On Certified Ranks and Others

In my last post, I mention that I only intend to hire certified brown belts or above to coach at my dojos. Most judo players in the United States have no difficulty with that concept, but I know quite a few who might have some qualms with that. I’m addressing that situation today.

I “grew up” in judo outside the national organizations by the deliberate choice of my father and his judo beliefs. I started in 1989, took a break in 1995 while I served in the United States Navy (couldn’t find any judo schools during that time), and restarted in 2001. I finally achieved a black belt in 2005, but it was not a sanctioned belt until 2008. Since that time, I’ve been promoted to third degree black belt under the auspices of the United States Judo Association. Now that my history is out of the way, I’d like to talk about what growing up in such a way was like.

I’d never heard of sanctioning bodies until I got back into judo in 2001. My dad never mentioned it and he was my go-to guy for judo for a very long time. As long as he or his students were around, rank and learning were never an issue, or so I thought. In 2003, I traveled to Florida to work for Walt Disney World. Prior to my departure, I signed up for USJA because there were no Yawara clubs in Florida and if I wanted to practice (Duh!) I need to be a card-carrying member of the club. It was a great time and a wonderful opening of my eyes to judo outside of Yawara, but then I went back “home” and didn’t need to worry about it again.

By the time I was up for black belt, I’d not been paying any attention to USJA and so my points and promotions got out of line. “No worries,” I thought, we’ll get it all lined up and ready when I need it. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen the way it was supposed to for a variety of reasons including moving away from the club at my college and my dad dying in 2008. Syncing rank when there’s no one around is difficult under normal circumstance and impossible when one irritates one’s “instructor.” So, by 2012, I had been condemned to remain a Shodan for life.

Finally, in 2012, after numerous clinics, events, and two clubs that I run, awarded my Sandan. I, point-blank, refuse to let my students suffer under the same weights that I suffered. While I admire my dad and value every rank he ever signed off on (my shodan and nidan awards are my most prized rank certificates), once he died the organization he established lost its way and the cult of personality began. My students will never have to suffer that fate because their ranks will be certified.

Enough of my personal judo history and feelings regarding that!

The certified rank: Is it really better? I don’t think it’s better or worse, but it is recognized nationally as a minimum standard of competence. I think that the knowledge behind the rank is more important than the rank itself because the rank is only recognition of your knowledge. If you are demonstrably over-ranked, you and your students suffer from the stigma of insufficient knowledge and excessive rank. If you’re demonstrably under-ranked you and your students will have a hard time progressing and may be accused of deliberately under-ranking for competitive reasons. Neither situation is good, but I’d rather be under-ranked than over-ranked.

Teach your students well. Provide them with excellent learning opportunities and excellent coaching. If you do your part right, their rank will show through. Others may suggest that you or your students are prepared and ready for their next rank. If those others are well-respected and well-qualified, they provide good backing and external verification for those promotions. Don’t let your students suffer because you have an issue with the national organizations. Maintain your certifications and rank for their sake.

Let me know what you think of this idea, post in the comments below or e-mail! Don’t forget to like the Roswell and New Mexico Military Institute Judo Clubs on Facebook!

Part Three: Coaches: What do you need? (Third of a Three-Part Series)

I’ve talked about the instructional staff in general and instructors, specifically, so far. Now it’s time to cover coaches.

Coaches are different than instructors. Even if your coaches are instructors as well, in their role as a coach the outcome is different. A coach is not there to teach a student how to perform a technique; the coach is there to help the student perform their techniques better.

Better is kind of a nebulous term so let me clarify with respect to judo. Judo teaches students how to use physics effectively to vanquish a partner through a variety of techniques. Competitive judo requires less breadth and more depth with regard to the amount of judo a competitor knows. The competitor must have a family of techniques that works together smoothly and the competitor must be able to apply these techniques at will with speed and power.

The coach of any judo student, whether the student is a competitor or not, aids the student in developing smoothness, speed, and power using a variety of drills and supplemental skill development tools. In a novice student, this may include concentrating on repetitions for basic skills development or movement drills to encourage application against a moving partner. Advanced student should have chained drills that flow from the seven components of a technique (Approach, Grip, Set-up, Entry/Attack, Execution, Combination, and Transition to Ne-waza).

SIDE NOTE: I actively discourage novice students from competing in most tournaments because I want my students to be prepared for the variety of negative aspects that come from trying to win at all costs that can occur in some tournaments. I actively encourage novice students to compete in tournaments/divisions that are designed for novice students.

So, with all that said, what should a dojo owner look for in a prospective coach?

I look for a few things in a coach. Obviously, you want reliability and other basic elements of a dedicated employee. Above that, however, I look for someone who has a competitive bent and works well with students. I want someone who understands that people are different and working with each person is a unique exercise. As for judo skills, I push people to take courses in coaching no matter who gives the course. I especially encourage USJA coaching courses. I also won’t let anyone who’s not a certified brown belt or above (USJA, USJF, USA Judo) coach judo for me.

Now, those are the basic qualifiers. Is that it? Absolutely not, unfortunately some of the other elements are less tangible for me to describe right now. I like to get an idea of the person who wants to coach. Mostly, like any employment situation, my concern is how well they fit with the environment of my dojo. Does their personality complement the personality of the dojo or will discord arise. A dojo should be harmonious; clashes create discord and that brings the whole thing down.

Why do I emphasize certified brown belts or above? The simple reason for that qualifier is because the students who get their coaching compete. Their coach needs to be able to sit matside (even if they don’t actively coach during a match). If the coach is barred from sitting matside because they aren’t credentialed, the competitor is disserved. I’m not going to go into whether the Big Three are right, wrong, not the only place to learn judo, or whatever in this post because it’s a subject for a different place.

Remember the goal of the coach is the refinement and enhancement of performance not the instruction of new skills. The coach’s success shows by improved results not by new skills. That means that a coach should monitor, track, and analyze performance results over the course of a competitor’s career. Data gathering is a necessary component for the coach!

Part one: Instructional Staff

Part two: Instructors: Buy or Build?

Let me know what you think of this idea, post in the comments below or e-mail! Don’t forget to like the Roswell and New Mexico Military Institute Judo Clubs on Facebook!

Part Two: Instructors: Buy or Build (Second of a Three-Part Series)

Wait a minute! Buy or build, what do you mean? I can imagine some people are saying just that right about now. I promise, I’ll explain!

Part one talked about the differences between the two main types of instructional staff and even touched on the term sensei. Part two’s only talking about instructors and how you get them. You can hire them from outside sources (Buy) or you can train them yourself (Build) from your own students. Both methods have advantages and disadvantages; it’s up to you to decide which you want. I’ll talk about just a few.

