How do you reduce shido play?

With the Olympic judo event over, the IJF will soon update judo rules for the new Olympic cycle. There are lots of comments and criticisms about the current rules, especially in light of the fact that there was so much shido play and matches decided by penalties in the Paris Olympics.

This is a problem with no easy solutions. As long as there are such things are penalties (shido), players will make full use of the rules to win, by shido play, if necessary.

The only way to totally eliminate shido play is to eliminate shido itself. If there's no shido, by definition there is no shido play. But that would invite a whole new problem: How do you stop someone from being totally defensive once they get a waza-ari?

If there are no such things as shidos, you will see even fewer ippons. Players will just aim for a waza-ari and kill time for the rest of the match. So, getting rid of shido is really no solution.

Perhaps a more practical solution is to give referees the discretion to distinguish between real attacks and shido play. Right now, if you attack your opponent with a drop technique, and the attack moves your opponent, it's considered a real attack... even though it might not be.

Never mind that the attack has no chance of scoring. If it causes uke to be displaced (moved), it's considered a legitimate attack. That's what the current rules provide for. Those rules need to be refined.

We're all familiar with players who are experts at shido play. They've perfected it into art form. They move around a lot and do lots of drop attacks. Such players should not be rewarded for not trying to throw.

For sure, there is an element of subjectivity if referees are allowed to penalize players for doing shido play. But it's important to realize that shido play itself is against the spirit of judo. You're supposed to try to throw your opponent, not engineer a penalty for them.

 Something need to be done about it. It's important to retain the shido because there must be a way to punish passivity. But what gets a shido needs to be revamped. As mentioned earlier, if someone clearly engages in shido play, with no intent at all to do any throws, they should be given a penalty.

In other words, looking busy and constantly dropping, should not be a way to ward off a shido. The way to avoid a shido is to really try to throw.