Winning on the Mat: Judo, Freestyle Judo and Submission Grappling is the title of Steve Scott’s massive (over 400 pages) book on Judo. Scott, a key leader in AAU and Freestyle Judo, is like me a rebel with a cause and admirer of Geof Gleeson. He feels that Judo gets no respect and is headed in the wrong direction. About a month ago, out of the blue, Scott was kind enough to send me a copy of his book. In return, he asked for nothing.
U.S. Tennis Association is the latest group to change the way things are done in its sport. Coming to the conclusion that American tennis is at its sorriest state ever- no American player is ranked in the top ten- it has launched a multi-million dollar development program called Ten and under Tennis.
Be Strong, Be Gentle, Be Beautiful is the title of Yuriko Gamo Romer’s still-in-progress documentary film chronicling the life of Keiko Fukuda. Ms. Fukuda, the last surviving judoka to have studied directly under Jigoro Kano, was recently promoted to 10th Dan by USA Judo. She remains the highest ranking female judoka in the world, and becomes the first female 10th dan.
This past Sunday, I ran another quarterly in-house developmental tournament using what I call Judo America rules- no penalties, no terminal ippon, and no banned techniques. As players started filtering into the dojo, one of my dads approached me with his young son. He told me his son had fallen off his bike the previous day and skinned his knee. He brought his son to the tournament hoping that his son could compete, but was worried that he might bleed all over. I took a look at the “wound” and told his son to get on the mat and be ready to compete. It was pretty superficial.
If there was any doubt that the IJF, and by extension the national organizations, didn’t care for the athletes, here’s proof that the only thing that matters is how much each organization can make off rank and file players, coaches, and officials. I call this highway robbery.
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.