Then, a few days ago, we received the following double whammy from USA Judo. “To help us grow Judo in the U.S., gi and no-gi jujitsu divisions will be included in all national events, and USA Judo will now be know as USA Judo/Ju-Jitsu.” Say what?

If you are like me, you should take these announcements with a sense of despair about Judo in the U.S. for they officially suggest that the ship is sinking while the captain claims all is well in la-la-land.

It’s hard to visualize the IJF respecting the United States because we are doing such a great job at developing and promoting Judo. Frank Fullerton, former USA Judo president, promoted Judo, and paid for it out of his own pocket. What has the current USA Judo done to suggest that it is developing and promoting Judo? Sure, USA Judo started a few small projects here and there, like the Boys Scouts of America program that didn’t quite reach puberty, let alone maturity. But other than those embryonic efforts, what else is there to show besides its continued attempts to thwart and bury the U.S. Judo Association? How’s that for developing and promoting Judo in the U.S.? Whatever USA Judo is doing to promote and grow Judo, it simply isn’tt filtering down to the grassroots level.

The number of competitors participating in our national/international events has diminished over time. The U.S. Open, which is almost entirely a domestic event now, should be euthanized. Its Canadian counterpart, the Montreal Rendez-Vous, has been discontinued. If we have developed Judo so much, why are we adding ju-jitsu to the fray?

USA Judo CEO Jose Rodriguez says that, “Judo and ju-jitsu are sister sports and many of the techniques are very similar.” True: similar like team handball and basketball, both of which are played with a ball that needs to go into a net to score a point, but different sports nonetheless. For obvious reasons, USA Team Handball doesn’t seek to run basketball divisions at its national events.

So what are these announcements all about? Well, I think they are merely about fundraising, not developing or promoting Judo. The latest fundraising effort will add members to USA Judo’s rolls, increase income derived from rank promotions, and probably make more money off national events. What it won’t do is create more or better judoplayers, because in spite of Judo and jujitsu being sister sports, they are not the same sport. The crossover will be negligible, especially at the elite level.

Decades ago, the USJA under Phil Porter initiated the same fundraising scheme now being launched by USA Judo. USJA brought in new members, created jujitsukas out of judokas, sold rank to them like crazy, and tried to treat them as equals. Ultimately, many of the jujitsu people realized that although there were some common grounds between the two sports, the two were in fact different. Disenchantment set in, political battles raged, and members departed.

USA Judo is diversifying because it doesn’t know how to make its main product- Judo- more palatable to the American public. By adding jujitsu to the fold, it may solve the financial crisis it’s facing, caused in part by the USOC’s cutting back on funding of NBGs that don’t produce international medals. What it won’t achieve is get more people to do Judo. Our competitive ranks will remain just as shallow as they are today, and our international medal count won’t change much.

What I find the most irritating about the latest USA Judo announcements is that it is openly admitting- at least for those who wish to read between the lines- that to survive as a sport we must embrace other sports in our midst. Contrary to that, I believe USA Judo must find ways to provide its clubs and players services that are needed and valued. It must recognize that to survive we must make our own product better by developing better coaches, better facilities, and most importantly by refusing to allow IJF rules to marginalize our sport within the grappling world. What we need is a Judo version of the Manhattan project that would include the USJA and USJF.

I am not totally against incorporating jujitsu into our programs, but it should be done for development purposes, not financial gain. If we are going to incorporate jujitsu why not make it of the Kosen Judo type? We are missing the boat by not having Kosen Judo classes and tournaments. By adopting Kosen, rather than some jujitsu mishmash, we stay truer to our Judo culture and technical base, while still being able to attract more people to our sport.

And for heaven’s sake, if we do but one thing to better Judo, let’s change the damn rules of Judo! Quickly.

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.

