Thought of this the other day, while playing some crunchy Euro-style board games with some buddies:

"Judo is the application of perfectly rational solutions to chaotic situations".

I think this especially applies in randori, where after many hours of desensitizing a judoka to the initial shock of "Oh shit, someone is in my face grabbing onto me and yanking me around" and "Whoa, I got thrown, that hurt and was scary", they can start to actually put their brains to work. My sensei used to talk about the state of mushin, or "empty-mind" as the goal of judo, and you can only really get to this as a by-product of the grind of initial learning. When you can stay relaxed, you can use a combination of both mental and physical agility to resolve the problems you're faced with. A lot of what we do is basically training our bodies and minds at the same time to be precise, calculating, and efficient.

Curious what other people think of this assertion!

TL;DR - Judo is a giant, impactful board game for your brain and body at the same time.