Host: The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
Name : [in Japanese]
Date : November 21, 2018 - November 23, 2018
At the opening of a match, a skilled Judo referee’s focus is on the upper body of the two contenders. After that, the referees point of reference changes when the contestants skill is displayed, and focus is increased to the lower body. This is done to catch the movement of the thrown combatant.
In this experiment, the referee’s line of sight was confirmed to act according to the above. This was observed by recording a video of the referees line of sight, through use of specialized equipment. Furthermore the referees were interviewed. From this data, the following three observations were made.
1) At the opening of the match, before the competitors have come together, the referees focus is on the half way point between the competitors. I believe this may be to ensure the referee can maintain visual contact on the two opponents until they come together. When the two competitors come together, the viewpoint switched to the middle of the lower back. This is to increase visibility and understanding of the entire body of the two competitors.
2) Focus is on the equal height of both competitors’ lower backs. When one competitor moves into a dominant position, focus is shifts to the lower back of the dominant competitor. I think this is to be able to predict when to change focus as indicated below in (3).
3) When a sign of skill from the dominant postured competitor shows, focus immediately shifts to that competitors feet.
I think that because this moment may decide the match, the referee wants to judge this movement carefully.
The Proceedings of Joint Symposium: Symposium on Sports Engineering, Symposium on Human Dynamics