Fingers are also being pointed.  According to a few lost souls on the Judo Forum, I am to blame for some of what just happened. How? I have no idea, but it may have something to do with my blogs. Rest assured that my blogs held no sway over the board members. They have eyes and ears. They saw the De Mars misdeed at the January board meeting, and they acted accordingly in due time.

Prior to that fateful January meeting in Las Vegas, I had phone conversations with both De Mars and Gary Goltz. I had heard that Goltz, the USJA’s COO, had momentarily thrown around the idea that he should be president. Ultimately, for the good of the USJA, Goltz told me that he and De Mars had agreed that she would be the president and he would be the vice-president. She also told me that she would resign from the board if she wasn’t elected president. She had an agenda to fulfill and she needed to be president in order to carry out that agenda. Made sense to me.

In spite of the agreement, the die had been cast. De Mars could no longer trust Goltz, so she foolishly stabbed him in the back by masterminding Pedro’s election as vice-president. From that point on, it wasn’t too hard for the board to lose trust in De Mars and to force her resignation.

Lots of folk think the sky is falling, and irreparable damage has been done. I’m not one of them. I applaud the board’s quick actions to resolve the issue, which could have festered for years and divided the board in two factions like the previous board. We know how well that worked. While it is sad to see De Mars and Pedro go, the board should be able to run more smoothly…but honestly, I’m not holding my breath.

On the positive side of the resignations, we are finally about to move forward- I think!- with a real coach education program. Bill Montgomery is now in charge of the Coach Education Committee (CEC). I pray the board implements the majority of the CEC’s recommendations promptly. For starters, approve Successful Coaching as our manual for levels 1 and 2. Then, provide the CEC with the manpower and funds to develop an Internet-based educational system to facilitate the dissemination of technical information, continuing education units, and testing. Lastly, return the USJA’s coaching program to its rightful position as leader in the U.S. Let’s not seek parity with other programs, but rather have them seek parity with ours. If you know what’s out there- and it ain’t much- this is not that difficult to achieve.

In addition, I’d like the board to consider two other suggestions that go hand in hand. First, let’s define who and what we are. Are we a Judo organization as the name implies, or are we something else? Ever since the selling of high dan “service to Judo” promotions, and the inclusion of other martial arts in the USJA, in particular the jujitsu crowd, we have had quality, agenda, identity, and vision problems. Although it was Phil Porter who started all of this, thinking of the financial windfall but ignoring the eventual political and culture wars, successive boards have continued the practice. Many of the board problems we have had recently stem from the fact that we are no longer a unified Judo organization, but rather a Balkanized group with many purposes, goals, and visions.

Under the current administrative set-up, the jujitsu people are not happy. Many are or will abandon, or are threatening to abandon the USJA and join USA Judo or some other jujitsu group. I say good riddance and good luck with that. While the USJA may want to be everything to everybody, it winds up not pleasing a whole bunch of people. I say return to our sport roots when we had 22,000 members, stood for something, and had quality programs and high standards.

Rather than try to retain members from different arts who no longer share our vision, let’s do a better job at improving our sport by developing better Judo coaches and more clubs, and providing them with the knowledge and wherewithal to compete in today’s crowded martial arts world. Without a doubt, this is a full-time job for someone. Thus, my second suggestion is to hire a person responsible for coach and club development.

One of my philosophies is to always seek to turn a negative into a positive regardless of how tragic a situation may appear at first. The USJA is now in a position to do just that. Yes, it’s going to lose some disenchanted members, but others will be inclined to come back now that De Mars and Pedro are gone. None of this is surprising or new in the Judo world. People come and go depending on which way the wind is blowing.

It’s time to check the emotions at the door, do some real soul searching, redefine what the USJA stands for, confirm whom it represents, and improve its root product, which is Judo. In the end, the USJA will become a better organization.

Daughter #1, Valerie, is a 2-time U.S. Olympian. I know what you are thinking. How can an Olympian hate the sport she has done for 32 of her 36 years? The answer is simple. She doesn’t hate the sport. She hates the politics, bureaucracy, petty jealousies, and drama that go along with being an elite athlete in the sport, but when she expresses her displeasure with those things, it comes out as a simple “I hate Judo.”

