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11:26 AM · Jul 26, 2021Twitter Web App

Jul 25, 2021

Two days ago, in the 60kg men’s category for Judo, Naohisa Takato fought Yang Yung-wei in the finals and won Japan’s first gold of the Tokyo Olympics. He won with zero scores. Yang simply had more penalties than he did. My old coach was disappointed. But I wasn’t.

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At the 2016 Olympic games, where he won gold, he said: "I wanted to prove that a lightweight judoka like me could fight with a decisive, dynamic, strong and beautiful style of judo." Beautiful means ippons. Not penalties.

olympics.com

How ONO Shohei embodied the virtues of Japanese judo and became the world’s best

プレーバック・リオの柔道・大野将平編。リオデジャネイロ2016オリンピックでメダル獲得に至った選手たちは何を思い、この大舞台に臨んだのか。記事と映像でストーリーを紹介。

But Ono is a generational talent. Most top Judo players have 3-5 techniques they can use at the top level. This means that you can deny them usable grips (which is what Takato did to Yang in the 60kg mens final) to render them ineffective.

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Jul 25, 2021

Of course, with experience, I think Takato played a smart game. (And to be fair I’m sure my old coach knows this as well). For the majority of the final, he denied his opponent a usable grip. He effectively cut Yang’s technique set down to 0.

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Ono has like 8-9 techniques. He's frankly unstoppable. No matter what grip you try to deny him, he has attack options. So, yes, he can choose to play the harder game. He can choose to go for the big scores. And that's why, I guess, he's a legend.

(This is the last Judo thread I'm posting for a bit. Unless, urm, Teddy Riner wins the +100kg category. In which case you're going to get an earful from me, because that's absolutely unbelievable. (Riner is older, and he's been defeated only once in his entire career.))