Randori and shiai
Article created: 2026-01-12, updated 2026-01-14
These are my thoughts on sparring and competition, obviously take it as you may with my limited experience in judo.
Randori or sparring¶
Sparring in the dojo, technically referred as playing from Jigoro Kano's perspective.
When going to a randori session for a class, think ahead what you want to achieve and set small goals, given your experience obviously:
- "I want to hit a forward throw"
- "Let's make this setup work from ko-uchi"
- "I want to be able to apply my best grip"
- "I want to work on a grip my opponent feeds me and try to escape from it"
- etc.
It's more about testing things and it shouldn't be about winning, otherwise the goal of the exercise is null. The best types of randori you can watch are those from Japanese universities, where people are relaxed and also not from another realm of level like Olympic judokas.
For example:
Shiai or competition¶
It's where you're going to be testing your limits, while I am not the expert of competitions, here are my thoughts so far. It's a mix of things I have learnt or been taught by friends and coaches.
Preparation¶
Fight preparation¶
Randori doesn't show the same amount of dedication in preparation as competition does, because you need here to know what your techniques are going to be and how you're going to approach your matches. So you need to know your stance, your tokui-waza as well as your preferred grips for the kumi-kata.
It's best to know the ruleset (obviously) and know what you can aim for and where you might get shidos. Right now with the re-introduction of yukos for scoring and the revised scoring of those in January 2026, it's absolutely necessary to know when you could get one or your opponent could get one.
Try to ask for a mock-up shiai at your dojo or with a friend. Count the points and make sure you give yourself the proper pacing to match almost 1-1 the competition. This is good to relieve stress and also to check what works and what doesn't.
Losing weight¶
Losing weight... Ah the great topic when you will visit online forums, boards, reddit etc. So, you should ideally be within your target weight I'd say a week before and tapper down closer to the competition. I'm not a nutritionnist, so I won't give advice on what you should and shouldn't do, but just say what I aim for.
A week before the competition I know I can be like 2kg above the weight and make weight without sacrificing food for the trainings before. Overall, reduce the salt and the carbs intake (pasta for example) a good chunk of time prior to competing. Typically I would eat a bit less (skip maybe the breakfasts and avoid anything caloric like sodas, alcohol, cakes etc.), try to sleep as much as I can and 2 days before the competition almost switch all the dirnking to tea (mostly black tea), to reduce the water weight. A good way for me to also lose a kilo or two is to run a 5k at a good speed and sweat it out.
I prefer the weigh-in on the night before the competition, have a light meal in the evening (something like a soup and maybe a salad or something with protein) and avoid heavy food before.
Day of the competition¶
What to bring¶
Necessary:
- So obviously... bring your (white) gi and possibly a blue one if needed for some competitions. And also your belt.
- Your competition card and an ID
What I add as well:
- Water, a lot of water because you never know if there will be any (and you don't want to have to always buy water)
- Tape (for fingers)
- Some headphones if you want to stay focused
- A powerbank and a charger
- Toilet paper, well, nothing is worse than having to go fight, needing the bathroom and having no toilet paper available. It's not something I have experienced in judo, but in running competitions a lot... not pleasant.
- A spare t-shirt and a sweater, you don't know how long you are going to wait that day in between matches, also wearing a cold and sweaty gi is a miserable experience
- A bit of food, I prefer nuts and fruits (bananas for example), they don't drain you and are easy to eat, a good energy fuel during the day.
- Dry bag, something to put your stuff after the matches
- Towel, soap etc. Well the usual for showering after the comp.
How to get ready¶
Do a proper warm-up at least an hour before the start of the competition, you should sweat and be ready for a hard randori. Do some uchi-komis and nage-komi (try to find somebody around you or if your team is there; ask somebody from your club to work out with you).
Another good thing is to do some kumi-kata for example to practice before going on the mat and warming up your fingers. Then you can do a couple of randori with people from your club or somebody you know. This advice from my friend Miguel is essentially that this is your "first" match and relieves the pressure from the actual first match you'll have. If you're a serious competitor, maybe this is not needed. I don't know.
Check the table of the match¶
Check when you can the table of the upcoming matches, know that each match is roughly 4-5 minutes and depending on the matches they can end early or later depending on the scoring. If you have a match, you know your next one will be in around 20 minutes by the way.
Cheer for your mates and have fun¶
Be there for your team and friends, even when you lost! It's great for morale, and honestly good judo is like a thriller and it's damn great to see other win or fight.
Competing should be fun, otherwise there's no point in doing it, it's also a great way to test your judo, just like applying what you learnt along the years.
Important points¶
- Narrative: My friend Miguel told me a very interesting thing about fights and how they unfold, it's that you can see the narrative of it happening before your eyes (or with your own hands when you're there honestly). One opponent imposes a narrative on the other and vice-versa and a certain pattern of attacks or defence will influence the match. If one of the 2 judokas is attacking more with say uchi-mata, the opponent will be wary to these and be more open to other forms of attacks. Receiving shidos is also a way of influencing how the match unfolds, at 2 shidos you will see more attacks from one of the fighters.
I need to expand on that and make it clearer. Something to do later.