One of the last questions I posed my daughter Valerie when I interviewed her for the Outgrowing the Garage post I wrote two weeks ago was, “What words of wisdom would you have for anyone who wanted to start teaching Judo?” Her response surprised me a little, but it made sense.
She didn’t have any words of wisdom because she didn’t want any Tom, Dick, or Harry starting a Judo club and offering bad Judo, emphasizing that we already had enough bad Judo out in communities across the country, and that it gave Judo a bad name. Point well taken.
Upon deeper thought, she suggested that prospective teachers of Judo should find a mentor, get educated as coaches, and become a student of the game before they actually started teaching Judo. No dispute here.
So, although I agree with her that bad Judo instruction is hurting Judo’s reputation, it remains that we’re losing prospective Judo participants to other arts for an obvious reason: there aren’t enough Judo clubs in the country to service those who want to do Judo. For our lack of Judo clubs, people get stuck doing taekwondo, BJJ or MMA when they actually want to do Judo.
The sad truth is we don’t have enough elite Judo athletes willing to teach Judo to significantly alter the number of Judo clubs in America. So, we’re stuck with the following dilemma: Is bad Judo better than no Judo? I say yes, with one caveat. Prospective teachers of Judo must commit to have a mentor, to be educated in the art of teaching, to become a student of the game, and finally, to continue improving their Judo skills. This is exactly how I did it. I’m not ashamed to admit that I was probably one of those bad instructors my daughter is not fond of when as an ikkyu I started teaching Judo at San Diego City College in 1972. But through mentorship, education and training, it’s safe to say that I became more than a decent coach.
I like to tell people how soccer was spread through the U.S. by the American Youth Soccer Association (AYSO) over the last 50 years, because there is relevance for Judo. Soccer grew thanks to the efforts of volunteer coaches, mostly parents who couldn’t play the game. Yet, over years of coaching their children’s teams, many of these coaches with two left feet became excellent soccer coaches by growing alongside their players. Why can’t this become Judo’s method of expansion?
Here in San Diego, BJJ spread through the efforts of many blue belts who started in garages before moving into small, but permanent facilities. Can’t we do the same with Judo? It takes only about 10-20 members to cover the overhead of a small commercial or larger industrial facility if you’re willing to charge an appropriate fee. How hard is that?
As I’ve said before, we need a “Manhattan Project” devoted to the expansion of Judo. If our national organizations focused their efforts mainly towards coach education and club development, Judo would have a presence in many more communities. More coaches, more clubs. More clubs, more registered members. More members, more competitors. More competitors, more medals. More everything, more money. More money, more Judo industry.
In my opinion, bad Judo is better than no Judo, because we can make bad Judo good Judo. Accepting only good Judo is not an option for us. I’m convinced that there are many players willing to teach Judo if only they were supported by proper mentorship, coach education and business training. Can’t we make that happen?
What constitutes bad judo? Some might say you teach bad judo as you don’t teach in a traditional manner. Another might say bad judo is a non-competitive club. Some might say because it’s a teacher with a terrible o-soto-gari. What counts?
To me, the teacher who’s enthusiastic and makes students want to learn is the “good” judo. We need more who’ve learned how to recruit and retain. THAT’s what we lack too much of.
Admittedly, bad Judo is in the eye of the beholder, but I’ll give it a shot. From the Lafon perspective, it’s a lack of knowledge of functional Judo that can hold its ground with other grappling arts: usually poor ne waza, poor tai sabaki, poor transitional skills, low fighting ability, and a technical inventory hampered by adherence to IJF rules, etc. Training methodology is also a major problem. Other arts know how to train the way you are expected to perform. Judo is a little slow in getting to that. If Judo were taught in a vacuum and had no competition from other arts, poor Judo would not be a problem. Prospective members wouldn’t know that they were being short-changed. Unfortunately, that is not the case.
Bad Judo better than No Judo? Yes! I think so. Some folks called BJJ bad Judo a few years back and now BJJ has better Ne Waza than most good Judoka I know. In fact, as a martial arts instructor with 20 experience teaching a variety of disciplines, I went to my employer, Phoenix College, and asked if we could start a BJJ class. Problem – BJJ is not an approved course. Judo is, however. So now Phoenix College has a “bad Judo” program, where once it had none, but we’re are getting better, so watch out, we might throw you before we submit you. ;0) -Very truly, Bad Judo Instructor.
“Other arts know how to train the way you are expected to preform” This is a very well put…
I’ve been teaching “bad judo” for years…or so I’ve been told by more than one critic. I might say the same for you Gerry. But then again, the “bad judo” you and I have been advocating has developed more than a few skilled athletes and athletes and coaches. A true life story to illustrate what I mean.
Quite a few years ago when I was a young Shodan teaching at a community center (in 1972), the local judo bigshot (who was the head man at the local black belt association) called the lady (Mrs. Draper) who was the director of the community center and my boss. The local bigshot told Mrs. Draper that I was a “judo phony” and taught “bad judo.” He further demanded that she fire me immediately. (For the record, I was not a member of the judo organization that he represented, but had the temerity to belong to another judo organization.)
