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.

Throughout the film, Brooks, who handpicked all the players on the team, asks them who they play for. Each one mentions the university team he plays for. After a lackadaisical 3-3 tie against a very weak team from Norway, Brooks has the players remain on the ice after the game to skate “herbies,” exhausting back and forth sprints from goal line to blue line, center line, far blue line and far goal line. Total per herbie, some 220 yards. After what seemed like an eternity, but was just one hour, with players dying on the ice and vomiting, team captain Mike Eruzione yells out his name and city. Brooks asks him, “Who do you play for?” Eruzione, gasping for air, replies, “I play for the United States of America.” Brooks walks off the ice smiling. The sprints cease.

Before Brooks could get his players to play like a united USA team, he had to get them to quit thinking of themselves in regional terms, as members of the University of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Bowling Green, North Dakota or Boston University.

So what does this have to do with Judo?  Well, American Judo suffers from regionalism and from an inept national development program. Sure we sometimes go through the motions of representing our country, but more often than not we’re from the OTC, JMJC, Ki Itsu Sai, SJSU, etc. We play sandlot Judo, and act like sandlot players. At international events, often we wear our club gear, not national gear. I guess it’s not that difficult to understand why. Most of the time, there is no national coach present. With a little luck, personal coaches with no direct line to the national coaching staff might make the trip. But really, our players are without a coach more often than we should accept if we really care about our results. Players are on their own with little or no support from USA Judo, always short of funds, so yes, why not wear our club gear?

Many if not all of our national coaches run their own programs. This creates conflicts of interest.  What’s good for their club and athletes, may not be what’s good for the country. And although they are officially national coaches, decisions are often made in the best interest of their personal programs. And then there are the real special one or two cases; coaches whose only interest is in their self-aggrandizement and resume padding.

Back in 2004 when my daughter was getting back into international competition, we traveled to Korea for the KRA Cup Korea Open. Four American athletes competed. The U.S. had one referee and one personal coach- me. This is a portion of the report I submitted to USA Judo upon my return.

There was no team concept, no USA apparel, no team cohesiveness. One of our players decided it was more important to bond with the Canadians than with his own teammates. He also asked the Canadian coach to coach him. Ultimately, as I had guessed, Nicolas Gil backed out, and I was there for our player. I don’t care that we all traveled as individuals, because ultimately we all fought as Americans. The poorest nations had team warm-ups and t-shirts, proudly worn at all times.  Why don’t we have an official USA Judo team suit and shirts? This is not brain surgery. Select one nice looking suit and a decent shirt that will be our standard for the next 2-4 years. Require that the players, coaches and officials buy them and wear them, hopefully proudly.  Give the athletes and coaches a vote in the process. I was the only person in the opening parade. Valerie filmed and was preparing for the bronze medal match, at which none of the U.S. competitors was present. One athlete was making weight but the other two should have and could have been present since the parade and the bronze medal matches were early in the afternoon. Again, since I had no directives or authorization from USA Judo, I couldn’t place demands on the players.

I received some good feedback from several USA Judo officials, but ultimately nothing changed. It was business as usual. Today, a few good coaches are trying to change the system. I was pleasantly surprised when I read a USA Judo news release with the following quote from Serge Bouyssou, who coached our 2010 Junior World Team.

I worked on everything from wearing the sweats every day to our group sitting together, to cheering and supporting one another all day long and Max fed off of that,” Bouyssou said.  “I took care to give special attention to each and every athlete on the team and they fed off the support and, in turn, supported one another.

So, I think Serge gets it. For me, an American who spent eight years in Europe as a teenager and then served in the U.S. Marine Corps, there is no greater calling than serving or representing our country. We’ll most likely never develop a real national program until we discard our regional identity and our personal agendas, and buy into this national identity, just like Herb Brooks’ players did in 1980.

In the past, I’ve recommended to USA Judo that our national coaches be required to watch Miracle. I suggest you do too. It’s a great story with a very happy ending.