Getting Sensei to Change

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The 2010 USJA/USJF Winter Nationals Coach Certification Clinic is now history. According to our host, USJA President Gary Goltz, this was the best attended Winter Nationals coaching clinic. Since I was one of three clinicians, I can attest that our group was highly motivated, engaged, and eager to learn “new stuff.” Usually there is at least one naysayer present at all coaching clinics. That’s the guy who, no matter how much evidence is given to him, openly fights you tooth and nail when it comes to alternative methods of instruction. This time around, we had no naysayer, at least not an overt one. That’s progress.

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Connecting the Dots

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Recently, as part of a continuing education program I run for my assistant coaches as well as for outside coaches I mentor, I sent out an article entitled Preparing for the Attack: Hardening the Target, You. I asked the coaches to read the article and be prepared to talk about it the following week. I thought the article was relevant since it addressed among other things the OODA loop (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act), combat, psychological control, and reality based training.

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Judos Unknown Unknowns

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“As we know, there are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don’t know we don’t know.” So spoke Donald Rumsfeld, U.S. Secretary of Defense, back in 2002, regarding our knowledge of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. He could have been talking about Judo, too.

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Who Do You Play For?

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One of my favorite sports movies is Miracle, the story of the 1980 U.S. hockey team’s gold medal win at the Lake Placid Olympics, and in particular our improbable 4-3 victory over the Soviet Union, winner of the previous four Olympic golds. Miracle is also about the superb coaching of Herb Brooks- his game plan, his outside-the-box ideas, and his drive to transform a mediocre national program.

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Judo for Moms

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Stubborn is an adjective that is sometimes used to describe me. After years of futile attempts to get some of my kids’ mothers to try Judo, I decided that a different approach was needed. One thing I was convinced about was that my moms did want to do Judo, in spite of saying they didn’t or that they would never do it. Yet talking to them and observing them as they watched their kids perform in class only reaffirmed my conviction that all we needed to do was change the setting before some of them would actually get on the mat and roll around with us.

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