Footage from the days judo was still judo: Moscow Olympics 1980 (Parisi, Khabarelli, Kuznetsov, Rougé, etc.)

Some footage here from the days when judo was still judo, and blue pajamas were left where they belong (at home in a drawer).

There is, inter alia, a full match of Parisi (the second match in the clip), refereed by the young-looking Barcos, now notorious as IJF Chief referee. Parisi's bilateral attacks are always nice to see

At minute 12:00 there a match with the notorious and late Kuznetsov (he died in 2011), the physically strongest judoka we ever measured, and who competed internationally winning medals until an extremely advanced aged for an international elite judoka. In this match during the Moscow Olympics he is 39.5 years old, and still dangerous !

Note how in certain matches a player may fall flat on his back and ... still no ippon if there isn't enough speed and power !  Look at 33'02, that's a kôka !  Today, idiots award ippon for that !!  Oh, and in case you wonder what some of the stuff is in the Solodoukhin/Reisman fight is, it's called newaza, which in those days still was a ... normal part of competitive judo ...  And note how the fighting experience isn't  destroyed by referees awarding hansoku-make, a penalty rarely seen in those days.

But but but without the blue gis I can't tell who's who!

seatea wrote:But but but without the blue gis I can't tell who's who!

Are you suggesting that you didn't immediately recognize Parisi simply by his long blonde hair and his beard ?

The good old days, I would have been a young dan grade of 20 with 7yrs training under my belt, although training with GB squad there was much better than me....

Ippon needed clear air of at least waist height between uke and the mat and needed to be controlled as his back/shoulders sank in and through the mat. You was never sure if you had achieved Ippon so learn't to follow through straight into newaza, the exception to that was the tomoenage bridge rule which was brought in around this time. Now days I hate to see the bum sat technique just being pushed through on to there back and ippon awarded and the player seems to know he's(she's) got ippon before the ref even signals it!

The ippon throw was always the equivalent to boxings KO not any more bit like jab these days.... 

Did you see the Ref's bending there knees, looking to see if play was going on underneath and nothing untoward was going on. Ref only needs to count to three these days so no need to bend and look.

Cichorei Kano wrote:Note how in certain matches a player may fall flat on his back and ... still no ippon if there isn't enough speed and power !  Look at 33'02, that's a kôka !  Today, idiots award ippon for that !!  Oh, and in case you wonder what some of the stuff is in the Solodoukhin/Reisman fight is, it's called newaza, which in those days still was a ... normal part of competitive judo ...  And note how the fighting experience isn't  destroyed by referees awarding hansoku-make, a penalty rarely seen in those days.

Thank you for posting. I especially like the fact that the fight was always on. Tachiwaza to newaza or (in one case) newaza to tachiwaza transitions where smooth, at the ready, and fast. No one expected to hear Matte. I think a number of other grappling styles would be surprised by the skill here. The multiple turnovers to a superior position was beautiful to watch.

... and then the competitors started to do "make an attempt so that you go outside (during it) and have a matte so no ne-waza can follow" type of Judo. just to nullify the other guy's newaza skill. IJF did not invent that, competitors invented it. (OK coaches invented it) It was comical to watch competitors grip each other and then move close to the edge before trying anything.
This also had an major change on type of training. You could not easily match endurance for Japanese, because there you could and did train long hard randori sessions, but 15 - 30 s bursts with 10 - 15 second matte were not the Japanese forte.

finarashi wrote:... and then the competitors started to do "make an attempt so that you go outside (during it) and have a matte so no ne-waza can follow" type of Judo. just to nullify the other guy's newaza skill. IJF did not invent that, competitors invented it. (OK coaches invented it) It was comical to watch competitors grip each other and then move close to the edge before trying anything.
This also had an major change on type of training. You could not easily match endurance for Japanese, because there you could and did train long hard randori sessions, but 15 - 30 s bursts with 10 - 15 second matte were not the Japanese forte.

Yes, but wait a minute. The IJF was responsible, because ultimately the red border was an actual change that did not exist before 1977 in this form. Only then the red border became one tatami width so you could actually fight on the red border. Before that, it was only a line, and you could not actually fight within that line as it was way too narrow for that. But even the narrow red line was an evolution. Originally there wasn't even that and the shiai-jô had no lines and was elevated at least 90 cm off the floor, so you could actually throw a guy into the audience pretty much like in a boxing ring. The aspect of fighting that way actually added to the spectacle. Even in 1980 despite the red border, the shiajô is still elevated somewhat though not as significantly as in prewar Japanese shiai. So, in the original set-up you couldn't just step out of the border because outside of the border there was a +3 feet drop.