First, if you don’t run a martial arts school and you’re not a martial artist and you don’t know any martial artists, you need to learn a martial art first. If you do run a martial arts school or you are a martial artist, this is decision time. Do you really want to run a martial arts business or will it just be a club where a bunch of people get together, hangout, and do some martial arts? If you want a social club, this can help. If you want a business, pay attention.

Instructor qualifications are critical. Decide on the goals of your business, layout what you need, and fill that instructor position to further your business goals. So, what are good qualifications for a martial arts instructor? Simply put, the instructor has to be at level where he or she can teach, usually a black belt but some arts (like Brazilian Jiujitsu) have instructors as low as Blue Belt; he or she has to be able to successfully transfer knowledge form instructor to students, yes plural you don’t want a private instructor as your primary instructor for a business; he or she has to be able to develop lessons and use standards to guide the program. In other blog posts (here, here, here, here, here, here, etc.), I’ve talked about some of the ways to develop lessons and program schedules.

Now, how can you evaluate an alleged instructor to know if they’re telling you the truth or if they’re sunshine salesmen? The truth is, like any employee you don’t know in advance, it’s very difficult. I suggest having them tryout and run a class to show you their instructional style. When you interview them, ask them to bring sample lesson plans or training programs they’ve developed, especially if they’ve implemented them and can tell you about how well the plans actually worked. Question them about their philosophy of instruction for youth and adults (a hint: if they say they’re the same, they’re the wrong people to hire!). Of course, check their credentials with the right sources (national or international governing bodies, previous schools, even martial arts fora like Bullshido, JudoForum, and others).

So, the meat of the post is buying or building, what is best? What is the difference? Buying is basically hiring someone you didn’t teach at all and having them teach your martial arts classes. Building is training someone to be an instructor for you and hiring them to teach your martial arts classes. Let’s talk about those a bit more in depth.

Buying an instructor is an ideal solution for the first time martial arts school owner who doesn’t know much or can’t teach but has the money to start a business. In this case, you can hire a qualified and competent instructor to teach the classes while you handle the background aspects. Unfortunately, if you hire an instructor like John Kreese from The Karate Kid (that’s the bad sensei), you’ll end up with a lot of injuries and probably some lawsuits. Or, perhaps you hire someone who’s made up their own martial art (this happens a lot in the U.S.). Either way, eventually your reputation will be ruined. Sometimes, you’ll need to buy an instructor to teach something you can’t, say a competitive class for national and international level competitors or maybe to add a martial art (like adding Brazilian Jiujitsu or Karate if you don’t teach them) to your school’s offerings.

Building an instructor takes a long time. Even if they started somewhere else and are almost ready to teach. The biggest reason it takes so long is because you have to know how to teach people how to teach (that looks repetitive, but it’s not). If you can teach people to teach, you also have to teach them the way things need to be done in your school and, most importantly, WHY! I’m a big believer in understanding why things are done a certain way because, if you know why, you can modify everything to accomplish the task without sacrificing the underlying character of the school or yourself and the student learns what they are supposed to learn. If your school has been around long enough, you should be building your own instructors pretty easily, but if it’s newer, it’s hard.

Again, building or buying is your choice. Think about what you need, whether you can provide it, and whether what you want is available at a price you’re willing to pay. Then make your decision.

Part One: Instructional Staff

Part three: Coaches: What do you need?

Let me know what you think of this idea, post in the comments below or e-mail! Don’t forget to like the Roswell and New Mexico Military Institute Judo Clubs on Facebook!

Part One: Instructional Staff (First of a Three-Part Series)

Since I didn’t really talk about instructors last time, today (and the next two blogs) are about instructors and coaches. Every martial arts dojo has to have instructors (coaches, sensei, whatever you call them). Without instructors, perpetuating the arts is a very difficult task. Today is a general discussion about instructing, coaching, and whatnot with regard to what I’ve seen and what I think are good.

I was at a United States Judo Association (USJA) national coaching certification last year and one of the guest clinicians was Hayward Nishioka. For those of you who don’t know Hayward, let’s just say that there’s almost nothing in judo that he hasn’t done (written books, competed/coached/refereed at the international level, taught, etc.). Hayward mentioned that teaching and coaching are two very different things and I wholeheartedly agree.

So, let’s look at the difference between a coach and an instructor. Coaches are for sports and their goal is winning. Instructors teach and their goal is transference of knowledge from the instructor to the teacher. Instructors may coach and coaches may teach but their reasons for doing so are wildly different. If you run a club that does any competition at all, you need both. If you don’t, you should have both.

An instructor should be your first your first hire in a martial arts dojo, especially if you are starting with no clients. He should be able to teach fundamental concepts, principles, and techniques to your students whether the students are 6 or 60. He doesn’t need to be an Olympic or international champion, but he does need to understand how to relate to any student and help them learn. I’m in favor of a teacher that thoroughly understands the fundamentals at a basic level over one who knows a few things really well.

A coach should be your second on-the-mat hire regardless of whether your students compete or not. The coach’s job is to help your students master the techniques in practical applications. Drill and repetition under a wide variety of opportunities help the students develop their techniques differently that a regular instructor will teach them. If your students are competing, the coach can help them understand the rules of the tournament and develop specific strategies and tactics for competitive success.

Over time, your school grows and gains many more students. As you grow and gain, remember that large classes with extremely high student-teacher ratios limit real student growth, especially in grappling arts where seeing what’s being done is difficult. As a general rule, I like to keep my adult student ratio at about 1:10 and my youth student ratio about 1:6. If you have a striking art and you can teach larger groups and see everything, I encourage you to maximize your ratio, but too much isn’t good.

You’ll notice I said nothing about sensei or any of the other (Chinese, Korean, etc.) terms usually used for the teacher. I, personally, don’t believe that everyone who is a teacher or even a black belt is a sensei for martial arts. Certainly, the term is used generically in Japanese educational classes, but for a martial artist, it bears a peculiar meaning. The term also starts being overused and, in some cases, begins to deify the teacher. When an instructor is looked at as being infallible and the students feel they can’t ask questions, you begin the process of forming a martial arts cult rather than a school. On the other hand, when students only question and never do what they’re instructed, you have a debate club rather than a martial arts school. In both of these cases, your instructor needs better training in running a class. May I suggest Harry Wong and Fred Jones? They worked wonderfully for me!

Part two: Instructors: Buy or Build?

Part three: Coaches: What do you need?

Let me know what you think of this idea, post in the comments below or e-mail! Don’t forget to like the Roswell and New Mexico Military Institute Judo Clubs on Facebook!

Staffing for Judo

Gerald Lafon commented on Monday’s post saying “The key will be staffing and good equipment.” I absolutely agree with that. That’s what we’re discussing today: Staffing at the martial arts dojo. I’m putting this in the perspective of the business owner not the customer.

A martial arts dojo is like every business because it has employees. The big difference is that some of its employees are teachers. Most dojo seem to think that the most important people in the dojo are the instructors, that is why the business exists, right? Napoleon, in discussing logistics, said, “An army travels on its stomach.” A business, similarly, works because of its support people.

