Côté Coach · Judo

Coaching judo, from éveil to seniors

Choose your age group, find a drill or prepare a session. The guides explain the sources and age-specific guidance.

Sources and overview

A free knowledge base built on the IJF rules in force since 22 February 2025, France Judo's Textes Officiels and national arbitrage 2025/2026, the Kodokan technical canon, and the Swiss (SJV) and German (DJB) youth deltas, each cited with its edition. Judo protects its young through a technique gate, not equipment: strangles and armlocks are forbidden below cadet (FR) or U18 (CH/DE), sacrifice throws are forbidden for the youngest — and ukemi, the mastered breakfall, is the belt-examined prerequisite of every throw.

Côté Coach · Judo

What the federations actually publish about youth judo

The IJF, France Judo, the SJV and the DJB side by side. The 2025 rules, age categories, the shime/kansetsu age floors, the osaekomi ladder, the belt-by-belt programme — sourced, dated, comparable.

30 published drills

8 guides

4 federations compared

Pick an age group

Priorities change from one band to the next — and for the young the constraint is the technique gate: what the federation permits at that age, nothing else.

Do

Ukemi before everything: back, side, front and forward-rolling breakfalls — on the floor, then from a squat, then standing. It is the belt-examined content from white belt in the France Judo progression, and the sport's first prevention skill: in tournaments the throw injures, not the ground.
Judo through play: falling games, grip games, turnover games, agility courses — the animation formats the federation itself runs up to poussin (no elimination, participation first).
A complete ne-waza without submissions: pins (kesa-gatame first), turnovers in fundamental form, pin escapes — exactly the ground game the federations run at this age.

Avoid

Any strangle or armlock: forbidden at this age by every federation in the corpus (France Judo ≤ minime, SJV ≤ U15, DJB U12/U15). No « gentle » version is legal — the cell is empty by rule, not by omission.
Sutemi, makikomi and any head-first entry: forbidden through benjamin (France Judo arbitrage) — and the French paediatric series shows why: 31 % of under-15 injuries are fractures, and the clavicle accounts for ~72 % of them.
Introducing a throw before its breakfall is secure: the corpus's sequencing rule — every throw family waits for its ukemi. An o-goshi without a mastered mae-mawari-ukemi is an injury in preparation.

Do

Ashi-waza as the leading family: de-ashi-barai, o-uchi-gari, ko-uchi-gari — timing over force, the sweep landing as the opponent's foot unweights. It is the safest throwing family for building the attacking judo France Judo asks of minimes.
Uchi-komi that becomes nage-komi: static entries for form, then moving (tsugi-ashi), then with kuzushi — and the throw completed onto a secured breakfall. Kakari-geiko and yaku-soku-geiko bridge to randori.
Kumi-kata as a taught skill: the fundamental sleeve + lapel grip, keeping yours, breaking theirs — within the youth bounds (no cross-grip, no bear-hug, nothing below the belt).

Avoid

Still no strangle, no armlock: the gate stays closed (France Judo ≤ minime; DJB U12/U15; SJV ≤ U15). The ground game stays pin, turnover, escape, transition — already a complete tactical game.
The head to the mat: deliberately placing the head alone on the mat, attacking or defending, is a direct hansoku-make for minimes (France Judo arbitrage 2025/2026) — and any loss of consciousness ends the day, at every age.
Weight-cutting culture: in under-15s, losing more than 5 % of body weight OR being overweight are each documented injury risk factors (paediatric series, corpus 05). Weight is not a benjamin tactic.

Do

Open the gate properly: strangles and armlocks are trained from cadet (France Judo, ~14) — in Switzerland and Germany from ~15/U18. The introduction drill is technical and cooperative, the submission is applied slowly, and any still-minime judoka on the mat stays under the ban.
The standing-to-ground seam: follow the throw down without « admiring » it, take the pinning grip on the way down — the osaekomi ladder (yuko 5 s, waza-ari 10 s, ippon 20 s) makes every second legible.
2025 refereeing literacy: passivity window ~30 s (ne-waza activity counts), 3rd shido = hansoku-make, golden score where everything carries over and a 5-second pin is enough — learned in refereed practice shiai.

