I'm going to recycle a post that I made to Robert in another forum. This isn't to claim that Judo is better than kendo, but to note that as a compulsory sport, there are a range of other considerations.

I've done martial arts for almost 30 years, my first martial art was judo, when I was in second grade, and my father went with me (he received his black belt in an alternate system to Kodokan judo, Kodenkan in Hawaii, under Seishiro Okazaki) and I have a sandan in judo, so I'm more sympathetic to judo as an optimal required sport.

[in response to a comment about how judo beginners learn to fall] As for learning how to fall, one usually first learns ukemi, which is how to take breakfalls. Having taught adults how to take breakfalls, it is much better to teach it to students when they are young. Less mass so less chance of injury, and more youthful flexibility. I do think some things should be done to make it safer. I have been told and I pass it on to my aikido students that learning how to fall is probably a bigger safety factor than thinking how martial arts is going to protect you from being mugged because whenever you don't see a curb, or miss a step, you may need to fall correctly. I remember when I was a kid and my father got tripped by the dog running just in front of his feet at the top of 6 concrete steps at our house. He went down doing a judo style breakfall and got up afterwards. Later found out that he had cracked two ribs, but that is far better than breaking his neck.

I also think that there should be some compulsory sport in school. While the ideal would be to have several sports that students can choose from, judo has a number of advantages in terms of cost, facilities and participation. Judo also has an advantage in that it permits students of all sizes and builds to adequately participate. Team sports would have problems not only from the nature of the sport (how can you be sure students are getting the exercise they need), but also from the fact that students of particular builds are favored, while I can't think of any other individual sports that provide exercise over the full range of body movements, with the possible exception of wrestling, though that is problematic for women (especially with male
teachers) and has many of the
same injury possibilities as judo. Swimming might be the ideal, but that is season dependent and requires specialised facilities.

I do worry that poor teachers, both those with inadequate training and those with behavioral problems are a worry, but I think that is more a problem with the way Japanese schools are staffed and their hierarchical nature. However, I don't think that should be an indictment of judo. [I suspect that there are as many incidents of over zealous kendo teachers behaving badly]

For high schools, the compulsory sport is either judo or kendo iirc, so the question is whether to add it to JHS. With the various factors that have arisen with Japan becoming a developed country, one of the effects is that often, JHS 'kids' look more like adults and are physically maturing faster. I'm not as optimistic to believe that judo will save Japanese schools from bullying, but as a choice of a compulsory sport, it may be better for helping deal with these physical development differences that arise.

I do think there are some things that should be done to improve safety. In junior judo in the US, chokes and armbars are not permitted and tsutemi waza (sacrifice techniques) are generally not taught. I realize that Japanese might balk at 'watering down' judo, but in the glance over the listed fatalities caused by judo, shime waza (chokes) seems to be a big factor. In addition, many of the other fatalities in the longer list occurred in tournament competitions. This problem arises when a match is fought and the person who is being thrown doesn't want to lose the match and so refuses to take the ukemi and is thrown so that they hit their head or techniques that are even more risky (in that they don't permit the uke (the person being
thrown) much option in the
ukemi) are used. While it is a judo fatality, I see it as the result of competition rather than the inherent nature of judo.

Again, I am biased, but judo is a great sport to learn as a kid, it lets you develop balance and strength without over emphasizing any particular part of the body, it requires very little money and ideally gives you a certain amount of confidence.

On Wed, Nov 7, 2012 at 2:17 PM, SSJ-Forum Moderator wrote:
Of course kids will try to rough-house, and they will stumble/fall, but that's an issue in any group of kids, especially young boys. Kendo is nothing like judo, which I tried at one point, but was discouraged from continuing because I'm not very flexible and never managed to roll gracefully. But that was a college-level group run by a professional athlete, not a school group where the teachers may not be well-trained. And someone in the group always had a bandaged knee or wrist or finger, judo is not kind to joints.

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Joseph Tomei
Kumamoto Gakuen University
Writing class blog at tomeiter.blogspot.com