It is said that you never get a second chance to make a first impression.  When it comes to Judo, I believe that we seldom get a second chance to make a good first impression.  A good first impression is one that screams out, grabs the audience by the throat, and compels it to want to do Judo.  Well, two big shots in Judo had an opportunity recently to make a good impression on a bunch of jiujitsu practitioners.  They failed miserably, and probably didn’t even realize it.

I believe that every time a potential member enters a Judo club and gets turned off by either the instruction, training methodology, mats, or Judo being practiced, he’ll probably walk away never to consider Judo again.  One bad experience at Club X, and all Judo clubs- and the sport itself- suffer the consequences of a bad first impression.  This is why I push so hard to make our club leaders understand that they must tailor their programs to the 21st century if they want to attract a good share of the grappling world. This means better instruction, better methodology, better mats, and better Judo.  The sad truth is that there are many jiujitsuka willing to do Judo, but they are turned off by the kindergarten Judo and lousy methodology being offered at our average club.

A Brazilian jiujitsu (BJJ) club held a day-long clinic to raise funds for the disaster relief in Japan.  Several good jiujitsu instructors were invited along with four Judo coaches: two in-house coaches and two outside guest instructors.

The guest instructors got the ball rolling for Judo.  Actually, very little Judo was taught because they preened and spent too much time bragging about themselves.  One twisted facts to make himself appear to be an accomplished Judoplayer, which he is not.  But I digress.

So back to the Judo that was taught.  Remember, the audience is a jiujitsu crowd.  What Judo skills do you think would be appropriate to show jiujitsuka if you were trying to showcase the power and effectiveness of Judo?  You wouldn’t think of showing any ne waza skills, right?  Well, you’d be wrong because kesa gatame was one the techniques shown.  This was followed by the classical “pull down, pull up” set up for a forward throw.  Why? I don’t know.  Lastly, the group was shown a hip throw (from the knees) transition to kesa gatame, which would have been OK as a baby step before standing up and doing a whole bunch of stuff from there.  Unfortunately, jiujitsu guys hate having to turn their back to throw, so perhaps for this clinic a rear throw might have been more appropriate.  The real problem was teaching kesa gatame to ne waza specialists.  Hello!

Shortly into the one-hour session, eyes started to roll and looks of despair appeared on faces. Some of the jiujitsuka who studied under the in-house coaches diplomatically turned to them and muttered under their breath, “You guys are going to teach Judo, right?”  For the jiujitsuka who didn’t know what real Judo was, the end of the session couldn’t come fast enough.  What a waste of valuable training time.

The clinic was so embarrassing to one of the in-house coaches that he wanted to walk out of the room.  Guilty by association!  Stoically, both he and his partner stayed and suffered the sloppy, meaningless Judo that was being presented.  Both realized that the jiujitsuka who hadn’t had the opportunity to see real Judo would go away with nothing good to say about the sport: a classical case of a missed opportunity to make a good first impression.  Hopefully, they’ll keep their mouths shut, and not tell anyone else that Judo sucks.  Fat chance, right?

My personal philosophy is that from every negative experience we can generate a positive one if we care enough to learn from it and change.  With that in mind, these are the lessons we need to take from the event in question, if we desire to showcase Judo in its best light.

You must know who your audience is, and understand what it does. Jiujitsuka want to learn Judo to make them better at jiujitsu.  If you’re not familiar with Brazilian jiujitsu, sit in on BJJ practices.  Teach to Judo’s strength, not BJJ’s.  You must understand the BJJ game to show how Judo can help them become better jiujitsuka.  Do your homework.

One of the most important principles of teaching is the principle of activity, which recommends that 80% of a class be devoted to doing the activity.  Few participants want to hear you spout about your past- real or imagined- or watch you show off to make yourself feel good and important.  They want to learn the activity.  The only way for that to happen is for you to shut up and let them practice.

Our typical model of teaching Judo is for the birds.  I must admit that most BJJ teachers are much better at teaching their art than Judo coaches are at teaching theirs.  For some reason, they have flourished while we sit dead in the water, unfazed at how little we know about teaching.  I encourage you to visit BJJ clubs and analyze their methods of instruction.  You’ll see the same elements of instruction that I’ve spoken about on many occasions.

Have pride in the way you look in your gi, and how you perform Judo.  We suffer from far too many overweight, out-of-shape coaches who are not very good judoplayers or athletes now.  In fact, many were never good judoplayers or athletes to start with.  We can thank “service to Judo” promotions for that last trait.

As our Judo community shies further and further away from competition, and our inventory of Judo techniques is further emasculated, real Judo seems to be disappearing from our curricula.  While the rest of the grappling world revolves around highly combative, functional, and practical skills, we are left with just a shadow of what Judo used to be.  Unlike Judo, the other grappling arts have no kata, no limiting go kyo no waza, and no “demonstration” or “theoretical” techniques.   They only have practical skills for combat.  We too must get back to teaching practical Judo skills for all combat environments.

Since Judo is under constant threat from multiple directions, it’s important that every opportunity to showcase Judo be based on a better understanding of who our audience is, and be effected with professionalism.  We get maybe one chance to make a good first impression.  Our big shots didn’t get the job done.  We can do better, and we must.