Shtuff happens

The following video is a neat example of the ippon ideal that I was talking about in a previous post. Look for instances where the technique was missing one of the three qualities of ippon (mostly on the back, speed/power, control) but was still called ippon. You’ll find lots of instances of vague throws or maybe doubtful calls. Granted, not all these were ippons, but you can bet that deep down in every competitor's mind is the desire to win with a perfect throw. You have to balance that desire for perfection with the pragmatic reality that sh...stuff happens.