It is now day 3 of the world championships and there has been some cracker fights!

Throughout the tournament I have seen some trends coming through that need to be addressed if you are looking at competing at local, national or international events.

Shidos are given out frequently by a referee, and once a player has 1 shido the second shido is close behind.

As a player you must constantly be on the move and doing positive judo attacks.

There has been some fights where after 70 seconds one judoka has 3 shidos while the other has none!.

Make sure you are ready to fight as soon as the referee says Hajime.

For some reason bad drop seoi nages are getting penalties but bad Tome nages seem to be ok. I have noticed that many of the top Judoka use a bad tomoe nage as a ‘get out of jail free card’ – especially when they’re getting dominated by their opponents.

Start looking at using this sacrifice technique to your advantage (especially if you like newaza).

In case you haven’t noticed, judoka are becoming more agile than ever before. Even though only the lighter weights have competed so far I have noticed that over time Judoka in all weight divisions are becoming more agile.

Agility and spatial awareness will help you in not only evading techniques but also injury prevention.

Start doing more tumbles and rolls at home or at training to ensure you stay supple, agile and spatially aware.

Because referees are more than happy to give out shidos I have noticed that a lot of the ippon scores are coming off a grip and go attack. A grip and go attack is when you attack as soon as your 1 or 2 hands on your opponent.

These days Judoka are fitter than ever before. Your upper body cardio and strength need to be higher than when 2 handed grip breaks were around because often you and your opponent are constantly connected with either a lapel and sleeve or top grip and sleeveÂgrip.

Both my Workouts for Judo and Strength Training for Judo packages will help get you in great shape for Judo.

If you watched the final of the -60kg then you would have seen the Mongolian dominate the Russian’s sleeve hand and sweep the front foot. This not only frustrated the Russian but also didn’t give him a chance to turn in for his major attacks…this was a game plan that was thought about, planned and implemented.

Start thinking about these trends at your next training session and let me know how you go simply be replying to this email.

For those who are super into the World Championships I have teamed up with my best mate Ivo dos Santos to do little weight division breakdowns of the World Champs.  Ivo is a 2012 Olympian and coach and has a tremendous amount of insight into every player and weight division.

You can check out our breakdowns on my Youtube channel here: