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.
I believe that each community in America could support a Judo club if only we had enough coaches. Since we don’t have enough coaches maybe we should take a page from the American Youth Soccer Association (AYSO) when it set up shop almost fifty years ago. The AYSO recruited volunteer parents, mostly with little knowledge of soccer or coaching, provided them with a manual, a brief coaching clinic, a few balls and cones, and then cut them loose to coach their child’s soccer team. Many of these neophyte volunteers actually developed into relatively good soccer coaches after several years, in spite of knowing little initially or never having played the game themselves.