Judo, a Korean Martial Art (Yudo),
by Kevin Henry
It is no surprise that Korea has a rich martial arts history that includes all types of fighting skills. Though many people are familiar with Korean-style kicking and punching, most are not aware of Korean strangling, joint lock, or throwing techniques. They may not even know that the Koreans have complete unarmed fighting systems. Yudo is one such system.
Jigoro Kano's teachings are the basis for the practice of Yudo within the Republic of Korea Yudo Association (ROKYA). Those teachings were reinforced and developed for the Korean practitioners by the teachers sent to the Korean Peninsula, from the Kodokan, during the occupation. The ROKYA have remained loyal to what they were taught by Kano, even when, during the Occupation of Japan following its defeat in World War II, all martial arts training halls were ordered closed, and when the Kodokan itself was allowed to re-open, it did so as a sport training center.
After liberation from Japan in Korea, the martial arts flourished, as ancient manuscripts were dug up from the ground in which they had been buried, hidden from the Japanese. Sport judo became very popular among the young, while the ROKYA remained loyal to its core teachings and began to reintroduce traditional Korean techniques to enhance its self-defense applications. Yudo has no attack. The size of the attacker has no bearing on the ability of the defender to receive the attack, execute a technique, and satisfactorily terminate the incident. Since the student learns that the response chosen, in a given instance, must correspond to the nature of the threat encountered, minimum required force becomes the fighting standard. This approach to self-defense inherently conforms to the American legal doctrine as it applies to use of force, and confronts the growing public concern with the level of violence demonstrated in many contemporary martial arts.