Let’s start with the instructors. Every instructor brings a unique perspective to teaching the martial arts to students. Some instructors are ultra-traditionalist while others go to the other end of the spectrum and teach only to compete. Finding someone who can find that middle ground is difficult. Cultivating your own instructors, while seriously time consuming, is a good way to develop the right fit for your organization.

Next up is the background staffing. The professional martial arts dojo needs to be a professional environment. That means having someone who can manage the office. Whether you have a big dojo or a small one, having someone that knows how to make an office run smoothly will make the instructor’s job easier because he or she isn’t busy trying to do every other thing. Your office manager should understand basic bookkeeping, customer relations, retail management, and employee relations at a minimum. He or she doesn’t need to be an expert at any of them, but they shouldn’t be completely ignorant of them either.

So what does the office manager in a dojo really do? They run the shop. Imagine a typical day at a business: appointments, schedules, ordering, invoicing, collecting, banking, bill paying. These are the primary tasks of an office manager. That person makes sure all the calendars, schedules, and appointments are getting taken care of so the business has a steady stream of students and classes for the instructors which is where a large volume of income comes from.

The retail side of the business (ordering, invoicing, and collecting) are where the money comes in and goes out to support operations. The retail side of a business consists of tuition and scholarships, uniform and equipment sales, and other income from operations (books, dvd’s, etc.). Tuition really has nothing that needs ordering because it’s the training and your instructors teach that. Uniforms, equipment, and other orderable inventory have to be tracked, stocked, ordered, and so on to make sure that enough of everything is on hand to make sure that new students receive their uniforms so they can start judo in uniforms and customers who want to buy things don’t have the chance to change their minds while the product is on order. All of this needs to have a coordinator; that’s your office manager.

After the office manager, you could have as many other positions as you want. I suggest small staffs to start out and grow as your business does. For example, if you have to have a lot of retail sales for uniforms and equipment on a regular basis, have a retail clerk, but if you don’t, don’t.

Finally, for today, training is critical. Every person in you dojo has to know what the programs are and how to find the prices, that’s a gimme. But more important is customer care and service. Your staff has to know how to interact with customers, potential customers, family members, and friends. That takes a lot of work and a lot of it continuously. Take the time to train them on the best ways for interacting and paying attention to every single person that comes in the door. Friendly is the goal, hovering is not. Language use is critical so pay special attention to helping your staff members understand better ways of communicating with everyone.

Let me know what you think of this idea, post in the comments below or e-mail! Don’t forget to like the Roswell and New Mexico Military Institute Judo Clubs on Facebook!

Fast Food and the Martial Arts

Last time, I mentioned fast food and consistency. This time I’ll go into a little more depth.

The fast food industry is amazing. In most cases it’s decent food and ultra-simplistic service yet it is huge! Their brand recognition is amazing and they are a $160 billion dollar industry. Most martial arts schools, and especially judo schools, are making barely enough to keep the doors open, just like a lot of the small restaurants.

So, what is the difference between mom-and-pop operations and franchises? At the core, they both perform the same functions. The individual restaurant has recipes, staff, and so forth. If the restaurant has good food, charges accordingly, and manages their expenses correctly, profit comes about. The biggest difference is scale.

With only one location, a restaurant can only profit one time. If a restaurant has two locations, the profit is double. With three, triple and so forth. Of course, this all assumes everything works smoothly and we all know that is an ideal situation. The other aspect of this scale is suppliers and how much less they cost you if you have a stable relationship with them. Credit terms become better and, perhaps, even less expensive.

Let’s recap, a single location that is run well can be just as profitable or more than a franchise operation’s single location but, because of scale, collectively it will be less profitable.

I know what I’ve thought, “Sure, franchise is great, but that only works in retail.” Today I think, “I want to franchise but how?” Simply put, it’s hard work, but if you do it right, profitable. Here’s the way I’m looking to make this work:

The first step for me was actually getting involved with teaching judo. I started at the local recreation center with a very low price-point. Over the past 7 years the price has been steady as has the growth. The biggest issue is student retention, especially through the summer.

My next step is the new storefront location. This will give me full access anytime I want and I’ll have no restrictions for when I can hold classes, clinics, birthday parties, and whatnot. This provides a chance to host classes as many days of the weeks I want and at times I want to have them. I plan to broadly expand my schedule once I have my own location.

The following step comes by stepping back and allowing my assistants to begin being lead instructors. This develops new instructors and helps me to enjoy the programs and develop newer ones to build the growth. It also begins to generate the possible franchisees for the expansion to a second, third, or more locations.

When it’s time to expand, I’ve multiple people, marketing plans, capital, and the next location all lined up. With everything in order, the new location opens, the best lead and a few assistants go there and begin operations. As a wholly owned franchise, I now have two revenue streams for judo flowing to the business. Eventually, following this cycle, the expansion can exponentially expand or by a trickle, whichever is best for the business.

Let me know what you think of this idea, post in the comments below or e-mail! Don’t forget to like the Roswell and New Mexico Military Institute Judo Clubs on Facebook!

Judo as Business

The title’s combination of words were anathema to my dad and many of the students that learned under him. For a long time I felt the two were irreconcilable. One of the last things my dad told me about judo was, in essence, “it is good to teach judo, but don’t pay for the privilege.”

That’s a very odd sentence construction for an English teacher, as far as I’m concerned. Parsing it, prima facie, implies that teaching judo is good and it shouldn’t cost you to teach, but nor should you make money off it. Originally, I took this to mean that running a judo school should be a zero sum game where everything pays for itself and I end up doing this great charitable work and feeling good while holding down another job to pay for all my other expenses. Unfortunately, even this plan is expensive and doing it right involves dedicating a lot of time to developing a lot of background and doing a lot of work; it is running a “business” even if it is a non-profit.

A few years ago, I pursued a Master of Business Administration degree to help me understand how to run a business. During the course of that program, I learned a lot about business administration and a little about what I would need to do to build a business. I also learned that if I was to do a judo business, my best bet was to run it like a for-profit business and follow the lead of other martial arts and even the fast-food industry if I wanted to enjoy doing judo. By the end of my MBA program, the idea of running a non-profit judo school had almost completely faded away. Today that idea is gone.

 Everyone in the martial arts community has heard the term “McDojo.” If you haven’t yet, a McDojo is a “school” that offers a martial art and “teaches” to generate income rather than develop solid martial arts skills. Frequently McDojos are called “belt factories” because their students are over-ranked or earn their promotions because they’ve been at the school a long time and their payment checks keep clearing. I think McDojos are one of the worst things to happen to martial arts ever because they convince their customers that they are learning martial arts when they are just a source of cash flow.

