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Judo Scoring Explained: Ippon, Waza-ari, Shido and Golden Score
How a judo match is won: ippon, waza-ari, the 20-second hold, three shido, golden score and the referee's signals, under IJF rules as of 2026.
8 min read · 21 September 2026 · updated 21 September 2026
In this article
On 23 October 1964, in the Nippon Budokan, Anton Geesink of the Netherlands took Akio Kaminaga to the mat in the open-weight final, settled into kesa-gatame and held him there for thirty seconds while the loudest hall in judo went quiet. Thirty seconds was the price of an ippon by hold-down in 1964. Today it is twenty, and judo has rewritten its scoreboard more often than any other Olympic combat sport, which is why a match from 2012 and a match from today are read differently.
The short answer: judo is won by one decisive action, not by adding up small ones. Ippon ends the contest on the spot. Waza-ari is a near miss, and two of them make an ippon. Shido is a penalty that gives the other side nothing until the third one, which ends it. If four minutes pass with nothing between the two, golden score runs until somebody scores or is penalised out. Here is what each word means, how the referee shows it, and what changed in 2017 and 2025.
Key facts
- Scores
- Ippon (wins outright) and waza-ari (two make ippon)
- Hold-downs
- 20 seconds for ippon, 10–19 seconds for waza-ari
- Penalties
- Shido; the third shido is hansoku-make and ends the contest
- Contest time
- 4 minutes for seniors, then golden score with no time limit
- Removed scores
- Koka (2009) and yuko (2017)
- Rule book
- IJF refereeing rules, 2025–2028 cycle (as of 2026)
Ippon: the throw that ends the argument
An ippon throw has to satisfy four criteria at the same moment: the thrower is in control, the opponent lands largely on the back, and the throw has considerable force and speed. Miss one and it is not ippon. A huge uchi-mata that dumps someone on the side scores less than a quiet, flat o-soto-gari onto the shoulder blades. Judo does not pay for spectacle. It pays for the back.
There are two other roads. An osaekomi held for 20 seconds is ippon, as long as the person underneath is controlled on the back and has not trapped one of your legs, which is toketa, hold broken. And any submission ends the contest: a tap, a spoken maitta, or a referee who can see that the strangle is working. Armlocks are allowed on the elbow only. Whatever happened before the ippon no longer matters.
Waza-ari: almost, and twice makes a whole
Waza-ari is the throw that fell one criterion short: the opponent rolled onto the side, or the force was there but the control was not. In ne-waza it is an osaekomi of 10 to 19 seconds.
Two waza-ari add up to ippon, waza-ari awasete ippon, and even that rule has a history. The 2017 changes removed yuko, the score below waza-ari, and for that one trial year two waza-ari did not add up either; the 2018 rules brought the addition back. Koka had gone in 2009. A board that once showed four columns now shows one, and that was the intention: a contest read as big throw or no big throw, not as arithmetic.
| Score | Throw | Hold-down (osaekomi) | Effect | Status as of 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ippon | All four criteria: control, largely on the back, force, speed | 20 seconds | Ends the contest | Current |
| Waza-ari | One criterion missing | 10–19 seconds | Two make ippon | Current |
| Yuko | Two criteria missing, typically a landing on the side | Shorter hold | Below waza-ari | Removed 2017 |
| Koka | Landing on the buttocks or thigh | Shortest hold | Lowest score | Removed 2009 |
Shido: the penalty that gives nothing away, until it does
Shido is the referee's index finger pointing at you. You earn one for not attacking, for a false attack, for stepping out of the area, for an over-defensive posture, for breaking the opponent's grip with two hands, for refusing to take kumi-kata, and for a list of grip offences that grows and shrinks with each rule cycle.
Three shido is hansoku-make: the contest ends and the opponent wins. Until 2017 each shido effectively counted as a score for the other side, so a cautious judoka could lose on penalties without ever being thrown. Since 2017 the shido counts for nothing. Level on scores at the end of four minutes means golden score, whoever has more shido, and the only shido that decides anything is the third.
Hansoku-make: the ones that end it on the spot
Some things skip the queue.
| Offence | Penalty as of 2026 |
|---|---|
| Passivity, false attack, stepping out, defensive posture, illegal grips | Shido; the third shido is hansoku-make |
| Diving head first into the mat | Hansoku-make |
| Kani-basami and kawazu-gake | Hansoku-make |
| Joint locks on anything other than the elbow | Hansoku-make |
| Grabbing the legs or trousers in standing judo | Direct hansoku-make from 2013; revisited in the 2025 rules |
| Disregarding the referee, dangerous or disrespectful acts | Hansoku-make |
From 2010 the IJF penalised direct attacks below the belt, and from 2013 a leg grab in tachi-waza was a straight hansoku-make. The reason was identity rather than safety: with wrestling on the same Olympic programme, the IJF decided judo should be won upright, through the grip fight and the big throw. Whatever you think of it, the rule did what it was written to do.
