Let’s be honest. In an attempt to overprotect participants and redefine the aesthetics of Judo, we are witnessing as never before the sissification of Judo. We have removed and penalized so many things that we are left with a sanitized version, a shell, of what used to be one of the most comprehensive forms of grappling. For those of us in areas where Brazilian jiujitsu and mixed martial arts are popular, today’s sport Judo is not helping our cause one bit.
Archive for the ‘Judo Development’ Category
The Sissification of Judo
Tuesday, May 4th, 2010What’s Up With The USJA?
Tuesday, April 27th, 2010AnnMaria De Mars and Jim Pedro, respectively the president and vice-president of the USJA, resigned a few weeks ago. Pedro did so during a conference call meeting of the USJA Board of Directors, and De Mars resigned the following day.
Emotions are running high. Some USJA members are threatening to pull out of the USJA and join USA Judo. Makes sense to me- NOT. If there was ever a dysfunctional, worthless group to join, it would have to be USA Judo. So guys, knock yourselves out and join USA Judo if you think it’s going to care more about your opinions and welfare.
Youth Technical Director
Tuesday, April 20th, 2010“Player development continues to be the core of what we do. By its very nature it’s a long-term process, so it may not be as sexy as announcing a national team competition or coach or winning medals, but it’s actually probably the most important thing we do.”
Wouldn’t it be nice if this were coming from USA Judo? Well, it didn’t come from USA Judo. It came from U.S. Soccer’s president, when he introduced the federation’s newly appointed youth technical director.
Tournament Stuff
Tuesday, April 13th, 2010Several of my blogs have generated some great information from my readers, so this blog will be devoted to sharing that information with you.
Mike Darter, the founder of the Judo Podcast, was kind enough to introduce me to Score Judo, a Judo scoreboard for PC, which was developed in Australia as an application for use by all bona fide judo clubs anywhere in the world free of charge.
About Promotions
Wednesday, April 7th, 2010My daughter Valerie, who started a Judo club last month, is now addressing the one thing she had not yet tackled or thought of very deeply- rank promotions. Like many elite players, she is so oblivious to rank that periodically she’ll ask me, “What rank am I, dad?” Now that she’s a coach and responsible for the development of her own students, rank takes on a whole new meaning, even though she couldn’t care less about her own rank.
Breaking Out Of Our Comfort Zone
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010Comfort zone: [definition] a behavioral state within which a person operates in an anxiety-neutral condition, using a limited set of behaviors to deliver a steady level of performance, usually without a sense of risk.
One of the reasons progress has been so slow in coming to American Judo is that we are deeply happy and comfortable with the traditions and training model of our sport, and we don’t want to be the nail that gets hammered down. By golly, if it was good enough for my sensei and his sensei, then it’s good enough for me. Unfortunately for us, progress comes from stepping outside our comfort zone just long enough so that new skills can be learned and better performances can be achieved.
This is Developmental?
Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010Back in January 2010, I announced that the USJA was going to create new rules for “developmental” tournaments. That was great news. I thought that some sanity would return to our sport after the IJF’s latest, and drastic, rule changes were announced. Well, the results are in, and I am very disappointed, but not totally shocked.
Judo Mislabeled
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010I don’t know what it is about Judo, but we have allowed our sport to be defined and mislabeled without much of a fight. We are partly responsible for the way we are perceived by the general public. Our actions, and more importantly our inactions, have the public believing we are something we aren’t or shouldn’t be. Case in point: we are a cheap sport.
I Hate Judo!
Thursday, March 11th, 2010Don’t freak out. I haven’t lost all my marbles yet. Rest assured that I don’t hate Judo. I still love it. On the other hand, two of my daughters have at one time or another told me that they hate Judo. Of course, there’s a story behind my daughters’ statements, which is well worth analyzing because I also hear “I hate Judo” from other judoplayers.
Controversial?
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010A few days ago, I stumbled across a review of a coaching conference, at which I was one of the technical, on-the-mat clinicians. The author gave a fair assessment of the five presentations that were offered. I thought his comments on my presentation were positive, except that I was labelled one of the most ‘controversial’ figures in U.S. Judo, and that some of my ideas were “outrageous” by conventional ideologies. Both perhaps true, but nonetheless bothersome. What gives?