Planet Judo Contents

In the course of almost seventy short chapters listed below, Dispatches from Planet Judo explores, as do so many judoka, a variety of related fighting styles in a variety of countries. We meet great champions and other personalities  who have played a leading role in the sport and we see places and roles occupied by the world-wide diaspora of judoka who apply their training in different ways, whether in security or entertainment or even politics. The book looks at judo from the standpoint of science, history and education and also recounts the uncertain fortunes of Team GBR, among others, in the course of the seven days of judo at London’s 2012 Olympic Games.

Is martial art art? – Yes, and this book will show you why.

We are on the eve of a beautiful war – It’s 2012 and London prepares to welcome the world to the Olympics. Nearly 400 judo fighters will be battling for 56 judo medals

Here you can go for the jugular – The nature of Kano’s sport and how it works.

The spirit of judo – Why judo likes to think it’s a bit special – but is it?

There’s good and bad in all of us – The odd and shocking double life of a Bristol judo instructor

Back in the day – Inside the oldest martial arts club in the Western world and its ever-changing clientele and culture

I feel the hand of geography on my shoulder – How migration transformed UK  judo‘s fortunes

Let’s just play – The hard art of ‘chaos against an opponent’

Life on Mars – Unsettling truths about the life of a fighter on the international circuit

Did he fall or was he pushed? – Judo judiciary’s tricky task

And when it’s all over? – What happens to a fighter when the fighting has to stop

Less is more – How the West too had something to offer the East

The rise and fall of GBR – The men gave Britain its the glory days,  then the women took over

‘The water was pulling me down, I nearly drowned’ – How it was that judo became one man’s passport to freedom

A spirit of conflict avoidance – GBR’s squad suddenly finds they have a new boss with a ruthless new training regime

‘Everyone is hot; everyone is beautiful’ – Fighters and their supporters gather for the fray

London Olympics 2012, Day One: ‘Everybody was happy with me for once’ – Team GBR’s problems start before they even get on the mat

London Olympics 2012, Day Two: Forlorn hope – A glimmer of hope for Team GBR vanishes along with any medal chances

London Olympics 2012, Day Three: It’s not getting any better – By the end of the day only one of the six Brits has won a single fight

Captive audience – The terrible truth: this is an impossible sport to watch

The girl from the City of God – How a Brazilian champion brought judo and hope to the favelas

But what about beta-wave amplification? – What you get when you let scientists run amok on the mat

Unhelpful circumstances  – There are places and times when judo is a crime

Yolanda and Popole escape from the heart of darkness  – Some countries treat their fighters like gods, in this place they treat them like dogs

In the land of the Masterless Men – How the Congo’s judoka play their own special role in politics

The Pyongyang playbook – Coaching methods vary among the nations; North Korea has refined motivation to a hideous art.

The Troubles with judo – With a war raging in Northern Ireland, fighting could be a tricky business

‘I wish I had the guts to run away’ – It’s time to face to the Stockwell Terror

To hell with the gold, just give me the ticket to Mecca – How the Iranians cheat the system

You say hazing, we say phasing – Does judo break bullies or does it make them?

Suffer the little children – The appalling scandal of Japanese judo’s child deaths

The Playboy’s Tale – The rich man who couldn’t stop fighting

Welcome to the Buena Vista Anti-Social Club – Unarmed combat – the Cuban approach

London Olympics 2012, Day Four: ‘It’s hard to undo years of drilling’ – The Brit who was felled by the leg grab rule

‘You start up like a diesel engine’ – Poor Emane is in desperate trouble; she needs the people who train her brain

Teach them how to lose – The origins of judo lie in an educationalist’s grand vision but can it really help teachers teach?

Doors to manual – The tender art of being a bouncer

Minder – A bodyguard can face perils from an unexpected quarter

‘It was like a jungle – fights all the time’  – From the mat to the doors and back again – the alarming adventures of a Brazilian champion

The barefoot doctor – A compassionate healer and one of the greatest sports medicine pioneers of his day

Hardly a leg to stand on – This Barcelona medal was hanging by a thread

Bury my knee at wounded heart  – How the constant threat of injury overshadows fighters’ lives

The Caucasian sand circle – In these wild mountains grappling rules supreme

To be a pilgrim – The epic Sambo Odyssey of a judoka from Bournemouth

How judo helped make a monster  – What does his judo tells us about Putin?

What’s going on with that arm, Vlad? – How Vladimir with his cronies captured the entire Russian state

London Olympics 2012, Day Five: ‘We were on the dole and were training full-time’ – An untimely bombshell is lobbed at Team GBR

The maverick – The roller-coaster career of Katsuhiko Kashiwazaki

The boys from Brazil – The birth and triumph of Brazilian jiu-jitsu

‘This isn’t going to work in real life’ – The ‘Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’ gang get to mix it on the mat

When Kano meets Gracie – Does BJJ really present a serious threat to judo?

We want to set our fighters free so let’s put them in a cage – How Mixed Martial Arts conquered the world

The concrete tatami – They come to judo for self-defence but does it actually help?

‘I should have broken his arm’ – An unpleasant encounter near Tunbridge Wells

Brutality Unlimited Inc. – A form of combat that exceeds even the excesses of cage fighting

Faking it – When they have finished fighting judoka can still pretend

The night they invented sham pain – Professional wrestling needs to find acrobats with attitude

London Olympics 2012, Day Six: Oh, my God, that’s our Gemma from upstairs!’ – The great GBR medal famine ends with a thump

The brain surgeons’ benefit night – Boxing is maybe not the healthiest combat option for the contents of a skull

That’s no way to treat a swan – Could the fighter really have it easier than the dancer?

When judo tackles rugby  – A search for smarter ways to put a man on the floor

The great light hope – The tragic story of Craig Fallon

Dojos of distinction – Tatami can thrive pretty well anywhere you plant it

London Olympics 2012, Day Seven: The show isn’t over till the big man flings – A great British career is crowned

Crikey, Cedric’s done a runner! – After the show where did they go and what happened next?

A round red sun in a bright white sky – An intruder reaches the inner sanctum of Japanese judo’s grand panjandrums

The last banana skin – Well, did Kano get it right?

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