Another 2-time Olympian expressed the same thing to me at the Senior Nationals last year. She told me that she hated Judo too. I could have walked away without saying anything but I chose that moment to tell her that she was lying. I told her that what she hated was not the sport of Judo, but rather, like my daughter, all the nonsense that goes along with being a player, coach, and national committee member. She looked at me, thought about it for a moment, and then told me that I was right. She loves teaching Judo. She hates all the rest.

If you’ve been around the sport long enough, you know who they are. I’m talking about all the hyper-involved players and coaches who one day just said, “I’m not going to take this crap anymore,” and walked away from the sport. Sadly, most of them walked away permanently, which is something we can’t afford too frequently.

Others have said, “I’m not going to take this crap anymore,” without walking away from the sport. They simply unburdened themselves of the negative obstacles, and took a different path. John Saylor, former coach at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, and Steve Scott, former international coach, both took the independent route as far away from USA Judo as possible. John created the Shingitai jujitsu system, which has a lot of Judo to it, and Steve is still doing Judo through the AAU. He’s even played around with the rules to make Judo competition better.

Valerie has also finally found a way to stay in the sport she loves. She’s now doing something that I thought would never happen. She’s running her own club. She realizes that Judo coaches teach more than just Judo skills. She’s making better citizens out of her students. And the icing on the cake is that my two grand-daughters are now learning Judo from mom making them the fourth generation of Lafons to play the sport. How great is that?

If you get to the point where you hate Judo, the message I’d like you to hear is distance yourself from the garbage, but stay true to the sport. What I find surprising is that many of our disheartened members don’t know how to operate outside the establishment. As a matter of fact, far too many people think you can only operate through USA Judo, USJA or USJF. So, it’s a shock when I tell them they don’t need any of the national organizations to teach Judo and stay with the sport they love to hate. “But what about liability? What about promotions and tournaments?” they ask. Once I point out options and alternatives, the process of teaching Judo without being married to the politics is not so overwhelming.

My other daughter, actually daughter #3, Alexis, is a typical soon to be eleven-year old. She claims that she hates Judo. It’s hard, it requires work and sweat, it’s no fun getting thrown or pinned, blah, blah, blah. Of course, I pay little attention to her complaints. She wants to do ballet and gymnastics, but there is no time in her busy schedule for a second activity. Since she’s a Lafon, she has to do Judo while she lives in my house. She may never be a national or international champion like her older sisters, but she will be tougher than she is today and she’ll be more capable of defending herself.

I know that many feel it’s not acceptable to force kids to do things they don’t want to do. I don’t share that opinion. Too many families are run by their children. I don’t think that’s a good thing. Kids don’t see the big picture. Parents should see the big picture, but often they lose track of their role as decision makers. Not I. San Diego County has suffered two kidnappings of teenage girls, who were ultimately murdered, and a third attempt at kidnapping within the last year or so by the same previously convicted sex offender. The third attempt failed because the girl had had martial arts training. That’s one big reason why I insist my daughters practice Judo.

My mom forced me to take Latin in school. I fought it tooth and nail for a while but gave up because my mom didn’t falter in her belief that it would do me some good. I did six years of Latin. Today, I am glad that I did. My mom was right and I was wrong. And for that I am eternally grateful.

In spite of all the bitching and moaning about Judo, Alexis is always asking me if we are going to do a fun drill today. She enjoys inventing drills and has fun once she is on the mat. I get the occasional, “Do I have to go to Judo today?” And she gets the consistent, “Yes, you do have to go to Judo today! All of your siblings are tough, and so will you be.” I’m confident that when she’s an adult, she’ll thank me for “forcing” her to do Judo.

