ABSTRACT
Performance analysis allows us to understand three main areas of our sport, the technical components, the tactical components and the physiological demands via time–motion analysis. Readers will be familiar with performance analysis in other sports such as soccer and tennis where we see the statistics live on our television screens with components such as possession, strike rate, tackles and errors, all presented to aid the spectator; we are also familiar with it in combat sports such as boxing. In its widest context, performance analysis allows us to understand how judo is constructed. We can compare a large number of factors between countries and continents, including how rule changes affect judo, compare across weight categories and gender as well as many other factors. This type of research information allows coaches to understand our sport and make their coaching more specific. The first section of this chapter will review the current literature on this and ‘paint a picture’ of judo for the reader based on a wealth of literature.
