At the beginning of the century, without knowing each other and without consulting, other men had the same idea as Jigoro Kano of bringing people together. Kano thought that the Olympic Games could be a way to achieve this. But at the same time, he believed that the day judo became an Olympic discipline, it would likely mark the end of judo. And he wasn’t wrong.

For what reasons?

He knew that for judo to become an Olympic sport, it would require accepting certain rules that would be incompatible with the original idea of judo. This is what eventually happened after his death. Judo became an Olympic sport: a sport with weight categories.

In what way are weight categories incompatible with the original idea of judo?

They are incompatible because they don’t understand or respect the principles of judo. How tall are you?

1.70 m.

Well, from the moment there’s someone in front of you who is 1.85 m tall, you lose all effectiveness. But you know that’s not true.

It’s not true at all.

The moment weight categories exist, the tall can no longer work with the short, the light can no longer work with the heavy… You only train with people in your own category. Why not also have categories by first name? By race, by hair color? Why not categorize everything? Whether a partner is tall or short, big or thin, it’s all the same. But we prefer to limit. We limit people to their category.

In judo, does everyone not meet?

In competitions, three weight categories were initially established: heavyweights, lightweights, and open categories. Three categories already meant three titles. Then more intermediate titles were added. It’s a way to accumulate champions. Now there are six or seven categories, with a champion in each. But for a long time already, the habit in clubs has been to make selections and set categories. Quite early on, people only trained with those in their category.

A heavyweight champion never meets a lightweight, even in training?

No, they never meet because they’re not in the same category. But besides, they’re not interested! Do you know who initially wanted weight categories? Who put the most pressure to establish them? It was heavyweights who felt humiliated by being beaten by smaller opponents! People who didn’t understand judo.

Who didn’t understand that it’s not about physical differences?

Who didn’t understand that one develops through education, through training, not through muscular differences or opposition.

How did you come to understand this concept? How did you realize that regardless of the partner, it wasn’t about muscles?

I understood that a long time ago. There are situations where you can’t get out of it by strength. When you’re being controlled on the ground, for example, you’re in a situation where even strength can’t do anything. Yet, you can always escape.

So it’s never a question of strength?

Strength isn’t excluded. You have to use your strength because it translates into power. By engaging all the muscles of your body at once, you gain considerable power! Whether you’re small, tall, or thin, you can use your body like a cannonball: all at once.

So the question is rather about using your strength in the right way?

What you mustn’t do is use strength against. You have to use it for. It’s absurd to say that someone strong shouldn’t use their strength. Strength exists; it should be employed, but according to the principle of minimum effort for maximum efficiency.

Is there a method that involves exhausting the body at the start of practice to ensure you don’t rely on strength afterward?

Yes, everyone realizes—practitioners and myself included—that sometimes after an hour of intense training, you have a much better way of doing things. A much better way of using your body because you no longer have the strength to use it any old way. Exhausting yourself might be one approach, but I don’t think it’s the right way. It’s like cutting off your arms to make sure you don’t use them. It’s taking the easy way out. If you could do it voluntarily without needing to exhaust yourself, it would be even better, you’d be even better.

Going directly to the essential?

For many years, I would go to a club to train. I’d go there to work on randori intensely for an hour and a half. It suited me well, not to build muscle, but because it gave me the chance to expend myself to the fullest. And the result was that afterward, I was indeed more available to work. But if I had been smarter, I would have started by not using my strength rather than using judo to avoid doing so.

Is that why you say that strength training is a waste of time, that it would be better…?

No, I don’t say that. Strength training is good. In addition to or outside of judo, but not in place of judo. You never work on judo enough in an entire life, in an entire week, in an entire day. If during that time, you take an hour to do strength training or something else, it’s not wasted time for you, but it’s wasted time for judo. It might serve you for something else, but not for judo.

For opposition?

Not necessarily for opposition. It could serve you in judo if you were advanced enough in practice and didn’t waste that strength needlessly. It could complement your technique and form.

But when? When does strength come into play in a movement?

It’s in the throw that you can deploy a lot of strength. When you throw, you throw very strongly. It makes the projection shorter and much less dangerous for your partner. You throw very strongly, but beyond the point where they’ll eventually fall. They’ll fall here, but you direct your strength over there.

So you must place the strength outside the trajectory of your partner?

Yes, that way, you don’t limit it. You never limit it. That’s why, for judo, it’s more important to train to be precise, to have more control and coordination, but not more strength. Just like it’s better to have more mastery and reserve than endurance.

Anyway, strength comes with practice?

Yes, it comes with practice. If you do a movement ten thousand times while working in the right direction, you build muscle. You get well-muscled for a very specific practice. Not to throw a weight or a stone, but for the practice of judo. Many instructors and students like to have a muscle warm-up before practice. It interests people, it distracts them, it’s spectacular. I myself had my students do it at one time. I made them believe they were warming up because it made them happy.

What kind of exercises did you have them do?

Not much. I had them put their hands behind their backs and do ten or twenty leg squats. It’s also good to do that, but only if you do it the opposite of what people think. You shouldn’t do squats in a relaxed manner, but in a pulling manner, toward the ground.

Is that what you call “Pulling Downward”?

Yes, since when you throw someone it’s downward, you have to learn to pull your body downward.

Today, you no longer have them do those kinds of exercises?

Spending fifteen minutes or half an hour warming up, what’s the point? It’s a waste of time. If you want to warm up, do it by doing judo: start very slowly and then go a little faster, then a bit faster again… But do judo.