Non-Judoka to compete for Olympic Judo positions - Australia

I've got some of guys trying out for this. Interesting experiment, my initial thoughts are that the Judo is too rules dependant but given the state of Oz judo I can see the rationale.

Thoughts?

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Interesting. New Zealand did some successful code changes, such as rowing to cycling (e.g. Alison Shanks). However, 'responsive' sports - where an athlete is responding to an opponent - probably require greater experience then 'mechanical' sports - where it is an athlete and their apparatus. The result, I suspect, will be a failed experiment or very ugly power judo.

I'm hoping my guys do well with the boxing elements, pity there was no wrestling as my guys are also rugby and mma/sambo trained.

The Judo I think coukd work if done at an earlier age, 12-14 yrs old in sports schools would be an idea.

If there was a wrestling element then rugby would be next to useless against a trained grappler.
I have trained many rugby players, including an international who is now one of our shodans, and while he was/is fit and very strong, his grappling skills in a certain ruleset were useless,. This was when he had just retired from professional rugby and started judo.
I have had the same experience with guys who do mma to a certain extent. A lot of mma'ers in our area (or cage fighters) as they like to call themselves have very little experience of any form of grappling and they get absolutely destroyed in the judo/ bjj classes around here.. This is only my personal experience in MY area, not a general assumption.
Sambo to me would be an ideal way for a non-judo person to at least attempt a go at trials.
Lot of respect for sambo. Had randori with a Russian sambo guy a few years back. Nice guy, good grappler.

+1

On that point it takes about 3 months for me to train a correct entry for a double leg for rugby guys, they come in head down and arse up. My guys have been with me for around 2 years so should be at a basic competence for testing.

On Sambo I just got back from a training trip in Russia, was a very good experience and i will be going back with a team in a month to compete at the worlds. I'll upload some video but needless to say the rules and training make the sport a lot of fun.

I look forward to the videos RB.
I will say that my mate (the former international rugby player) did pick judo instruction up very quickly.