Oh, by the way, I “hate” Judo too! Sometimes I feel I’m dangling from a tall building and the only thing preventing me from falling is the last foot of a roll of dental floss. Then I remember why I still love coaching Judo. It’s about impacting the lives of others in a positive way.

Speaking of Jim Pedro, at present he remains the chairman of the Coach Education Committee (CEC). When he was given this position four years ago, I predicted that he would not move the program forward. So far, I’m right. We have no manual, no syllabus, and no standards. What we do have is a series of clinics that according to many has little relevance to teaching beginning and intermediate Judo. Teaching our coaches how to grip better and do a rolling juji gatame will not make a big dent in our coaches’ abilities to teach Judo. They need pedagogy and methodology more than they need to learn more Judo techniques although that is obviously very important.

Pedro is one of our most successful international coaches, but he is sadly miscast not only as a vice-president but also as the chairman of the CEC. Pedro should be working with our elite players and coaches as chairman of the Development Committee. Unfortunately for the USJA, AnnMaria DeMars has made the Development Committee her personal possession, which leaves Pedro stuck with the CEC.

CEC member Bill Montgomery presented an outline of plans he and I have developed for the coaching program. I had recommended to him that we adopt Successful Coaching as our manual, and that we develop an Internet-based testing and informational site to make it easy to provide our coaches with the teaching tools they need. Pedro and DeMars seem happy with the program we currently have, so we’re not sure what will happen to our vision. Clearly, the USJA doesn’t have a comprehensive coaching program today. Will the new board recognize this and act accordingly? I hope so.

Bill Montgomery presenting Successful Coaching

USJA promotions to high dan rank have been out of whack for close to twenty years. In spite of statements in the last four months that the USJA was going to make it more difficult to attain high dan ranks, the promotion committee keeps spitting them out. Montgomery, who is also a USJA board member, has called for a moratorium on high dan promotions for a few months until we can come up with performance standards that go along with the technical requirements we already have. I think it’s a good idea, but so far it’s been ignored. The promotion crisis is akin to a government entitlement program. Once unmerited high dan promotions are handed out like candy, it becomes hard to reel them in. New standards of promotion will be fought tooth and nail, but we must come to our senses and right this wrong.

Montgomery and I believe we need some honesty in the promotion system. Terminal rank should be determined by your level of performance (i.e. local, national, international) as a player, competitor or coach. We need to start accepting the fact that most of us should end our Judo careers as 5th dan, not 7th or 8th dan. All technical testing should stop at 5th dan. If you don’t know it by that rank, you’ll never know it. And frankly, how many people actually get tested or are physically capable of being tested for those high dan ranks? Promotions to sixth dan and above should be based on the level at which you operate or operated as a player, competitor or coach.

I thought the National Coaches Conference had a good variety of information both in the classroom and on the mat. The only negative was that it was poorly attended, especially for the on-the-mat presentations. I was disappointed to see that many who had been around for the board meeting and the morning classroom sessions had better things to do than get on the mat for the practical on-the-mat stuff in the afternoon. Some caught early flights out, but several little rascals were enjoying the casino or watching the football playoffs instead. Shame on you guys! One recommendation for future clinics and conferences is to have a standard survey to evaluate the presentations and the information provided.

Today, San Diego County has fewer than ten clubs- I’m being generous as to what constitutes a club. In an average year, we have four tournaments, two of which are usually boycotted by the local Judo clubs because I run them as non-sanctioned events in my own facility. Clinics are few and far between, with more emphasis on kata clinics than the more pertinent clinics on coaching, refereeing and competition training. And the personal feuds between coaches continue unabated.

What is happening in San Diego is happening all around the country. Judo is dying because we are letting it die. So, in an effort to shake things up in San Diego County, I petitioned the Pacific Southwest Judo Association (PSJA) to speak at its board meeting on October 23. PSJA is a USJF yudanshakai that I belonged to in 1972-75. PSJA members and I have been at odds for years for a variety of reasons, mostly childish differences. It took the PSJA four days and countless emails between its members before I was “authorized” to speak for fifteen minutes.