My personal belief is that franchising, if you want to make money and build a good reputation, is the best way to do it. To lead on from the fast-food industry, let me talk about a few things that they have going for them. The first and most important thing to think about with fast food is consistency. I don’t care if you live in the United States or the United Kingdom or China or anywhere in the world where beef is available; if you order a Big Mac, it’s going to be the same. That’s consistency. In the world of martial arts, consistency is king.

 Judo has been extremely lucky that the names for the major techniques are consistent around the world, i.e. a seoi nage in Japan is basically the same as one in the U.S., Russia, the U.K., France, etc. Unfortunately, the teaching of these techniques is not consistent. I’m not suggesting that biomechanical differences are unimportant. I am saying that every technique should be taught the same way when introducing it. For example, the first time a class is presented with seoi nage the general form and shape of the technique should be the same, in every class! As students learn more and become more comfortable, adjustments need making, but in the beginning, they should be taught the same.

Drilling and Sequencing

This year has been a very busy year for me with judo. I recently made Third Degree Black Belt and earned certification as a National Level Coach, both of which through the United States Judo Association. I'm also teaching a lot of judo at New Mexico Military Institute and my own Roswell Judo Club. It's been very busy.

I noticed, after looking at what people are visiting most on my blog, that a bunch of people want information on how to develop lessons or plan classes. I think that's absolutely great! I'll put some more ideas up on that next week, but this week let's talk about drilling and sequencing.

Almost everybody I've known who teaches judo or jiujitsu knows what drills are. Quite a few know how to teach drills. Unfortunately not many people use drills as effectively as they could. I can hear it now, "I've been teaching or using drills for years, what do you mean I'm not using them effectively?"

I'm not saying that you're doing it wrong, I'm just trying to show how I use drills and that's through sequencing. Gerald Lafon (where I heard the term first) and several others call it shaping. Two basic styles of sequencing are forward and backward. The idea behind sequencing is to drill a group of logically linked techniques so you can practice like you'll perform.

Let me give you an example, last weekend at the NMMI Judo Club we started the weekend by drilling both the Figure-4 and Half-Nelson turnovers continuing into yoko shiho gatame. That's a pretty basic drill, but it limits the practical application because we don't look at any counters or continuations. The turtle position is fairly common which makes this attack something to know if you have to attack the turtle, but what if you are the one in the turtle, to quote the television show "Alice" and its cook, Mel, "The best defense is a good offense!" With that in mind we added a morote gari as an attack from the turtle, but, because a morote gari tends to have tori end up in guard, we continued with a basic guard pass and transition to side control.  Maybe you've noticed that, so far, the techniques ended in a side control position. There's a reason for that! 

I don't really believe in escaping in a tournament/competition setting because, once you escape and the referee stands you up, you've given your opponent another chance to win the match! I believe in getting out of a technique by transitioning to another position, preferably one where you're on top and in control.

Now, for the reason for the finish in side control: I learned a fairly simple escape/transition to a triangle from side control when I was at Gary Goltz's club in September! Once we learned how to perform and did a few isolated drills on the transition, we started linking the various turtle attacks (from both the top position and the bottom position) all the way through the transition from side control to the triangle to the tap.

If you drill and don't sequence, you are missing out on a big way to improve your and your students' performance. If you can't figure a good sequence out, I'll be happy to offer some suggestions, just drop me a message!

I have a few ideas about a way to give students references better than the standard videos or books. Unfortunately I lack sufficient talent to craft those references. If you know anyone that's good at computer animations and likes judo, would you let them know about this opportunity!

Developing Promotional Requirements for Junior Students

Key Questions:

1.      Does my governing body already have a plan in place for promotions?

2.      What sort of training program do I want to run for kids?

3.      How much information do I expect my youth students to learn between promotions?

If the answer to the first question is yes and you aren’t a member of the curriculum development group for your governing body, the rest of this particular blog entry, like the one for Seniors, may just be interesting reading. If they don’t, this should be a good read for you.

For Question 2, you have to decide what your goal for your youth is. Do you want competitors? Will you teach confidence building or self-esteem? What about an anti-bullying program? Will you teach pure traditional judo to them? Maybe you’ll combine them, I do. What you choose here guides your choices for promotional requirements.

I personally follow the USJA Junior promotional exam and choose the things that I think are the best fit for me and my students. Specifically I took all of my requirements for the brown belt and below students and split them into appropriate chunks for each level. I chose to split them that way so by the time my juniors make it to Junior Tenth Degree they’ll be at the same level as my senior Yonkyu and ready to jump right into the adult class at that level and preparing for Sankyu.

The third question’s answer really depends on how you promote. Do you promote every month? Do you run your classes year-round or on a school semester basis? Do you test them even if they don’t know the material required or do you test them when they’ll pass? Whatever your choice, think about it long and hard to help you determine how best to teach your students so they can achieve their goals.

I use a school semester approach with my promotions at the end of each semester. This has worked fabulously for me over the last few years because it provides ample time to prepare the students, even if they miss a class or so!

My process for planning a semester starts with the local school district calendar and a copy of my promotional requirements. I determine how many training days I have and how many critical-to-quality promotional elements I have. Once those are known, I plot a sequence that is logical to me and engaging for the students putting it down to a planning calendar. When I’ve got that done I go to my favorite calendar making program (MS Publisher because it’s nice and easy), make the calendar for the levels, print them to PDF and post them and the promotional requirements for each to the club Facebook page and just the updated calendars on the club website.

What’s your process for developing promotional requirements?

Developing Promotional Requirements for Senior Students

Key Questions:

1.      Does my governing body already have a plan in place for promotions?

2.      What sort of judo students will I cater to?

3.      What is my expectation of knowledge at each stage of my student’s development?

If the answer to the first question is yes and you aren’t a member of the curriculum development group for your governing body, the rest of this particular blog entry may just be interesting reading. If they don’t, this should be a good read for you.

For question 2 you have to make an honest evaluation of what sort of students you want to have. If you plan on a competitive club, like Judo America in San Diego, your promotional requirements should reflect techniques and skills useful and effective for tournament. On the other hand, if you have a recreational club, your promotional requirements might have more kata and technical perfection. Most, I think, will fall somewhere in between.

Question 3 completely depends on your belief about how technically proficient your students should be at any given level at a minimum. If you want broad depth of knowledge with a moderate ability to apply at will you might choose to have a lot of elements required at every level with a short time frame between promotions. If you want a high ability to apply at will with moderate depth you might choose to have a few elements with a moderate amount of time between promotions.

For me, I looked at the promotional requirements that I inherited from my father and the USJA Senior Promotional Test requirements. Much of my father’s requirements revolved around technical development and the Go Kyo no Waza. Much of the USJA’s test requirements revolve around competitive development. In combining the two I had to determine how much of both I was going to keep.  Neither was completely satisfactory for my purposes.