Mrs Draper called me into her office and told me that this judo bigshot called her and what he said to her. She said that she replied to him that, while she wasn’t an expert in judo, the fact was that the kids in my judo club loved coming to practice, were developing goo physical education skills, were winning in local and regional tournaments and, on top of all that, the parents all liked me as a coach. She told him that based on the results I was getting as a coach and the fact that the parents were totally on board with what I was doing was good enough for her.
Mrs. Draper asked me to fill her in on what was going on and I explained to her that the local judo bigshot didn’t like me because I didn’t belong to the group he represented. Her reaction was “so this guy is trying to kill off the compettion by trying to get you fired eh?”
She told me that when she hired me, she knew that as a young instructor I would make mistakes, but as she said; “they are honest mistakes” and she supported me 100%.
She didn’t fire me, but instead, did all she could to gets some more mats for me to expand the judo class I was teaching. So I guess that “bad judo” helped me expand my fledgling program.
To my way of thinking, “bad judo” is unsafe judo. I’ve seen “qualified” black belts teaching or advocating unsafe things. That’s “bad judo” to me.
We now have a good number of coaches in our area who have started clubs and who have been mentored by me. They are all teaching good, safe and skillful judo and jujitsu. Judo has grown in this area because, back in 1972, Mrs. Draper was willing to give the benefit of doubt to a young instructor who was a “judo phony” and taught “bad judo.”
Your Judo and mine are not what my daughter had in mind when she spoke the “bad Judo” phrase. She was speaking of the poor instruction that gives Judo a bad name within the rest of the grappling community. Unorthodoxy within the Judo community is a whole different story. We are guilty of that, but that’s what makes us successful.
As a follow-up, I want to concur with what you said Gerry. Judo in the United States is a small activity in terms of the number of people involved. One of the reasons for that is (among other things) many judo instructors don’t think about developing future instructors or coaches. A number of my students have opened their own clubs, some of them are garage dojos. Garage grapplers are some of the best athletes that a coach can have. Some years ago, I figured out that it is just as important to develop new coaches as it is to develop judo champions. The BJJ people are way ahead of the judo people on developing garage grapplers into skilled coaches and athletes. Years ago, Ben Campbell wanted to develop new instructors through his work in the Sacramento, California school district. He took physical education teachers and put them through a 4 or 6 month crash course in judo and how to teach it. Ben ranked these teachers as Sankyu and they coached kids in physical education classes in their respective schools. This took place in the late 1960s or early 1970s I think. It didn’t take long for (not sure which) judo organization put the stop to it. I may be fuzzy on the details, but I am pretty sure this took place as I remember reading about it in BLACK BELT magazine back then. I thought what Ben was doing was a good idea (still do). If every instructor who reads your blog would make it a point to develop at least 2 or 3 students who would be willing to start a garage (or community center or YMCA or anywhere) dojo, it would be a positive move toward developing more (and ultimately better) judo activity.
Earlier this year, I attended an Examiners Clinic by the Shufu yudanshikai (mid-Atlantic region). The purpose was to have a consistent set of guidelines for promotional grading. We were provided with live examples of throws from the Gokyo no Waza by sandans from Tokai University as well as segments from Neil Adams instructional video on the Gokyo no Waza. A discussion of the quality of the techniques followed. When the Tokai players executed a throw, they would unanimously receive a 5 our of 5 for excellent technique. When Neil Adams demonstrated the same technique, he usually received a 3 or 4. So at a theoretical promotion, the Tokai players should outrank Sensei Adams. There was no question that the Tokai players demonstrated beautiful throws, but could there be any debate about the outcome of Neil Adams v. Tokai player in a real competition? The answer is that unless it was a kata competition, the Tokai players demonstrated 40 beautiful throws that would never work against Neil Adams. In his prime, Sensei Adams would spin in so quickly that they would never see him coming and in his later years he would at least keep them from ever being in throwing position with superior grips. At the risk of taking the purpose of the seminar out of context, my point is that there is very little emphasis in judo on how to set up a throw and when to execute a certain throw or combination and a lot of emphasis on aesthetics. I have been to many seminars of great players, such as, Yamashita demonstrating osotogari and Kosei Inoue demonstrating uchi mata, etc. Some of the most beatiful and effective throws in judo but I always have the same questions that are never answered: How do you set up the throw(s) and when do you attempt to execute the throw(s)? If you actually ask these questions, you get an answer that is not consistent with their great competition examples. How did Yamashita catch his opponent flatfooted while coming in for osotogari when the opponent was bigger, faster and stronger? Why is he demonstrating a classical ostogari entry to the rear when he tends to cut on an extreme angle in actual competion? This is how judo has always been taught with very little real explanation of body mechanics, grips, set ups, etc. Even the concept of kuzushi is taught incorrectly. When we teach osoto gari we show the student how to break balance to the rear corner with a kind of a shoving motion on the sleeve and lapel. Of course, this actually assists your opponent in getting out of the way since he can usually feel the pushing action. He can even stiffen his arm a bit against the pushing action and this helps to shove him out of the way of the throw so he does not have to use his own energy to defend. Then everyone wonders why osotogari is difficult to execute in between beginner and advanced levels. Judo has always been taught with very little explanation. When you practice enough judo and do hours and hours of uchikomi your body tends to figure things out but then it is difficult to verbalize and/or those who actually figure it out don’t explain. I recognize the problem which is half the battle but I don’t pretend to have any answers.