Last week, I had the pleasure of attending a promotion ceremony for my business partner, Parker Linekin, a kenpo karate and tai chi instructor. His sensei, Brian Adams, was flying in from the East Coast to promote him to grandmaster 10th dan in Adams’ Integrated Martial Arts system. Adams had been one of the first students of Ed Parker, founder of American Kenpo Karate, and had studied a variety of striking and weapons systems before founding his own system.
Last week I had a very disturbing phone conversation with a referee I’ll call Shinpan. For me, talking to referees in general is disturbing, but this conversation was particularly annoying because it encapsulated and highlighted much of what is wrong with American Judo.
When it comes to coach education, if we wait for national organizations to do the right thing, we might be waiting until hell freezes over. We have many dedicated volunteers trying to do the best job they can, but honestly, none of the organizations has espoused a great vision when it comes to developing better educated coaches. For that reason, we coaches must take development into our own hands. We must become autodidacts- self-learners- driven only by our desire to better ourselves as educators.
I’ve added a new article entitled Building a Better Teacher. It can be found under Articles.
What goes on in school classrooms throughout the United States repeats itself on our Judo mats. We are all educators facing the same problems. I hope you will find Building a Better Teacher interesting and useful.
In his latest blog post, Daniel Coyle, author of The Talent Code, asks, “What would you do if you received a check for $50,000 tomorrow to help develop talent in your team/school?” The four options were; pay for new facilities, hire the best single teacher or coach, bring in a series of camps and seminars, and pay existing teachers and coaches more. So, what would you do? What comes first? The chicken or the egg?
As I get older, I’ve become less tolerant of things that irritate me. One big irritant has been the IJF rules. If you’ve been reading my blog, you know how many times I’ve complained about the silly rules and the clueless IJF luminaries who keep messing with my sport.