Avoid

The cadet-specific shidos: using the head to throw or defend = shido, reverse seoi-nage = shido, head-first diving = hansoku-make (IJF, 22 February 2025 edition). A senior instruction copied as-is is a refereeing fault for cadets.
Coaching from an outdated rules sheet: between 2017 and 2024 there was no yuko and no waza-ari-awasete-ippon — both are back since 22 February 2025. Always name the edition.
Forcing locks on growing elbows: the adolescent elbow's growth plates are documented at risk under hyperextension (corpus 05) — the federation gate exists for this reason; cadet kansetsu work stays slow, controlled, submission announced.

Do

The full curriculum: loaded uchi-komi, nage-komi, kakari-geiko, yaku-soku-geiko, randori — and the grip first: kumi-kata decides the throw (sleeve first, then lapel), and break-and-regrip denies the opponent's attack.
Golden-score behaviour: everything carries over, a pin ends it at the yuko threshold (5 s), passivity loses — attacking is the only profitable defence under the 2025 ruleset.
Kata as a discipline in its own right: five judges, top and bottom scores dropped, max 10 per technique, a forgotten technique or major mistake = 0 and a one-time halving of the total — transitions and ceremony rehearsed as much as the techniques.

Avoid

Scoring a randori like a shiai: randori has no winner and no score — it is free practice. Conflating the registers turns the learning tool into permanent competition, exactly what the federation method avoids.
Strangles for 60+ veterans: France Judo forbids them in competition for F7/M7 (60–64), F8/M8 and F9/M9 — a sourced adult gate the veterans session respects.
Teaching for pay outside the frame: in France, Article L212-1 of the Code du sport requires the state diploma (CQP-MAM, BPJEPS Judo-Jujitsu — arrêté of 5 February 2025 —, DEJEPS, DESJEPS) and the carte professionnelle; and only the CSDGE awards dan — a foreign dan is not state-recognised.

Session generator

Age band, duration, theme — and a minuted outline. The 30 drills trace to judo's published training canon (IJF, Kodokan, France Judo, SJV and DJB, cited by edition).

The drills

Filter by theme. The strangle/armlock gate (cadet FR / U18 CH-DE), the ukemi prerequisite and the randori ≠ shiai distinction are written into each drill's coaching points.

The guides

Age groups & technique gates From éveil to veterans, and the technique gate per federation: strangles and armlocks from cadet (FR) or U18 (CH/DE), sacrifice throws forbidden for the young. Building a session A warm-up that starts with ukemi, two mains, a situational randori, a cool-down — with safety woven into the outline: the fall before the throw. Throws & breakfalls The Gokyo by family — te, koshi, ashi, sutemi —, the uchi-komi → nage-komi method, and the sequencing rule: every throw waits for its breakfall. Ne-waza: the ground Pins and the 5/10/20-second ladder, turnovers, escapes, transitions — and the submission gate, federation by federation. Grip fighting & tactics The grip decides the throw: sleeve then lapel, break-and-regrip, kuzushi — and the three corner levers: the grip, the clock, the plane. Shiai rules 2025 Ippon, waza-ari, yuko reinstated — counters, never a sum. Shido, golden score, and the cadet deltas of the 22 February 2025 edition. Kata & judging Five contested kata, five judges, 10 points per technique — kata is judged on criteria, never scored ippon. And how to train it. The belt-by-belt programme The France Judo progression, belt by belt — youth bicolors, club-awarded kyu, CSDGE-only dan — the chart to pin on the dojo wall.

These drills are in Paak

The generator above also lives inside the app, on the session itself: pick the age band, the duration and the theme, and Paak builds a five-block minuted outline from this same library of 30 drills — warm-up, two mains, a situational randori and a cool-down. Edit it, save it to the session — that is free. Printing the session sheet and club-authored drills beyond 5 are in Paak One.

Create a club account See Paak for a judo club

In Paak

These drills are in Paak

The generator is right on the session: plan by the players’ age band and the duration, pick a theme. Paak builds a minuted five-block outline — warm-up, two work blocks, a game and a cool-down — from this same library of 30 drills.

Planning, editing and saving the session is free.

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