Specifically, my father’s standards weren’t as thorough as I think a new club instructor should use. Those requirements are adequate when an instructor has good backing or a long-term internship with a senior instructor. Unfortunately, I never had a long-term internship with a senior instructor.

The USJA test is very open to selection by candidates. It covers a broad variety of skills while limiting the amount required between promotions.  That’s a good plan for students who know judo and have a broad depth of understanding, but that’s not most students. However, I think it provides too much leeway for students.

In combining the two, I opted to keep my dad’s ten kyu system which, like the USJA system, has three brown belts but, unlike the USJA system, has six belts below the brown belts. The first two grades are the times where students learn basic judo skills and techniques and aren’t recognized by the USJA. That doesn’t bother me at all, because I don’t particularly believe in allowing most beginning adults to go to tournament. There are exceptions but those are based on tournaments and previous grappling experience. Once my students are ready for the USJA ranks they’ve already had about a year of judo and have better fitness and confidence in their skills.

I know this is a basic guide and I’d like to hear what you think!

My promotional requirements are available on my club website.

A Debt of Thanks

I’ve been having a difficult time coming up with topics, obviously! I came home tonight, got on Facebook and started talking to AnnMaria DeMars. All of a sudden I thanked her for her teaching me. She said, “What a nice thing to say.” Later I thought about it and decided I need to write a thank you post to those people who’ve taught me and, since this is a judo blog; I’m going to concentrate on those who’ve taught me judo.

First and foremost is my father. I’m not going to go very deep into that right now, because there’s too much detail and I’ve covered some of it before. Let’s suffice it to say that even today he continues to teach me, sometimes even in dreams!

Ann Stacey of New Mexico Military Institute was an awesome woman and my first woman judo instructor. As a cadet at New Mexico Military Institute with too many interests, I certainly didn’t take as much advantage as I could have of her knowledge. I remember one of my most shocking experiences as a green or purple belt was working with another cadet in randori and being blindsided by some throw I’d never seen or heard of (Kani Basami)! That was awesome! Ann was more than just a martial arts instructor; she was one of a pair of the most awesome midnight TACs ever to walk NMMI’s barracks!

Oscar Tinajero and Robert Garcia were really the guiders of my mudansha time at New Mexico State University, both before and after my hiatus. Robert, through his gift of storytelling was inspirational and helped me understand concepts where academic instruction fails. Steady as she goes should be Oscar’s motto; never have I met a more even tempered instructor.

William Andreas of Central Florida Judo and Jujitsu (and several of his black belts) was my first real introduction to judo outside of the Yawara Judo Association and my dad’s reach. I discovered sprung floors, Special Forces beginners (don’t mess with them), and even met Ed Szrejter! I went to one of my first tournaments and didn’t do too well, but it was one of my first and I’d never trained for competition. I had a great time there!

AnnMaria DeMars. Yes, that’s a full-stop. The woman is incredible and anyone who has the chance (the lucky devils at Gompers Middle School in California and the West Coast Judo Training Center!) to learn from her should leap at the chance. I’ve learned from her a couple of times but one of my fondest memories of her teaching were pulling me and another aside at the Judo Forum Clinic and Camp in 2008 and having her look at me and say, “Your seoi nage sucks. Aaron Kunihiro is going to help you get better at it.” I wish my arm hadn’t been killing me! I still talk to her and enjoy her blog; you should read her blog too!

Paul Nogaki is just about one of the awesomest clinicians I’ve ever had the opportunity to learn from. He has a very entertaining method for teaching and helps wonderfully in getting things both right and transferrable! I know I’ve giving him short shrift, but really his YouTube videos are the best instructionals (plural) that I’ve seen for judo yet!

Mike Hanon of the JudoForum and the Makoto Judo Dojo Forum has helped me immensely by watching videos of me and providing me incisive and clear help to better my skill and understanding of why the body moves in such and such a way. His writings have helped me far more immensely than I ever expected.

I’ve had a number of other clinicians and teachers that have been immensely helpful and I don’t want to leave them out but I’m running out of space. Bill Montgomery and Joan Love of Norwich Judo Dojo have been wonderful, especially with pursuing coaching and improving my ability to coach. I have given them no end of troubles sometimes, though I mean the commentary more as a way to gain more information for myself and promote potentially worthwhile programs (yes, now I realize that Kelly’s Capers is very worthwhile!). Bill Myers came down and taught Kelly’s Capers and a coaching clinic for us at NMMI last year and we’ve even taken some of his terms (“Brown belt syndrome”) and used them quite liberally. Gerry Lafon opened my mind to how a coach should look for every training method that improves results and be relentless with the paring knife to methods that just flat don’t work; for that I thank him immensely! (He’s also got a blog!)

I’m in another clinic right now and I don’t want Mark Lonsdale of Stallion Springs PAL Judo to think I’m forgetting about him (I’m not) but I am still processing everything and can’t give a fair evaluation yet. I am enjoying the clinic and learning a great deal! When that clinic is done I’m sure I’ll be able to give more info on what I’ve learned!

Oh, Hal Sharp is an inspiration and Hayward’s got a wonderful joke about a chicken!

For now, however, I’ll have to go and write some more some other day!

Thinking about Deshi

Defining Deshi

According to Wikipedia, deshi (弟子) means either “pupil; apprentice” or “disciple” (弟子, 2010). Further research on Wikipedia reveals two types of deshi, the uchideshi and the sotodeshi (Uchi-deshi, 2012). An uchideshi “usually live[s] in the dojo” and “serves the teacher all day, every day.” A sotodeshi is a student who lives outside the dojo.

Looking at those Definitions

The first definition, that of being a pupil or apprentice, is much more in line with a standard western philosophy of a student-teacher relationship. Most westerners can accept being a pupil, after all, they’ve grown up with being a pupil through their formal education. Apprenticeships, and those who have been apprentices, are harder to find than ever before. The Star Wars fans out there might find it interesting to note that the Master-Apprentice relationship, especially the Padawan concept, of the Jedi and Sith orders are much more akin to this definition of apprenticeship than the one normally associated by non-Star Wars fans.

Disciple is a touchy subject for Christians. Christians look at Jesus of Nazareth’s closest followers as his disciples doing his work for his purposes. Confusion abounds when the religious cannot separate this connotation of disciple from the definition, again provided by Wikipedia, of “[a] person who learns from another, especially one who then teaches others” (Disicple, 2012). I prefer to leave my religious views at the door and adhere to the literal definition of disciple rather than the Judeo-Christian connotation for these purposes.

How I Look at the Deshi Concept

The average student will never become deshi. There really is no reason to have a bunch of these apprentices nor could a single sensei do justice to the training of a lot of deshi. With that said, deshi are essential to the continuation of a school. Without deshi a school fades and withers when the founder departs for whatever reason. Deshi are the continuous consciousness of the dojo remembering and passing on the culture developed.

