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.