BORDER LINE ACTION TESTING RULES 2006

UNIÓN PANAMERICANA DE JUDO		UNIÃO PANAMERICANA DE JUDÔ
PANAMERICAN JUDO UNION		UNION PANAMERICAINE DE JUDO

Dear Athletes, Coaches and Presidents
Of the National Federations of the Pan-American Judo Union

During the 2006 Juvenile and Junior Pan-American Judo Championships that will be held in the United States, the Refereeing Commission of the Pan-American Judo Union will make in a test-like manner the implementation of the new situations that redefine the combat area with the elimination of the “red zone” or “danger zone” that used to divide the fighting area from the safety zone.

The importance of the application of this evaluation in the events of the Pan-American Judo Union is that these rules will be used in a test-like manner in the Juvenile World Championships to be held in Santo Domingo on October 12^th to 15^th, 2006. Therefore, we aim at preparing our athletes for such important changes in the competition area that will surely redefine the competitive strategy and tactic used by our athletes and their coaches.

The Juvenile and Junior National Championships held last weekend, more specifically on February 8^th to 12^th,in Maracay City, Aragua State of Venezuela, were organized by the Venezuelan Judo Federation presided by Mr. Antonio Zavarella, with the purpose of selecting the Venezuelan National Team that will participate in the Juvenile Pan-American Championships, to be held in the United States on April, 12^th to 17^th, 2006. During this event, I had the chance of implementing in a test-like manner the utilization of the new combat zone for the judo areas. In this new area the “danger zone” or “red zone” has been eliminated. The red zone, which had approximately a meter wide (1 m) and used to be part of the combat zone, delimitating the fighting zone with the safety zone, derives its name from the fact that the tatamis employed to form it, were generally red.

The new combat zone will not have this red zone. Its dimensions will be kept in 8 m wide and 8 m long (8x8 m square), and the following criteria will be used to evaluate the actions to be performed in it:

The competition area shall be divided into two (2) zones: The Contest area and the Safety area.

The Contest area will remain being of a minimum of 8m x 8m or a maximum of 10m x 10m. And the Safety area (of a different color) shall be 3m wide.

For the summer Olympic Games, World Championships, Continental Championships and IJF Tournaments, the contest areas will be 8 x 8 m each (with 3m of security around and 3 m minimum in between when two competition areas are adjacent).

The present function of the Danger (red) Zone becomes cancelled. And the used tatamis to define the “Red Area” they were not used more.

Consequently the Shido penalty for remaining (generally more than 5 seconds) within the danger zone becomes extinguished. (As well as its gesture from Art. 8 paragraph 20).

This Article becomes fully modified with the exception of the paragraphs ruling the Ne-waza.

The criteria to apply in the standing position (Tachi-waza) during actions on the border line will be the following: “The action is valid as long as either contestant has some part of his body touching the contest area”. (In fact it will be applied the same criteria at present ruling the Ne-waza).

Nothing is changed, it must be applied the present Rules. Going outside the Contest area without action (by itself or forced by the opponent) it will be applied as described on Art. 27.- Prohibited Acts and Penalties:

IMPORTANT NOTE. - The IJF Refereeing Commission has recommended carrying out tests in juvenile or seniors tournaments in all the Continental Unions in order to gather information. The official FIJ test will take place in the 2006 World Junior Judo Championships in Dominican Republic (UPJ).

The Pan-American Judo Union Refereeing Commission has decided to apply it (by way of test) in the Pan-American Circuit as well as in all the Pan-American Championships during the 2006

As I mentioned before, I had the chance to evaluate these changes myself when participating in the Venezuelan National Championships as a Referee, in such a way as to be able to determine the strong and weak points of these changes. I also interviewed several Venezuelan coaches and referees and asked them their appreciations about these new applications implementation.

Having participated as a referee in the Venezuelan National Championship, allowed me to evaluate the rule directly, feel what referees feel, and to be able, in an immediate future, to answer your questions in clinics and seminaries and to have very clearly formed opinions for the Meeting of the Refereeing Commission of the international Judo Federation.

Among my appreciations I can present strong and weak points of this new rule, however, I must make clear that the weak points are actually problems that will be solved, for they depend on the referee’s adaptation to apply the rule, and they do not constitute truly negative factors against the new changes.

1. The amount of matte announcements diminishes drastically, thus making combats faster and wasting less time between each matte and hajime.

2. The actions in ne-waza and tachi-waza are evaluated with similar criteria in the issue related to the competitors’ job in the border area of the combat.

3. Combats turn out to be more dynamic, there is less passivity, and I could notice that competitors feel safer.

4. The penalization for being five seconds with both feet completely in the red area, is eliminated. As I see it, this penalization has no technical justification at present, and did not made judo more dynamic; for this reason I completely agree with its elimination, since competitors have now more freedom of action, taking into account that our sport is precisely of action and reaction.

5. Competitors do not use technical artifices to gain banns; therefore, they will have to recur to tactic and technical elements to obtain points from scoring and not from banns.

7. It is easier for referees to evaluate the actions without being subject to the pressures of evaluating whether the technique or action developed started inside or outside, or if the athlete’s foot was still in contact with the red area. This will give referees security when evaluating movements and technical applications in the border of the area, without looming over if the competitors step outside or are inside the combat area.

8. The application of these changes gives more security to the referee and to the judges since their major attention will be on the result of the action and not in determining if the action took place inside or outside.

1. With the passing of time and while using this rule, referees will get used to use and apply the rule correctly. This is so because, after so many years of using the red zone, judges, unconsciously or may be because of the novelty of the rule, keep indicating athletes’ being outside the red zone by using the gesture of moving their hands from left to right indicating that one or both competitors were outside. But this will be solved when referees get used to the new rule.

2. Many still work in ne-waza with different criteria to the tachi-waza in the area border.

Following, we present you some examples of what could be the new composition of the areas where the “red zone” or “danger zone” that used to separate the fighting zone from the safety zone has been eliminated.

Fighting Zone red Safety zone blue	Fighting Zone green Safety zone red
Fighting Zone yellow Safety zone blue	Fighting Zone yellow Safety zone red
Fighting Zone yellow Safety zone green	Fighting Zone red Safety zone green

Weak Points