Cultivating deshi from a promising batch of students is impossible, in my opinion. Through the dojo’s doors will pass many, many students. Some will be premiere athletes thriving in any competitive or athletic task. Others will thrive on learning their techniques or self-defense. Some may learn how to teach and pass techniques to the newer students with exceptional transference skills.

Unfortunately, deshi are not like any of these. Deshi self-select. They may show little promise at any of the skills of the athlete, the scholar, or the teacher. Instead of promise they show a constant drive, desire, and dedication to not just the art but the sensei. That drive, desire, and dedication to the sensei is not a cult of personality, but a steadfast belief in what the sensei offers. The deshi follows not because the sensei leads, but because the guides.

Deshi have a most unpalatable road. Through their learning they will undergo many arduous challenges. Some of those challenges may cause the athlete nary a moment of concern but strike fear into the deshi but the deshi continues. While the technician learns the outward form of a technique, the deshi becomes one with the technique through time. Where the teacher demonstrates, the deshi embodies. The athlete, technician, and teacher are all separate but the deshi becomes all of these and more.

Over time a deshi will become the embodiment of the dojo or perhaps take on the task of growing a branch of the original dojo. Unfortunately, for the sensei, finding the deshi is a task that, like everything else in martial arts, requires patience, care, and understanding.

What do you think?

These are definitely not judo-as-sport beliefs. Keeping that in mind, what do you think about the usefulness of deshi?

Bibliography

弟子. (2010, November 2). Retrieved May 29, 2012, from Wikipedia: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/弟子

Disicple. (2012, January 12). Retrieved May 29, 2012, from Wikipedia: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/disciple

Uchi-deshi. (2012, April 9). Retrieved May 29, 2012, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uchi-deshi

Augé, P. (n.d.). Becoming an Uchideshi, or How to Train Seriously in Japan. Retrieved May 29, 2012, from Aikido Journal: http://www.aikidojournal.com/article?articleID=1

Reafsnyder, L. (n.d.). Deshi. Retrieved May 29, 2012, from Koryu Budo — the Online Journal of the Itten Dojo: http://www.ittendojo.org/articles/phil-5.htm

Developing a Lesson Plan: Ukemi

This time, we’ll talk about Ukemi, especially as they relate to the Weekly Goals. Again, as I mentioned the first time, I’m going to use my templates (PDF or XLSX). If you have Excel, I suggest downloading the XLSX file (if you don’t have Office 2010, you can still use it, you just have to get the patch from Microsoft to open the file), otherwise use the PDF and hand write out the guide. One more suggestion before we get on to the meat of the project: keep records of your guide it can help for future classes covering the same or similar topics or as necessary in other situations.

AnnMaria once (I know, I know, I take forever to write my blogs. ... ) said to me, “I have always considered ukemi a necessary evil.” If you look at ukemi this way as well, that’s your prerogative. My take on ukemi is that ukemi helps the student’s safety and ability to take any throw that comes at them.

This is my smallest section because I don’t personally feel that an instructor should devote all their time to ukemi in any one class. I believe, however, that they should devote some time to ukemi in every class even if they only teach ground work during a class. The flexibility and reaction development from ukemi help tremendously.

Now ukemi should be taught in a progressive manner developing skill without creating excessive trepidation. My method of teaching ukemi sees the greatest success when I start from the ground up. I start all of my students on ukemi, at least the back and side falls, by having them lay flat on the ground with their arms crossed over, but not touching, their chests. Once they have this position I have them swing their arms to slap the mats to get the feel of the slaps.

The next stage of my progression is from a sitting position. Here is the first real coordinated motion. From the seated position, the student’s hands are in the same position, chins tucked and all, then they roll back while simultaneously swinging their arms for the slap. This helps their body get the timing right for the motion and position of their bodies.

Subsequent stages, in progressive order, include squatting, standing-to-squatting, standing, and finally leaping. You may ask why I require my students, by green belt, to learn leaping falls. I do this because I want my students at green belt or higher to be able to save themselves in any circumstance, competitive or otherwise, where the very real possibility exists that if they don’t jump they may get hurt. I would rather they lost the match because they jumped than broke a knee or an elbow because they couldn’t.

Front falls are a fall of a different design. Competitively, you can’t throw someone on their face, deliberately. But it does happen, especially with turnouts and such. No one wants to fall on their face and the injuries are frequently to the wrists or hands of someone falling to their face. Instead, at my club, we teach front falls from the knees first, leaning forward at the knees. As students gain greater confidence with front falls the altitude gets greater starting with very wide legged front falls and eventually with leaping front falls.

A note on the wide legged aspect: people can adjust their height two ways: bending their knees or spreading their legs. Bending the knees is not helpful for front falls, but spreading the legs is. Early stages of front falls, after being on the knees, should have very wide spread legs. Once the student gains greater confidence, the spread should narrow progressively.

The last instructional element of ukemi is zempo kaiten ukemi (rolling falls). Everybody has a different style of teaching these. My personal favorite, with which I see about a 90% success rate, starts from a kneeling position with a specific hand placement and knee width. After the student is comfortable with the kneeling method, I have them straighten their back leg and perform. Eventually we add two-step then roll, walking then roll, jogging then roll, running then roll, and, you guessed it, leaping rolls. The reason for the leaping remains the same throughout, although it can be quite impressive to see someone leap over an obstacle 5 feet high and land safely.

These are the ways I teach ukemi. However, there are a lot more ways to make ukemi fun and interesting for students and I highly recommend them, especially if you view ukemi as a necessary evil.

My students like games. I bet yours do too. Anytime you can make ukemi a game you will find students having fun. One game we like is “bouncing ukemi” where the students start in a squatting position and bounce a little. On command they slap hands and do whichever fall they’re supposed to do. This can get to being a race against the clock to see how many they can do. With slight modification to standing it can even be a race for zempo kaiten ukemi, as well!

One game that works really well is ukemi tag or ukemi dodge ball tag. The principle on these is the same the difference is that with dodge ball the person who is “it” can reach out and touch someone. Essentially the game is freeze tag, but to unfreeze a frozen player (and I got this idea from the 2008 Judo Forum Clinic and Camp), another player must crawl through the legs of the frozen, pat hands, and do whichever ukemi you call for.

There are a host of other games and you can certainly make up your own. My advice is very simple, whatever you do or want to do for a class, write it down so you don’t forget it or use too much time on one topic to the exclusion of another.

Next time: Technical Instruction!

What do you think of it so far?

Developing a Lesson Plan: The Warm-Up

This time, we’ll talk about Warm-ups, especially as they relate to the Weekly Goals. Again, as I mentioned last time, I’m going to use my templates (PDF or XLSX). If you have Excel, I suggest downloading the XLSX file (if you don’t have Office 2010, you can still use it, you just have to get the patch from Microsoft to open the file), otherwise use the PDF and hand write out the guide. One more suggestion before we get on to the meat of the project: keep records of your guide it can help for future classes covering the same or similar topics or as necessary in other situations.

