Temporal and technique analysis of a judo combat. Possible implications for judo training

The aim of this study is to determine the mean duration of a judo fight, the time spent in nage waza*, the time spent in ne waza**, the number of attacks, the number of interruptions and the total interruption time. It is hypothesized that patterns may vary in function of gender and in function of level (national versus international). Therefore the frequency of the used techniques is analyzed for different Championships.
All fights of the Belgian National Championships (2003 and 2004) and the European Championship 2005 were video taped and analyzed. Only first round fights were analyzed in order to avoid dominant patterns of judoka's continuing in subsequent rounds.
Time analysis indicated an intermittent activity pattern with activity intervals ranging from 15.0 overall up to 25.4 seconds (s) while mean interruption time varied between 7.8 and 10.1 s For both sexes and for all analyzed fights, it was noticed that the nage waza time composed 80 % of the total activity versus 20 % for ne waza.
For all fights analyzed, leg throws were the most frequently used techniques during nage waza. For ne waza the turnovers were the most frequently executed techniques.
Our results corroborate the data obtained by Casterlanas & Planas 1, Sterkowicz 2, Sterkowicz and Masley 3, Sikorski et al 4. Hence, we advocate including, during the different types of judo training, intermittent exercise regiments based on 20 s activity versus 10 s recuperation. Taking into account the small contribution of ne waza time to the total activity time only limited training time should be allocated to ne waza. Especially the transition from nage waza to ne waza disserves special attention during randori training (fight simulations).