To fix our problems we need to recognize whom our enemies are, where our competition comes from, and what is wrong with Judo. We need to recognize the shackles that we impose upon ourselves, shackles that in many instances prevent us from doing what is right for Judo in San Diego.

One of my favorite quotes from General George Patton is, “May God deliver us from our friends; we can handle the enemy.”  Patton’s enemies were not the Germans, but the British and American generals and politicians who prevented him, often out of jealousy, from doing what he did best. We face a similar situation in the San Diego Judo community. We coaches are our worst enemies. Our lack of cooperation, mutual benefit and welfare, business sense, coaching skills, and willingness to think outside the box is compounded by being stuck with a traditional paradigm in a sport that most people can’t find because we have so few clubs, many of which have no Internet or yellow page presence.

Years ago, our competition was kung fu, then it was taekwondo, and now it’s mostly Brazilian jiujitsu (BJJ) with a sprinkling of mixed martial arts (MMA). In every case, we have stood by and done nothing to fight back. This brings us to what’s wrong with Judo?

First of all, Judo is a hard sport: hard to learn and hard on the body, while our society is soft and requires immediate gratification. It doesn’t help that most clubs have terrible mats. Anyone can kick and punch the air, and anyone can roll around on the ground. Taking hard falls on crappy mats is not for everyone, and that’s something we have to acknowledge and fix. So, BJJ fills a need for grappling without having to take hard falls. But why can’t we take advantage of the ne waza craze sweeping the country? Why not increase our time spent in ne waza and improve our ne waza curriculum? Why not revive Kosen Judo with its own program, classes, promotions, and competition?

BJJ is a young, vibrant, dynamic, macho sport. Most BJJ instructors are young, fit, and “Pan-American” or “World” champions. It’s true that in the BJJ world there are many versions of the Pan-American and World Championships unlike in Judo, but the general public doesn’t know this. Conversely, many Judo clubs are run by older, overweight coaches, with a minimal competition background. This is 1882 revisited except that roles between Judo and jujitsu have been reversed. Judo is the old, tired, irrelevant and marginalized sport, while BJJ is youthful, progressive, relevant, and ascendant.

We have a stagnant, “go kyo no waza” driven curriculum which operates in an emasculated environment thanks to the IJF rules. Can’t grab there, can’t do this, and can’t do that unless you do x, y and z first. Good grief!  Much of our training revolves around methods that have little to do with actual performance. This includes kata, a mere historical relic whose initial purpose has passed. Meanwhile BJJ has none of these technical and training hang-ups.

Now what about those shackles?  How about controlling national governing bodies, IJF rules, referees who enforce IJF rules and think they own Judo, liability insurance, rank, and event sanctions. All of these place unwarranted restrictions on what we can do to better Judo, and they increase our cost of doing business. In the worst-case scenario, they create paranoia and paralysis, which lead us to make decisions that are not in our best interest. For example, why do we follow to the letter IJF rules that are designed for World Championships and Olympic Games, and not five- and six- year old beginners?  Wrestling in the U.S. has four or five different sets of rules. Why doesn’t Judo? Why are sanctions needed if you run a clinic in your own facility?  Why require national membership for all of your students when you can purchase liability insurance on the open market for a better price?  Why are dojo ranks considered so evil and worthless? There are many options out there that we should look at and implement if they make sense for us. If Judo is to survive locally and nationally, we must emphasize the strengthening of each and every local club, even if this means that it weakens the national organizations. Judo lives only because local coaches run local programs. It will also die when we no longer have coaches willing to run programs.

To revive Judo in San Diego, and in many other areas of the United States, we should stop bickering among ourselves like six-year olds. We must start holding some simple, cost-effective events like area open workouts, no frills tournaments out of our own dojos, team competition, and coach education programs. We need to rethink our relationship with national and international organizations. We must be willing to change our model of instruction to make Judo more fun and more relevant. And for God’s sake, we must have an Internet presence! It goes without saying that we also need to develop more clubs. This can be done by encouraging some of our assistant instructors to start their own satellite programs in areas not currently served in the county.