Here’s the most important question you can ask yourself before you decide on the warm-up for the class: What are we teaching this class? Once you can answer that question, you can develop your warm-up plan. My theory on warm-ups, mostly developed from people like AnnMaria, Gerald Lafon, and a variety of clinics and clinicians, is that the warm-up should prepare the student/athlete for the activities of the class and not be there for the sole purpose of developing an athlete’s strength or endurance at the expense of the lesson.

So, let’s say our lesson for the day covers Seoi Nage, Transition to Hold-down, and an Escape from that hold-down. What sort of warm-ups should you do? How long should you do the warm-ups? These are important. They are also questions I can’t answer for you.

Here’s what I can do: I can provide you with a number of references and books. My top leading references include Drills for Grapplers by Steve Scott (ISBN 978-1-934903-04-9), Martin Rooney’s Training for Warriors (ISBN 978-0-06-137433-3), and Martin Rooney’s Ultimate Warrior Workouts (ISBN 978-0-06-173522-6). These are great references that are currently in print. There are a number of out of print references as well.

Now, here’s how I would cover the example lesson I referenced earlier. I like somersaults and backward somersaults because of the disorienting effect of those and how they force the body to keep working even when confused. Further, I like to put in turning side jumps to help the student get their turns for the seoi nage as quickly as possible, it also increases the heart rate, which I’m told is good. I like to do “judo push-ups” and “Kimura sit-ups” as well, to help develop core strength and use their entire body in exercise. Finally, I add a “Bridge and Reach” exercise to help the student develop their skill and explosivity in bridging while trying to push a body off of them. For more advanced students, modifications, like medicine ball tosses or multi-person variations, can be added to the exercises.

Thinking about warm-ups, one of the most important aspects of warm-ups is that they aren’t there to wear out the athlete. Warm-ups are there to get the body warmed up for exercise. Do not overuse warm-ups in the false notion that your athletes will train better if they are tired. Your athletes need to be warm, not dead tired. Use your technical instruction time to wear them out, not your warm-ups.

Next time: Ukemi!

What do you think of it so far?

Developing a Lesson Plan

Last time I discussed creating training plans in general. This time, I’m going to break down developing a lesson guide in specific. I’m going to use my templates (PDF or XLSX). If you have Excel, I suggest downloading the XLSX file (if you don’t have Office 2010, you can still use it, you just have to get the patch from Microsoft to open the file), otherwise use the PDF and hand write out the guide. One more suggestion before we get on to the meat of the project: keep records of your guide it can help for future classes covering the same or similar topics or as necessary in other situations.

 

This is my standard template for my lesson guides. As you can see, at the top, I identify which class. For me the class name is “Roswell Judo Club, Adult Class” (or one of the other classes I run). Below that is the “Class:” section, here I identify what level class, such as Junior 1, Rokyu, or Semester 1, for example. This helps me identify what the group of students is the target for this lesson guide. Finally, for the header section, I identify the date for this lesson. This helps me know when I will teach or have taught this particular lesson. If I have to be away for a lesson or several, this helps the assistant instructor know what the plan for teaching is for whichever day he or she teaches.

Weekly Goals. These are very important. Without goals, as I’m sure most have heard, you haven’t any idea where you’ll go. I only have three weekly goals for any level of student. Three goals, for two to four hours of class a week, are about as many as an instructor or coach can truly impart. Choose the three most important things for your students or athletes for that week. Anything more and you’ll spend more time doing less important activities.

Let me talk about goals for just a minute or two. In judo you have two major types of students: the Competitor and the Non-Competitor. How you treat these two doesn’t matter to me at all. At Roswell Judo Club, we have more students learning about judo rather than competing. This means that most of my lesson guides emphasize learning techniques and practicing rather than developing athletes to win tournaments. You may have the opposite. Whichever direction you go, make sure your goals are appropriate.

Back to Weekly Goals, let’s look at examples of a weekly goal, in my class, the goal for my first semester college students (this week) is learning Kesa Gatame, how to Bridge and Roll Escape from Kesa Gatame. So, for this week, even though we’re off for Labor Day, I have to concentrate their classes on getting into Kesa Gatame from standing, Bridge and Roll, then escape. That means that I shouldn’t concentrate on any one throw, just any throw into Kesa Gatame. Nor should I concentrate on other hold downs. Nor should I concentrate on other escapes than the Bridge and Roll. If I waste what little time I have in class on developing their Seoi Nage or some other throw, then I’m wasting their time and no instructor or coach should do that to their students.

Well, I hate to do this, but I’m going to break this up into three more sections, one on Warm-ups, Ukemi, and Technical Instruction.

What do you think of it so far?

Training Plans

I’ve said before that I’ll write up how to develop a training plan, including calendars and lesson plans. So here we go.

The first thing any club instructor has to do before they think of calendars or lesson plans is to figure out what exactly they want to do and when it has to be accomplished. Because I can’t give you all the possible variables, I’ll tell you what I did and why I did it that way.

My perspective is based on a lack of competitive opportunities within three hours of Roswell, NM. Since there aren’t very many, I’ve decided to concentrate on developing technical proficiency and knowledge with emphasis on developing instructor training for higher levels. I also have a very specific set of promotional requirements for both juniors and seniors (available at http://www.roswell-judo.org/promotion.html). We hold classes on an academic schedule at Roswell Judo Club because of the ease of scheduling for youth, parents, adults, and college students. The academic schedule and the promotional requirements provide the backbone for developing the class calendars.

Each level, from beginner to ikkyu, has a separate calendar because they each have different promotional requirements. Classes are held on specific days and only those days, so every promotional requirement must be covered on those days. While it makes for a lot of initial work for the instructor, it makes future planning and class planning very easy. All of my calendars are online at http://www.roswell-judo.org/promotion.html under each grade.

Once you have your calendar for your time frame, you must have some kind of lesson plan or guide to keep the class moving in the right direction. One thing about lesson plans, really quick, a lesson plan is a guide it should never be seen as a non-adjustable procedure. If you look at it as inflexible, you’ll either rush over something that needs more time or you’ll put too much time on something your students grasp quickly.

Here are the first six days of my lesson guides for my junior beginner class (I'll post those a little later) and my college class (http://roswell-judo.org/ENMUR_Begin_LessonGuide.pdf). As you can see, I identify what class, what level, what day, weekly goals. I further break it down into the three class elements: warm-ups, ukemi, and technical instruction. I like weekly goals because they give me an idea of what is really important for my students’ learning that week.

I use the warm-ups based on the activities to be covered and to develop my students’ conditioning. Ukemi, to me, is one of the most critical elements for judo players. My expectation for my students is that if they get into a tournament and they get into a very dangerous position, some position where the execution will result in bodily harm, I want them to be able to save themselves even if it means losing the match. With such an expectation, I place great emphasis on ukemi training.

