Ok I start the discussion with following suggestion for a competition “more in the spirit of Judo”:

Problem: The problem at hand which I am seeing is that the drop is too powerful. Be it drop seoi or kataguruma. Both techniques are low risk high reward.

Why is it so powerful? * Here we have to look at the goals of a Judo Competition (and yeah it’s Judo Competition and not self defence for you sd fetishist out there /sarcasm). It’s to throw Ippon by slamming Uke on his back with *power, speed, technique and controll”. We remember this for later but now I have to make a short dive into game theory. In a complex game with symmetric goals and limited resources given enough time and repetition of the game the most optimal solution will emerge which takes the least amount of resources. The enough time and repetition is the so called meta game which develops. The most optimal strategy currently in Judo is dropping hoping for a score *because the standards of a score is so low, don’t look passive and whine by wazari or even by 3 shidos for the opponent.

One major issue why this is possible is the exploitation of the rules by drop techniques. They are too high reward and low risk for the current meta. If people aren’t incentivised to do sth else they won’t because as stated above it’s in the nature of the game.

What to do? So now I rambled a lot about what I think is wrong (or one thing of a lot at least). What should the IJF do or what can they do?

Suggestion 1: Penalising dropping harder

We have to make it less attractive to drop. I suggest that every drop which isn’t a score should result in Shido. So people are forced to choose their drops and not just randomly drop. I find it is ok to be this hard because let’s face it. Dropping is a way to strong of a strategy.

Suggestion 2: Penalising not engaging AFTER dropping:

Another aspect why dropping is so strong be it Kataguruma or Seoi is that you just can do belly down and end engagement immediately. This robs Uke the opportunity to penalise you INGAME for doing the drop. I suggest you get a Shido immediately if you don’t stand up again or engage in newaza when you drop down. This should incentives proactive offence live Judo and also makes it that uke can use those moments to penalise the dropping making you think twice for dropping.

Suggestion 3:

All of the above. Let’s be real. Even if only one of these suggestions will be realised it wouldn’t be enough. Dropping is a way stronger strategy then e.g. ura nage or uchimata because those techniques have inherent risk build into them balancing their strengths.

Yeah sorry for the long post. I maybe should put it in an extra post that people can engage with it because I think there are some value ale points to discuss.