Show Me the Evidence!

Several months ago, I had a heated discussion with my assistant coach who happens to be an international referee.  As usual, the conversation revolved around the silly IJF rules, and how he could not support my transition away from IJF rules Judo to my own version of Judo competition, which is similar to AAU Freestyle Judo.  Upon telling him that I needed to move on in order to keep Judo relevant, and that lots of people had similar concerns and had made the same decision as I had, he demanded that I show him the evidence. Furthermore, he stated that he wasn’t interested in Judo that can’t be done outside the dojo.  Small mind.

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More from IJF and WJF

The heavy hand of the IJF has once again come down hard on coaches.  Good grief!  Why the continued assault?  While the new directive applies only to IJF events, we must be concerned that national federations will jump aboard and start enforcing a similar rule for national and perhaps even local events.  Here’s the IJF ruling, which I only found out about because my American colleague received it from a Mexican colleague.

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Move over IJF!

As more people become disenchanted with IJF, and now EJU, the word “mafia” is starting to be associated more often with these organizations.  Coaches and players are feeling the brunt of the economic demands imposed by IJF and EJU.  We in the United States also got a taste of this “stay in the hotel we designate or else we’ll charge you a ridiculous sum of money to compete in our event” mafia mentality.  Here’s what Kent Gustavsson, a courageous coach from Sweden, has to say on the subject.  He posted his comments on EJU’s website.

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