Golden score: no draw, no clock, no jury
Golden score arrived in 2003 with a time limit and, behind it, hantei, a flag vote by the judges. Both went in the 2014 rules: golden score now runs until something happens, and something always does. A waza-ari ends it. A third shido ends it. There is no draw in judo and no decision on points. Regular time is four minutes for seniors, men and women alike, since 2017. The clock stops on every matte, so a four-minute contest routinely takes seven. The IJF calls the extra period golden score. Judoka who have spent eleven minutes in it call it other things.
The referee's arms, and the colour of the jacket
You can follow a contest with the sound off if you learn six gestures. Ippon: one arm straight up. Waza-ari: one arm straight out to the side. Osaekomi: the arm extended down towards the two judoka, palm down, which starts the hold-down clock. Toketa: the same arm waved side to side. Matte: a hand raised towards the timekeeper. Shido: the index finger pointed at the offender. Since 1997 one judoka wears blue, so the board reads white against blue, and behind the referee sits the refereeing commission with the CARE video system, which is why a referee sometimes stands still with a hand to the earpiece before deciding whether the landing was on the back or on the side.
What changed in 2025
The IJF issued new refereeing rules for the 2025–2028 cycle. As of 2026 the scoring itself has not moved: ippon, waza-ari, 20 and 10 seconds, three shido. The revisions concern how rolling and sideways landings are judged, the grip restrictions, which were relaxed, the penalty for leg grabs and the handling of head dives. Read the current IJF edition before you rely on any detail below the headlines.
Why judo is not scored like wrestling or BJJ
Wrestling adds up: a takedown is two points, exposing the back two or four, and a fall needs both shoulders on the mat for a moment, not twenty seconds. BJJ adds up as well, two for a takedown or sweep, three for a guard pass, four for mount, over five to ten minutes in which a throw is worth exactly as much as a sweep. Judo pays for one thing done perfectly. A single throw beats a whole match of small gains, and the person who was ahead for three minutes and fifty seconds walks off having lost. That is not a flaw in the system. That is the system.
Sources
- International Judo Federation. Sport and Organisation Rules (current edition). https://www.ijf.org/documents
- International Judo Federation. Refereeing Rules 2025–2028 and the explanatory guides to earlier rule changes. https://www.ijf.org
- Kodokan Judo Institute. Contest rules and terminology. https://kodokanjudoinstitute.org
- Wikipedia. “Judo rules”, “Judo at the 1964 Summer Olympics” and “Anton Geesink”.
Where to go next
- The whole art on one page: the judo hub.
- Where the rules came from: Judo: Kanō Jigorō and the Gentle Way.
- The same throw, two scorecards: BJJ vs Judo.
- Why the leg grab went: Judo vs Wrestling.
Frequently asked questions
- How do you win a judo match?
- Ippon ends it at once: a throw with control that lands the opponent largely on the back with force and speed, a hold-down of 20 seconds, or a submission by armlock or strangle. Otherwise the judoka with a waza-ari at the end of four minutes wins, and a level contest goes to golden score.
- What is the difference between ippon and waza-ari?
- An ippon throw meets all four criteria; a waza-ari throw is missing one, usually the landing on the back. In hold-downs, 20 seconds is ippon and 10 to 19 seconds is waza-ari. Two waza-ari add up to ippon.
- How many shido until you lose?
- Three. The third shido is hansoku-make and the contest ends. Since the 2017 rules a shido gives the opponent no points; it only matters when it becomes the third, or when it is the third in golden score.
- Is yuko still a score in judo?
- No. The IJF removed yuko in 2017 and koka in 2009. The only scores on a modern judo board are waza-ari and ippon.
- How long is a judo match?
- Four minutes of contest time for seniors under IJF rules, men and women, with the clock stopped on every matte. If nothing separates the two at the end, golden score follows with no time limit until somebody scores or receives a third shido.
- Why can't you grab the legs in judo?
- Direct attacks or blocks below the belt in standing judo were penalised from 2010 and made a direct hansoku-make in 2013, mainly to keep judo upright and visibly different from wrestling. The 2025 IJF rules revisited the penalty, so check the current edition.