A Full List Of Dirty Tricks & Tactics In Judo

Judo is a traditional martial art with a strong history of sportsmanship, honor and respect. This however, does not stop dirty tricks from being used during randori. Whilst it may be best to avoid the kind of people who use these techniques whilst in the gym, there definitely is a time and a place for dirty tactics in judo. For the most part, you should always be respectful to your opponents in judo. Even judo Olympians who have won at the highest level will not consider performing most of the techniques or strategies on this list since they are borderline respectful.

The exception comes if you ever need to use judo in a non-sterile setting such as a street fight. In this scenario, all cards have been laid on the table and you must do whatever needs to be done in order to defend yourself. Think of this as the rulebook being completely torn up where you are still performing judo, but there are no limits on what you can and can’t do.

There are two main categories for dirty tactics in judo. Those which are legal but frowned upon in some circles, and those which are highly illegal and if spotted will get you disqualified.

So just what are the dirty tactics used in judo?

“Legal” Dirty Judo Techniques

Note that depending on the ruleset, some of these techniques may actually be illegal. However, at the very least they are difficult for a referee to identify, especially in the heat of the moment. There is often a very thin line between what constitutes legal and then becomes illegal that is crossed for a split second. Also keep in mind that the referee can only judge a contest with his eyes and is unable to feel what is happening, therefore dirty techniques can, will be and have been missed throughout decades of judo competition.

Bicep Slicer

The bicep slicer is currently legal under the IJF ruleset since it has been ruled as more of a lock on the elbow rather than the shoulder, when in fact in reality it is neither. Bicep slicers put massive pressure on the bicep muscle – which is probably why they are named this way. This submission is extremely painful and can cause the bicep muscle to tear.

In reality however, a bicep slicer is mostly just used as a shortcut to finish an armbar against an opponent with overly strong arms and pectoral muscles. If your opponent is holding their arms together in an unbreakable grip, by moving into a slicer, you will be able to prise open their arms due to the pain you will cause them.

This technique is fair game in competition, but you should think twice before using it on your friends in the gym. Either way, the referee will not be able to tell what you’re up to and will likely see the slicer as an attempt to gain full control of an armbar.

Smothering

Depending on the position, smothering is an extremely grey area in judo. If you simply place your hand over the mouth of your opponent from their back, the referee will easily pick up on this and disqualify you.

However, from some other newaza positions it becomes a completely different story. If you have a full mount pin, you can simply cover the head of your opponent with your chest and stop them from breathing. There is a good chance that your opponent will not be choked within 20 seconds so you will get an ippon before they pass out. With that being said, 20 seconds is still a very long time and you may feel a tap before the referee awards you a win.

Once again, this is almost impossible for the referee to have a visual interpretation of.

Oblique Kick & Pulling To Get A Deeper Grip

Anyone who has taken a single judo class will already know that any strikes such as kicks are not legal in judo. However, foot sweeps and other throws can sometimes involve a kicking motion which is disguised as an attempted takedown.

Many Japanese judoka pull the collar of the opponent whilst kicking their lower leg backward in order to take a much deeper grip and break the posture of the opponent. When done to the extreme, you are able to get a full Georgian style grip on the belt of your adversary.

However, this becomes an extremely dirty tactic if you are to do a full oblique kick which can quite literally destroy the recipient’s knee. Kicking is bad enough in judo, but performing a knee kick against a static leg can cause permanent ligament damage. If the referee does see this, would be immediately disqualified.

Raising The Nose With Your Forearm

Compared to other grappling sports, judo tends to be very explosive on the ground due to the limited time before the match is reset to a standing position. It makes sense then that you want to get your choking grips as fast as possible.

If the opponent has their chin tucked down with their arms in a defensive position, it is very difficult to get a choking grip before being stood back up. One way to solve this problem is by moving your forearm upwards against the bridge of your opponent’s nose. This is not a legal move and is frowned upon even in the more aggressive and alternative forms of grappling.

However, this will allow you easy access to the unguarded collar of your opponent. Without a doubt, this is a dirty tactic and is better suited for a street fight than the gym.

Yamashita Choke / Throttling

When performed perfectly the Yamashita choke is a legal blood choke which is no worse than a typical judo submission such as the bow and arrow. However, if your have a single hand placed around the neck of a resisting opponent, it is quite obvious what can go wrong.

This is a submission you certainly shouldn’t be using in your gym as you can severely hurt the windpipe of your opponent, or even crush it. A crushed windpipe is far more dangerous than a blood choke. 99.999% of the time, when a blood choke is released the person will be back to normal within 10 seconds unless they have some preexisting problems. However, if your windpipe is crushed, it may not be able to have airflow through it.

In short, the Yamashita choke is extremely dangerous and should not be used.

Compression Chokes

Kesa gatame is a classical hold in both judo and catch wrestling which is mostly used to pin your opponents. It can however be turned into a compression choke if held long enough.

In judo competitions, you are likely to score ippon before submission since compression chokes take a very long time to come on, but feel horrible. The closest thing a compression choke can be compared with is drowning. It is not like a blood choke and will come on very slowly with your lungs not being able to draw in more oxygen.

You will never see a disqualification due to a compression choke kesa gatame in judo, unless the top player was going to town on an illegal neck crank at the same time.

