Personal Work This Year

I have some grand plans for myself this year. I’ve spent a lot of time over the last five years teaching judo with very little time dedicated to my own personal growth. I’m not going to change that either! But I do have some work I’d like to do and three major goals by May. The first is to finally get my Yawara rank and USJA rank in synch and finally get ranked as a Nidan in USJA! I’d also like to move up to a Level C Coach certification through USJA and, in conjunction with that, learn what all the hoopty-do is about the “Kelly’s Capers” program.

If you don’t know yet, I’ve not always been associated with the USJA. As a matter of fact, I’ve only recently (since about 2002) become minorly involved with regard to ranks, though in 2007 I really started getting more serious about national organizations. I grew up in Yawara Judo Association and still believe that the Yawara standards are far more important and thorough than USJA’s, although one could hardly tell prior to my re-write of the requirements (by request of the senior leadership of Yawara). So my grades have never coincided yet, but come November they will!

But to get this rank situation dealt with, I’d really like to have some time to work on the two kata Yawara  requires (Nage no Kata and Katame no Kata), work through the various nage waza, and a host of other things, but I need to coordinate with my Nikyu about that.

Now, I do have a little bit of a thought to ponder regarding Time in Grade and exceptions for competitors. Competitors are frequently given exemptions for their time in grade based on competitive success and I think this is acceptable. What I find unacceptable is the lack of exception for club leaders, especially junior black belt grades, who have to start clubs because, for some reason or another, no other clubs exist in their area. Why should a competitor who is, arguably, working harder for their competitive success than a non-competitor who just comes to class be able to ignore time in grade requirements while a club leader who is, definitely, working hard than a non-club leader who just comes to class cannot? (I may expand on this topic in the future.)

Either way the wind blows, and I don’t expect it to blow towards alleviating that concern, come November or October I’ll have satisfied the ridiculously long three year time in grade requirement for USJA Nidan and then I’ll be eligible. Once that’s done, I’ll just have to carry through with the promotional requirements and process the paperwork.

The next major goal this year is the Level C Coach certification. I don’t even know if this is still the coaching certification scheme, but I don’t know where to find out more information about it. So, instead, I’ll just keep trying to find some good coaching clinicians and try to attend. Although, if things go well this year, I’ll hold a coaching clinic in March to bring out one of the clinicians that can teach “Kelly’s Capers” and certify about 10 or so coaches.

About “Kelly’s Capers” I know an extremely limited amount because the USJA is being extremely tight-lipped about what it entails, however they are claiming that it is a remarkable program for bringing students into randori and from there shiai. I think it would be a good deal if they released some teaser trailers of clinics or what Kelly’s Capers is all about, that might drum up some more interest in attending these Kelly’s Capers clinics.

Personally, I think every coach or educator or sensei or however you want to think of yourself, has the responsibility to constantly update, learn, steal, or whatever to keep their students interested in and learning new ways to learn and apply techniques. If the coach doesn’t constantly update, stagnation begins and clubs start running into problems with retention because it’s always the same old thing. I try to make sure that I’m looking at new methods, teaching techniques, theories about why something works, or what they’re doing in the rules/matches today. If all the coaches out there subscribed to that theory, maybe we wouldn’t be so far behind? By the way, one of the best resources is reading AnnMaria’s blog about judo.