From what I was told, my comments at the PSJA board meeting were well received. However, will those shackles prevent my colleagues from doing what’s best for their clubs? Will they be able to think outside the box? That remains to be seen.

During the “State of USA Judo” meeting, I was sitting peacefully when Jose Rodriguez, our executive director, claimed that the International Judo Federation (IJF) had made decisions about Judo and there was nothing we could do about it! I’m not sure whether it was the Marine or the contrarian in me, but that defeatist statement sent me into orbit. I immediately challenged the assertion that we were impotent.

Mr. Rodriguez explained that the European Judo Union (EJU) and the African Judo Union (AJU) were voting in block and now dominated IJF politics. The EJU had provided the AJU with gis, mats, technical advisors, and coaching mentors, and now found itself beholden to the Europeans.

It is true that the EJU and AJU have some 97 votes, which is either a majority or very close to a majority vote. What is incomprehensible to me is that many countries go along with the majority vote in spite of not being in favor of the proposals. In other words, there are few opposition votes because of the fear that the IJF will punish countries for not getting on board. How can you overcome policies if you are not willing to stand up, speak your mind, and vote your conscience even if you know you’ll be on the losing side? Voting your conscience may help other nations to vote theirs. So Mr. Rodriguez is partially right: there is nothing we can do when nations don’t register opposition votes, or can be bought off with a few gifts.

I accept that USA Judo can’t change IJF policies just yet, but I would like to see us do two things: speak our mind and not vote with the flow when it obviously doesn’t benefit our athletes; and think about not implementing in the U.S. every twist and turn the IJF throws at us. What’s good for the IJF’s international events may not be good for the development of Judo in the IJF member nations.

During the 2009 U.S. Open, I managed to corral a very busy Eddie Liddie, USA Judo’s high performance director. I addressed with him my concerns about the drop off in the quality of players and the number of foreign nations participating in our international event.

I suggested to him that we return to the pool format that the U.S. Open used at its inception and for a number of years thereafter until it did away with it and retained the repechage system. In the old days, players were placed in 3- or 4-man round-robin pools, which guaranteed all players at least two or three fights. The top two players from each pool then moved on to the regular repechage tournament. This format, which is currently used for the Ladies Belgian Open, should help us attract more fighters, foreign and domestic, to our event. Mr. Liddie told me that he was contemplating a return to the pool system.

The other suggestion I had was that we should start using the mutual benefit and welfare mantra with foreign nations. For years, we have supported many small events in the Pan American Judo Union, like the Benito Juarez tournament in Mexico, but foreign nations have not reciprocated by supporting the U.S. Open. Without U.S. participation in some of these events, they become domestic events.

One of the ways to improve foreign participation is to place or remove foreign tournaments from our list of point-earning tournaments. This is apparently what Mr. Liddie did with the Puerto Rican Open. The event was withdrawn from our list. The reaction from Puerto Rico was immediate. Puerto Ricans attended the 2009 U.S. Open for the first time in many years. Let’s hope that Mr. Liddie does the same with the Benito Juarez tournament and others like it.

There is some talk that the U.S. Open might be obsolete, and that it should be abandoned. Many of our top players failed to show up this year. The new Olympic qualifying system will force them to bypass our event in favor of point-earning events. Foreign participation has fallen off. Yet, in spite of all of this, there is hope. Mr. Liddie is spending some of his development funds to bring in foreign players just like Frank Fullerton used to do out of his own pocket, and he has bought into the “you come to our event and we’ll come to your event” concept. The U.S. Open might not be much compared to other international events, but it is the only one we have. We need to build it up, if not for the few U.S. players who can win medals on the Olympic circuit, then for our up and coming players.