four of those you're done, thanks for wasting an afternoon waiting for your matches. They feel there's not much chance to just "grapple", just try things - most things you might want to try now get you a penalty. Its impossible to try to create a certain style without restricting creativity. But that creativity, that free flow, is what makes it fun. Watch a couple of untrained young boys or girls just grapple, they way they automatically do at age six. They're trying a lot of things, and having a great time. The thick judo rule book makes that impossible now.
Competition is as much about gaming the rules now as about throwing someone. That's not really fun for many people. Nor is it particularly fun to watch. The last is of course highly subjective, but I'm one of the large group who think judo shiai, even if you know what is going on, has become mind numbingly boring. Its like TKD, so many artificial rules that more time is spent than anything else.
Basically, judo has become like compulsory figures used to be in figure skating. Definitely takes skill, but its far less creative than it used to be, and far too structured to be fun for most people, either to do or to watch. What was great about that match, which used to be common, was how many different things they tried, how adaptive they were.
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