Judo rules: searching for a wind of changes

After 2016 the International Judo Federation changed rules to promote the "positive" judo. This study compared two World-Championships-editions before and after the rules changes: Astana-2015 and Budapest-2017. Data from matches disputed in Astana (765) and Budapest (768) were analyzed concerning: total match duration, frequency of scores and penalties, association between edition and extra time, disqualifications and matches without penalties. Three-way ANOVA was used to compare sexes, weight categories and World-Championships-edition, with LSD test as post-hoc. The associations between World-Championships-edition and matches finished in extra time, disqualifications and matches without any score were tested via Chi square. Results were: (a) no change in number of ippon when the same sex and weight category were considered across years; (b) number of waza-ari increased from Astana to Budapest; (c) number of penalties decreased from Astana to Budapest. Females in Budapest received less penalties than females in Astana and males in both competitions. Extra-lightweights received less penalties than lightweights upwards; heavyweights received more penalties than all other weight categories from middleweights downwards; (d) occurrence of extra time and hansoku-make increased for females, males and all groups together; (e) males' matches were longer than females ones. Thus, the new rules partially achieved the goal proposed.