Contents
The osaekomi ladder (IJF rules, 22 February 2025)
| Hold duration | Value | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| 5–9 s | yuko | counts, never converts |
| 10–19 s | waza-ari | two waza-ari = ippon |
| 20 s | ippon | contest over |
To score, the hold must be a classified pinning technique (or a variation): kesa-gatame, kuzure-kesa-gatame, yoko-shiho-gatame, kami-shiho-gatame, tate-shiho-gatame, announced « osaekomi », broken « toketa ». In golden score, a pin ends the contest at the yuko threshold (5 s). The full rules live in Shiai rules 2025.
The ground curriculum
| Block | Content | Age gate |
|---|---|---|
| Pins (osaekomi) | kesa-gatame first, then the shiho family; holding, weighting, switching controls | all ages: the youngest bands' ground game |
| Turnovers | turning a partner from all-fours or flat into the pin; sankaku as the fundamental turnover only (no neck constraint, legs released for the pin) | all ages in fundamental form; reverse sankaku forbidden young (FR); all sankaku forbidden ≤ U15 (CH) |
| Escapes | escaping each pin before the count climbs; recovering a defendable position | all ages |
| Transitions | standing to ground after a throw or a defended attack: the two seconds that decide | all ages (position only, no submission young) |
| Shime-waza (strangles) | hadaka-jime, okuri-eri-jime, kata-juji-jime… | cadet+ (FR) / U18 (CH, DE) |
| Kansetsu-waza (armlocks) | elbow locks: ude-hishigi-juji-gatame, ude-garami… (elbow only in judo) | cadet+ (FR) / ground locks ~U15, all at U18 (DE) / U18 (CH) |
Below the gate, the « submissions » cell is empty by rule, not by omission, and the ground stays a whole tactical game: the federations run pins, turnovers and escapes at every age. That is exactly what the Paak library does.
The submission gate, federation by federation
| Federation | Strangles | Armlocks |
|---|---|---|
| France Judo | forbidden ≤ minime · permitted from cadet (~14) | same |
| SJV (Switzerland) | forbidden ≤ U15 · permitted from ~15 (U18) | same, and all sankaku-gatame forbidden ≤ U15 |
| DJB (Germany) | forbidden in U12 and U15 · permitted from U18 | standing locks generally forbidden; ground locks ~U15; a standing waki-gatame with a throw attempt = hansoku-make |
| FFJudo veterans | forbidden F7/M7+ (60 and over) in competition | n/a |
The why is documented: the adolescent elbow's growth plates are at risk under hyperextension; the federation gate is a rule first, but the medical evidence grounds it. At the opening (cadet), the work stays slow, controlled, submission announced, and any still-minime judoka on the mat stays under the ban.
The standing-to-ground seam
Tournament data is clear: contests are often won in the two seconds after the throw. Follow your throw down without « admiring » it, take the pinning grip on the way down, or, defending, get flat with elbows tight before the control settles. Since 2025, ne-waza activity counts as combativity (the passivity window is ~30 s): the ground is no longer a zone the referee stands up systematically: working there is also shido management.
FAQ
Which pins to teach first?
Does judo allow leg locks or wrist locks?
How to run the ground game with a mixed cadets-minimes group?
Sources
IJF: Contest Rules in force since 22 February 2025 (osaekomi ladder 5/10/20 s, golden score, classified-pin validity, ne-waza combativity); France Judo: national arbitrage 2025/2026 (the cadet gate, fundamental sankaku, veterans); SJV: youth deltas (U15/U18, sankaku); DJB: Jugend-Wettkampfordnung and 2021 interpretation (strangles U12/U15, locks); the adolescent-elbow literature for the evidence (corpus 05). Paak judo corpus, files 03 (the ground curriculum), 02 (gates) and 01 (rules), verified September 2026.