It has been agreed by the National Refereeing Commission and Technical Officials’ Commission to remove armlocks (kensetsu-waza) and strangles (shime-waza) at the Sainsbury’s UK School Games event.

This decision was made to reflect the different ages of players in the weight categories and to support the EJU & IJF ruling of no armlocks for players under the age of 16 years in competitive judo.

The Commissions decided to include the removal of strangles (shime-waza) as this allows us to encourage and support younger referees to participate at this level of event, giving them valuable experience of refereeing with senior refereeing mentors, without the serious consequences of players potentially applying armlocks and strangles.

The Commissions along with the BJA are looking at new pathways involving younger referees and officials to be able to officiate at more prestigious national events and the Sainsbury's UKSG is one of the events identified.

At the National British Schools Championships earlier on in the year we invited younger referees and officials to participate, which was a huge success, and we wish to continue supporting the younger referees and officials where possible. The other event to be used is the British Championships in the latter part of this year.

We accept that your players use kansetsu-waza and shime-waze in their judo repertoire but taking into account the type of event the Sainsbury's UKSG is and looking at the overall calendar of events for our players we felt this was the ideal event to support our younger referees and officials.