nismaratwork said:
I agree that training for competition seems to lead to more gymnastics than meaningful skills, but maybe that's what they want?
It doesn't leads to gymnastics, it usually leads to extremely efficient skills in a isolated area. And it happens in all sports I know. Boxers are the best punchers in this world, no other practitioners, beeit MMA , MT, whatever, comes close to the power and accuracy of a boxer's punch. All they do after all is punch. Sport judo players become godlike in tachi-waza while retaining ne-waza skills, and BJJ are gods in ne-waza while retaining some skills in tachi-waza.
Why this happens is easy to see, it's the rules of the sport and the scoring system which affects what techniques you emphasize in you training. After all, winning is all in sports, if you plan to make a life from it, earn money from it and from commercials, open a gym of your own to train a team. And to make money from a sport, you have to make it grow, and it has to be spectacular to draw viewers.
Take Judo for example. Kano created Judo from Jiu-Jitsu as a form of complete physical and psychical development for a human being. In 1882 he formed the Kodokan institute, the governing body of Judo. They created rule sets for sport encounters.
At the beginning of 20th icentury n Japan, there where schools which introduced kids to Judo in schools through ne-waza and not through tachi-waza to prevent injury. The focus in the first years of development was newaza, and tachi-waza was gradually introduced later in training. This lead to a generation of fighters which where extremely proficient in ne-waza. They hold matches under a subset of Kodokan rules which went to be known as Kosen Judo. It was practiced in kosen schools (5 years colleges).
This led to an interesting phenomenon. A skilled ne-waza practitioner would win a fight under those rules even if the was gracefully thrown, or if they would simply pull guard with no attempt to throw their adversary, and since they had excellent mat skills, and they would not have any desire to engage again in tachi-waza once they where on the mat. Furthermore a draw in Judo is easier to obtain in ne-waza then in tachi-waza, and this led to less skilled practitioners automatically pulling guard or entering mat techniques in the hope that they would secure a draw in the game against a more skilled opponent.
This changed in 1925. Kodokan revised the competition rules, and they limited the time you could spend in ne-waza. They would simply stand you up. This was effective in cutting off the trend of less skilled players to just pull guard.
Those rules continue to be modified even today. The IJF's trend is to make harder and harder to spend time on ground, there are very specific conditions which must be in place, apparent progress towards a technique must be done very fast, or else the referee will just call matte and stand the players up. Today, IJF referees will call matte unbelievably easy. You will be cut short very fast when you try to play your ne-waza. This makes emphasis on tachi-waza in Sport Judo so important today. And it also make sport judo more spectacular then other grappling sports, a Judo throw is beautiful to behold, while keeping someone 10 minutes between your legs is mighty boring for the casual viewers. The popularity for viewers means more money for the sport.So after the Kodokan changed rules, some of the Kosen schools decided to continue to train the same way, giving emphasis to ne-waza. They raised ne-waza to rang of art, and if you ever have the posibillty to watch those techniques you will realize that long before BJJ existed , ne-waza was already an art.
Some Judoka's where extremely well rounded, like the legendary Masahiko Kimura , others favored Newaza, others tachi-waza.
Now enter the Gracie family. In 1917 a Kodokan judoka Mitsuyo Maeda was in Brazil , popularizing Kano';s judo through the world. Carlos Gracie see a demonstration of his, and asked to be accepted as a student. Maeda accepted him and thought him Judo. Later Helio Gracie learned from brother. He was a smaller size men which did not posses outstanding physical strength, so he focused , like so many Kosen Players on ne-waza. This in effect resulted in the birth of the art known today as BJJ.
BJJ continued to evolve on it;s own line through the years. It became popular as the Gracies defeated opponent after opponent with their ne-waza. Changes occurred here as well. Sport BJJ became more popular, and rules of BJJ sport competition took their toll on the system. Fancy techniques, very efficient in the sport under it's rules were now widely used, even if they would not amount much in vale tudo. BJJ , like Judo, felt the wrath of competition rules :P
As for me, I love Judo. Judo is beautiful. It tells things to me.
(now that was funny admit it). 
