Category Archives: Judo Coaching

Coach Education: Reinventing the Wheel?

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Although most U.S. Judo Association members don’t yet know it, we are working on yet another revamping of the coach education system. It’s unfortunate that we have to address this so soon after the last fix, but four years ago we threw out a lot of good stuff and didn’t replace it with anything meaningful. “The more it changes, the more it’s the same thing” is a French proverb that sums up our coaching situation. After serving on the coaching committee for nearly thirty years, I’m getting tired of the changes that seem to make little difference in the quality of our coaches. Continue reading →

Coach Education Course

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Those of you who live close to San Diego may be interested in attending a USJA Coach Education Course that I will be conducting on November 22, 2009, from 9am to 5pm.

It will be part lecture, part hands-on, very interactive and intellectually challenging. I guarantee you that the information will not be the standard old stuff you get at most coaching clinics.

You don’t have to be a USJA member to participate in the clinic or be certified by the USJA. You can just attend the clinic for the information without having to certify. Continue reading →

Friday Night at the Fights

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Friday Night at the Fights is a great in-house event for those of you trying to spice up your Judo program. It’s a special event we hold at Judo America San Diego during our regularly scheduled classes on a monthly to quarterly basis, depending on our needs. It’s really a glorified randori fest, but it also serves several important functions that I’ll address later on. Continue reading →

Where’s Judo’s Futsal?

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Three recently published books- Outliers: The Story of Success, Talent is Overrated, and The Talent Code– have dealt with a common theme: ten thousands hours of deep, deliberate practice over ten years are required to achieve mastery in any field.

In The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle, there’s a section on the development of Brazilian soccer that got my immediate attention. Soccer is a sport I know, having played it since I was ten years old, but the development of Brazilian soccer was a story I was not familiar with. From a coaching viewpoint, it’s a fascinating story that has repercussions for Judo. Continue reading →

An Attempt to Save Judo in San Diego

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San Diego County used to have a vibrant Judo community in the 1970s when I first started my coaching career. We had over twenty-five active Judo clubs. Our members participated in monthly clinics, and tournaments, which would attract 250-300+ players. Little by little, our coaches, many of them active military personnel, were transferred out of the area or they retired or they died. Few had successors to keep the clubs going. Politics, pitting USJA and USJF supporters, and personal issues between the few remaining coaches further weakened our area. Continue reading →

Delay Formal Instruction!

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A few days ago, I stumbled upon a BBC News article that piqued my interest. According to a new review of primary education in England, it was recommended that children should not start formal learning until they are six. Instead, children should continue the play-based learning typically featured in pre-K for another year. Dame Gillian Pugh, who co-authored the review stated that four and five-year-olds tended to be at a stage where they were just “tuning in” to learning and that they could be “turned off” if they were made to follow too formal a curriculum, too early on. That’s also the message found in Boys Adrift by Leonard Sax, a family physician and psychologist. Continue reading →