If You Can’t Beat Them, Change The Darn Rules!

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While the IJF marches forward with its effort to create a Judo that looks more “classical”, there are stories trickling out from several sources that the IJF is messing with the rules to prevent some countries from winning Judo tournaments. In the past, these countries were lumped together under the generic “East European” label. Now, it appears that Georgians (leg grabs) and Mongolians (bear hugs) are specifically being singled out. So what’s at work here? Chauvinism, aesthetics, or both?

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Summer Camp Anyone?

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Although I’ve been coaching for over 38 years, this year was the first time I decided to run a week-long summer day camp. We ran not one, but two week-long day camps from 9am-3pm within our own facility. I came away physically drained, but feeling good about our decision to run these camps- so good, in fact, that I’d like to share our experience with you.

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Our Entitlement Culture

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When the 2010 USJA Board of Directors was elected, I had high hopes that my two passions in national affairs- coach education and high dan promotions- would be addressed, and glaring problems within the two programs would be resolved. I say “high hopes” because prior to the elections several of the current officers lead me to believe that they agreed that both programs were in need of a serious reappraisal and restructuring. Although it’s only been seven months since the administrative change, it’s still evident, and not surprising, that an entitlement culture still persists at all levels of the Judo community , especially when it comes to high dan promotions. This entitlement culture makes any effort at restructuring a very difficult task, yet we must slay the beast.

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Mindset

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Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.

Carol Dweck is a leading expert in motivation and personality psychology. I stumbled across her research while reading The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle and How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer. I was fascinated by her findings, especially this one: praising children’s intelligence harms their motivation and it harms their performance! Piqued, I needed to find out more, so I wrapped my arms around Dweck’s own book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.

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Nail Them!!!

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Nail them!!!  That seems to be the new mantra of a large group of ‘A’ referees and their acolytes, who care more about punishing players than they do seeing Judo survive as a sport. Two San Diego County national referees, one of whom is my student, tell me that’s the atmosphere they work in, at least in California.

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A Dash of Color

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As part of the opening ceremonies to the 2000 European Championships held in Wroclaw, Poland, dozens of young children wearing blue, black, red, yellow and green gis ran onto the floor and quickly formed the five Olympic rings. Into each ring stepped one of great Polish European, World, or Olympic champions. Each then proceeded to randori with the children in his group. It was an unforgettable, colorful ceremony that to this day still resonates in me.

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