To be a trainer and a coach is a lot of fun. You practice with your judokas and you see them get better and better. And that makes you very proud. I know, because I am very proud of my judokas! I see them coming to the judo sessions every week, doing things that they couldn’t do just a couple of month ago.
Sometimes we go to different tournaments and that is when the difficult work starts.
How good is my judokas compared with others? That’s when ‘Classification’ comes into the picture…
To make a good tournament we need a common standard that everybody uses. During the last years we have used a system with 5 skill-levels for the judokas.
But how can I decide which level my judoka belongs to?
For that reason we can use something called JSAT
- Judo Skills Assessment Test -
On some of our tournaments we have used this test, all together, on the day before the competition to check if there is any judokas in the ‘wrong’ level. At these times we have divided the tatami into different areas, where we have done a classification test.
The judokas have to show that they know how to:
Hold down their opponent in at least two holding-techniques, osaekomi-waza, get free from one holding, toketa-waza, turn their opponent, from a ne-waza position into a holding in two different ways.
Do different kinds of breakfalls by themselfs or being thrown by an oppo-nent, throw a opponent with several different techniques, show several different combination-techniques, (renraku-waza) and take-over technique, (kaeshi-waza)
Do randori-waza against several differend opponent to show there skils in attaking and defending e
During these test you look how good your judoka perform the techniques, if he/she needs guidance or if they can do it with speed and how they react during the test.
Combined with this test you can also describe your judoka as strong/ medium/ weak. Some judoka are strong, but doesn’t have so much techniques and some judoka are not strong but use more techniques and good timing
It’s important to remember that the test is in comparison with tha average main stream judoka. It’s easy to think that this judoka of my, is the best in the group with disabled judoka back home. ’He is level 1 - A good judoka.’ But you must compare him with a average valid judoka to get the proper level.
When it comes to putting the competition-groups together you can do it like this:
Age under 12 years, 12-16 years, 16-21 years and above 21 years.
Male/ female. Sometimes it’s ok to mix to get a good game.
Weight. You don’t want the difference to be to big, but sometimes skills can justify up to 8-10 kg.
Level. Yes you have 1-5 but sometime you have to let group 1 into group 2. Group 2 can go into either 1 or 3 depending if they are strong/weak and so on. It all depends on the skills and strength of the judoka, if you can put him/her in an other connecting group.
Ne-waza/ tachi-waza. If you can’t make ‘clean’ ne-waza-groups, someone that only can compete in ne-waza, can be in a group with other judokas competing in tachi-waza. But all the others have to fight him in ne-waza.
This is just a small guideline to help you with classification in general competitions.
For more information about divisioning please contact me or anyone else on the list in these documents.
Best regards and Good Luck to You All
Tomas Rundqvist
Chair Commision for Special Needs
Swedish Judo Federation