Throwing Your Opponent With A Straight Arm (Armlock)

Straight arm throws can be extremely dangerous and damage the shoulder and/or elbow of anyone on the receiving end. This is the primary reason why they are considered dirty judo moves.

When performed correctly, a throw such as seoi-nage allows the arm of the uke to wrap nicely around your body and provide them with a clear path to the floor. The arm of a human can bend very well this way, but not so much the other way.

This can also be applied to various makikomi throws with double sleeve grips if you can control the arm of the uke in such a way that it will straighten and not wrap. In short, this is simply an uncontrolled, standing armbar and is very dangerous for the arm of your opponent.

Ankle Kicking

Ankle kicking is not so much dangerous, but can definitely be described as a dirty judo tactic. If your form is 100% correct, you will know that for various ashi-waza techniques you should be sweeping the leg of your opponent rather than kicking it.

Things often get a little over enthusiastic during randori with some people taking the “sweeping” a little too far. This can result in bruised ankles but nothing too severe.

Time Wasting & Stalling

Anyone who has watched a high level judo match will have seen this to some extent. Almost every athlete does this as it is more gamesmanship than anything else. Of course, it could be argued that wasting time is a dirty judo tactic, but really stalling is not exclusive to judo and is practiced at almost every other high level sport from soccer, to taekwondo.

This is not nice for the opponent who is being stalled out, but unlike the other dirty judo tricks, this does not have a physical consequence. It should also be noted that if you are stalling, it means that you already earned the upper hand in the match anyway.

Fake tapout

Quite a ridiculous, but not too uncommon dirty trick is the fake tapout. Once again, this is used in judo but can also be seen in any other form of submission grappling.

The basic premise is to tap verbally or physically in a way that the referee cannot hear. This will usually involve tapping your hand on the side that nobody can see, but your opponent can feel.

Obviously, there are downsides to this tactic. Not only is it outright cheating, but if you have a reputation for fake tapping, opponents will not be fast to release submissions and will only do so on the command of the referee. This may cause you to get broken arms or choked unconscious in future matches.

100% Illegal Judo Tactics

Pulling The Hair

Perhaps the most infamous hair pulling moment ever was Daria Bilodid vs Laura Martinez at the world championships in 2019.

The first grab of the hair may be natural and instinctive (although illegal) to stop the turtle of Martinez. However, later on in the match, Bilodid shows that the hair offers great control which leads to an ippon.

Any judo throw requires you to unbalance your opponent. The head is very easy to manipulate if you are able to grip it and offers far more control than a collar grip. By using a “hair + sleeve” grip combination you get a gigantic advantage over your opponent. Not only is this dirty, but it is disrespectful and should lead to an instant disqualification from any judo tournament.

Uppercut Throws

When performing a throw such as osoto gari, this requires a fairly high grip on the collar of the uke, as well as a lot of forward force applied.

An underhand way of performing this (and other high collar grip throws) is by essentially punching your opponent in the chin. There is no doubt that this is a dirty judo tactic and should be instantly spotted by the referee. In addition to this, there is no excuse for driving your fist upwards into the face of the opponent since driving their shoulder backward is equally as powerful, so there is no doubt about what a person’s intentions are when this happens.

Thankfully this is not seen very often in competitive judo.

Headbutt Throws

Similar to throws that use punches, it is also possible to throw dirty headbutts with some judo techniques. These are even more obvious than punching throws and should result in immediate disqualification and/or possible arrest.

The only real sport where headbutts are allowed is Lethwei. In this kickboxing sport, headbutts are often encouraged on the way down to the canvas after a trip or clinch.

This can be copied with throws such as ouchi-gari, where your head will be fairly near the head of the uke when falling to the floor. Using momentum, it is possible to drive your own head up into the head of your opponent. Of course, this is not recommended for judo whatsoever and should only be done when being attacked in a dangerous environment.

Kani Basami & Other Illegal Throws

There is good reason for various judo throws to be banned. These are not so much dirty techniques, but rather extremely dangerous. Whilst there will be an occasional throw which is heavily debated, there are some techniques such as kani basami which obviously are not welcome in judo.

The reason these throws are illegal is because there is a high probability that things will go wrong. If you are practicing judo on a stationary target, you will likely get everything right and never hurt the uke. However, when movement and resistance is applied, a lot of unknown variables begin to influence the movement of both you and your opponent.

If a throw has been made illegal, you should assume that nobody in your gym is going to use it until proven otherwise. This way everyone stays safe and there is no risk to anyone’s knee ligaments, necks, or backs.

Botching & Spiking Throws Intentionally

Although throws such as the sukui nage are illegal in kodokan judo, it is the premise of this throw that needs to be understood.

The reason why ippon scores a win in judo is not only because you have thrown your opponent on their back, but they have also landed safely in a controlled fashion. When lifting an opponent from the ground, it is yourself who has a great deal of control over how they get back down. For this reason, some banned (as well as unbanned techniques) can be dangerous if a judoka is particularly malicious.

Spiking someone on their head can paralyze them and is probably not even necessary in a street fight. An ippon on concrete would be enough to finish almost anyone, a spike is far beyond what is needed and is extremely dirty.