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WHAT YOU SHOUED KNOW ABOUT JUDO

Judo is no morę difficult to learn than any other sport which is popularly played in this country.

There are a few reasons why it has not become as popular as it deserves to be and I should Like to State briefly what I think they are.

AU the Oriental un-armed Arts were practiced in secret for thousands of years before they became known to the world. As is true of a number of other sports (fencing, jousting, archery, etc. ), the sport of Judo has its origins in an Art which was originally devised for combat. But so recently has it evolved from that stage to a gamę which is played with rules and regulations, that when the word "Judo" is mentioned it means "mayhem" only. Spec-tacular use of Judo throws on TV hasn't helped elear up the confusion.

THE TWO ARTS OF DR. KANO'S JUDO

In 1882, Dr. Jigaro Kano introduced Judo as a sport and for self-defense. What has generally been lost sight of is the iact that Dr. Kano intended and madę very elear that his new method (which incorporated techniques from many of the ancient Jiu-Jitsus which he had studied for years), was TWO Arts. The two Arts were based on the same principles, but they had different purposes. The Art for self-defense in-cluded kicking and striking methods, as well as loeks, holds and chokes. Throwing techniques were minimized for self-defense use. The Art for sport was falling and throwing techniques, with limited and specified holds and chokes included. The confusion was inereased because botli aspects of Dr. Kano's Art were known by the same name - Judo.

Dr. Kano limited the instruction of self-defense Judo to Black Belt degree holders. This is no longer the practice, but many people are under the impres-sion that the Arts for self-defense are only taught to those who have attained degrees in sport Judo.

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