Slowly, but surely, more and more coaches are opting to run tournaments using non-IJF rules. Last weekend, I ran the second of my quarterly in-house tournaments using rules that I thought would bring about the best tournament experience for my players. I was not disappointed.
Every now and then, I think back on how fun it was running a Judo club and traveling around the country with my competitors twenty-five years ago. Going to tournaments is no longer fun. Traveling with a team stopped many moons ago. What in the world happened?
As I get older, I’ve become less tolerant of things that irritate me. One big irritant has been the IJF rules. If you’ve been reading my blog, you know how many times I’ve complained about the silly rules and the clueless IJF luminaries who keep messing with my sport.
This year’s Tokyo Grand Slam was held in the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, which is right next to the 1964 Olympic stadium. Half as many countries participated in this event as did in the 2010 World Championships in Tokyo just three months prior. I wonder if it had anything to do with the fact that, as the host nation, Japan could enter four players per division.
One of my favorite sports movies is Miracle, the story of the 1980 U.S. hockey teamâs 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.
I was minding my own business from the sideline, monitoring the adults who were doing randori. One of my players had scrambled off the mat to get away from a disadvantageous ne waza situation. His training partner, a former Navy SEAL and jiujitsu black belt, mocking his manhood screamed “Coward!”