JJIF Duo System Rules (in brief)

In contrast to the Individual Fighting System, the Duo System is aimed at representing defenses against a pre-designated series of attacks. The defenses are selected by the competitors and any type of defense which conforms to the Judging Criteria is acceptable. 

The competitors are in pairs - female, male and mixed - and two pairs compete against each other by demonstrating their techniques.

The attacks are in four categories:

1. Grabbing/Gripping

2. Embracing and Neck-locks

3. Strikes (with hands and feet)

4. Weapons (knife and short staff)

In each series there are five attacks, of which three are chosen by the center referee, giving a total of twelve in all. Both teams demonstrate the same twelve on the instruction of the center referee.

Contestants are scored by a jury of five referees on the following criteria:

1. atemi must be powerful and controlled

2. throws and take-downs must contain balance-breaking and control

3. locks and strangulations must be shown to the jury to be effective, with tapping by Uke (the attacker)

4. both the attacks and defenses must be made with speed, they must be technical and must be realistic.

After each set of three attacks, the judges award their assessments on a scale from 0 to 10. The highest score and the lowest score of the five are discarded and the remaining three scores are added together. The pair which has the highest total after the four categories is declared the winners.

ATTACKS IN THE DUO SYSTEM
The feet position is totally free in all attacks.

SERIES 1 Gripping attacks	SERIES 2 Embracing and neck lock attacks	SERIES 3 Punches/strikes and kicking attacks	SERIES 4 Weapon attacks