Judo as an Academic Pursuit

If you weren’t aware I just finished my Master of Business Administration degree (concentration in Marketing). It was a great experience, but let me tell you why I pursued it. When I started the Roswell Judo Club, I had no clue how to run a business or a club so I was just winging it. The first several years were difficult and I’m just now getting over that, but it is still slow going. About the middle of the third year I decided that I was ready to pursue further education and figured that if I’m going to run a judo club, then I should know how to run it as a business, especially if I’m going to run it as a non-profit.

Now that’s over and the real work begins. I’m planning on filing as an LLC (long overdue, I know), a non-profit in the State of New Mexico, and work towards 501 (c) 3 status with the IRS.

But what does all that have to do with “Judo as an Academic Pursuit?” A very little bit but it’s a little bit down in the foundation. In order for me to pursue judo as an academic endeavor, I have to be able to fund the operation sufficiently, which I haven’t been able to do to this point.

On to the meat of the topic!

As you may have gathered by now, Roswell is on the tail end of nowhere with a three hour drive to almost any major town and a lot further from many competitions. With that being said, I’ve concentrated on developing technically proficient judo players with a very broad base of knowledge. I’ve chosen to go this route because I feel that if I have enough people competent to teach judo, I can spread judo throughout Roswell and eventually create a significant population of judo players throughout the schools, and schools are the academic environment I’m targeting.

The first step is done. I have a college physical education class through Eastern New Mexico University – Roswell that is growing by leaps and bounds. (Perhaps in spring there will be enough to have two classes!) The second steps are classes at New Mexico Military Institute, which is proving a much harder nut to crack (a little alumni pressure might help – nudge, nudge). The third stage is involvement in either the elementary schools (which would require a lot of on-site instructors) or the high schools (which would only require two additional instructors). By that time we should have a very solid core of judo players in Roswell, but that will take time.

These plans require a couple of things. The first is a solid instructional program that is easily applicable throughout the programs. This is the hardest element to develop because of the great gaping hole in any universal curriculum plan based on educational standards and benchmarks. I have developed an entire set of standards and benchmarks based on the promotional guidelines I have.

Another element of the instructional plan, and one many experienced players/instructors bring up is what happens in a class with a lot of different grades? The solution for me seemed simple: set up multiple training plans with a similar thread for the different levels in any given class.

For example, on the first day of class, the population consists of brand new beginners, yellow belts, orange belts, green belts, purple belts, and brown belts. Obviously absolute beginners should be learning how to fall and be safe, perhaps even a simple throw to show what they can do. On the other hand, purple and brown belts should be working on harder techniques and applying them against significant resistance and drilling what they know. So a good instructor will organize the case with different objectives for every level while maintaining an overall cohesive theme.

So, one of the things that I did was to take my curriculum, the dates of the class as they’re spread throughout the, in my case, semester, and develop various training plans based on individual levels. Once that training plan is final, creating lesson plans that flow with the other levels is vital. Last semester’s Beginning Judo class at ENMU-R proved, to me, the effectiveness of this method.

So now I have the standards and benchmarks, a calendar for semesters 1 through 4 (for ENMU-R), and soon I’ll have the lesson plans for the entire spectrum. If you’ve got any ideas or suggestions, let me know!

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Judo Tip:

If you really want to be a good judo teacher, start going to coaching clinics and reading books about coaching. BUT! Don't forget to read about being a good teacher, studying learning styles, and planning lessons.