Finally, the technical section is where I line out the general flow of technical instruction for the class. In this section I tend to break down the instruction into essential elements when I start teaching the project. Once students have learned the fundamentals of the technique, I tend to bring in greater drill practice and practical application to ensure that not only have the students learned the techniques but can also apply them in randori or shiai.

This is just a brief overview of developing calendars and lesson plans. I’ll put together something on developing lesson plans later on. Calendar programs are all over the place on the internet, but I tend to use http://www.pdfcalendar.com for my preliminary scheduling. After I have the preliminary done, I use Microsoft Publisher because they have an easy calendar creator and it produces a nice, printable calendar that I can print to PDF format which is then easily distributable. For my lesson plans, I use Microsoft Excel which allows me to set up a template that is protected from adjustment of the non-adjustable elements like the name of the class and the names of the segments. The inputable segments are not protected because they change with each class.

So those are the basics of how I create training schedules in the rough. What do you think?

Fall 2011 Judo Sign-ups

We’re going to be very busy this semester. We have four classes, three of which are at the Yucca Center and one is for the cadets at New Mexico Military Institute. So far we have right around 50 students signed up, a little over half of whom are at the Yucca Center.

This semester the college class doubled in size with about four students returning for the class, but most all of them returning for judo. We have a lot of brand new people to martial arts, one with some experience in Brazilian JiuJitsu (and Gracie Combatives), and so far, after four classes, they are all having a great time.

The youth classes are growing slowly and steadily with about half of them being new to judo, although one of the new ones has had a little bit of experience. The others are continuing through, we should have our first Junior 4^th in December as well as a couple of new Junior 3^rd’s. It looks to be a lively time with them.

Our adult classes are growing as well with a healthy dose of brand new students and students mixing in from the college class. We should have a quite a few gaining ranks by the end of the semester, especially considering the amount of hard work they’re putting in.

The NMMI class has a lot of returning cadets, thankfully enough it’s not an exclusively Sunday class this year, instead it’s on Tuesdays and Thursdays (3:30pm to 5:00pm). They should all do nicely. We have a few more sign-ups than the facilities will allow, but we’ll make it work somehow.

Competitively, I don’t expect we’ll send very many to tournament in the fall, but we will probably be sending a few in the spring. I’m hoping to take a few to Dallas in January/February for the Okuri Judo Club’s Lone Star Classic. I’m also hearing tales of NMSU’s Judo Club sponsoring a tournament with the City of Las Cruces in the spring which would be a great place to send students for tournaments, from all four classes!

As for what we’re planning, I’m hoping to hold a coaching clinic, maybe with clinicians that will teach the ever-elusive “Kelly’s Capers,” to bring at least two of my students into the certified coaching fold. Our last clinic, the one in June, brought in 20 participants and was quite well received. (I’m still working on the DVD’s for that, but it turns out that the HD DVD program I have burns Blu-Rays, not DVD’s.) So I expect that the spring clinic should be quite well received.

We’re also looking for a volunteer willing to coordinate fundraising efforts for the club. We still need new mats and if we can come up with the funding for the mats, I’d like to put in a spring loaded floor and have tentative approval for all of that.

And one final announcement, for parents or adults over 16 years old, if you would like to learn Gracie Combatives with us, I’m willing to run the program (no cost) on Tuesdays and Thursday evenings from 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm as long as you’re willing to make a commitment until May to come to practice. The only catch is that I need six people to make that commitment.

Growing Judo in the United States

One of the big concerns I hear a lot online about judo in the United States is its lack of growth. Most of the time, the concerns are expressed in tones of distress as though there’s nothing that can be done to grow judo or that the concerned don’t feel that national organizations are doing enough or are just doing the wrong thing. The lack of growth is a great concern for judo in the U.S. but one of the problems with that line of thinking is that it removes the individual coach from any responsibility for growing judo. That’s the wrong thinking.

The first thing we have to do is develop judo students into good judo players. That means we don’t concentrate on making champions before they are safe. We concentrate on developing their basics like falling, throws, and hold-downs before we teach them how to grip fight or competitive rules and variations. Once they’re safe, then we start teaching them how to randori, maybe “Kelly’s Capers” will help that, and from randori to shiai.

That’s just the first part of growing judo: develop the players. After the players are developed, then we develop the coaches. A good coach knows how to compete and has been on the mat fighting for the win. They know what training has to happen for success. They know how to motivate their fighters in training and on the mat. This is not an easy thing to teach, but it is seriously lacking because too many don’t see their players as individuals, but copies of themselves. The coach emphasizes what works or worked for the coach while ignoring the player’s needs and abilities.

Our current coaching education program is definitely a work in progress, but they’re being very close mouthed about it. I can’t find much in the way of information, the program, apparently, changes every time a new chair comes in. It happened when Big Jim took over and it seems to be happening now that Bill Montgomery has the chair. Personally, I don’t care, but this kind of constant flux for an education program is foolish. Certainly updates should happen, but complete overhauls should be rare.

The last time I looked at the program (http://www.usja-judo.org/GrowingJudo/GrowingJudo2009_01.pdf) the only real references and resources were incredibly limited. However, when I went to the clinic in Las Vegas more references were provided and some mention was made of modifications of the program. Unfortunately, I’ve heard naught since then. It would be nice to hear about some updates.

After coaching, we need to develop teachers. Coaches are not teachers and teachers are not coaches in their duties. While one person may be both a teacher and a coach, the roles are definitely separate. A teacher teaches, a coach refines and develops for sport. USJA doesn’t have any teacher development program. That’s absolutely not any good.

I’m not sure how to formally teach teachers, but I have a process that I use and it’s a lot of hands-on teaching. It’s been successful for me, though I haven’t produced any black belts, yet. On the other hand I have some very exceptional teachers of whom I am very proud (Alana, Rolando, Eddy, Ashley – this means you!). One of the things that I use is a very thorough and detailed standards and benchmarks, promotional standards, and calendars. I also teach my students about lesson planning, scheduling, and interpretation of standards and benchmarks toward application. Mostly, though, I teach the how to teach by having them teach others that are junior to them, in some cases Juniors. My method is definitely not the best; however, it is very effective for me.

The goal for me is to build a cadre of effective teachers and coaches to place in every school in my town. I think this is one of the keys to growing judo. The more emphasis we place on youth programs, the better off we’ll be by developing judo players from the beginning and developing ways and means to keep them integrated and involved in judo. I expect this will take awhile because I have to develop a number of instructors because I just don’t have very many.

The first stage was actually creating the club itself. I started that in 2007 and we’ve been slowly growing every since. After that was to start a program at either the military school or the local community college. Unfortunately the local military school still hasn’t decided about judo as an academic class, although it has allowed me to create a club (thanks Ron), though growth there is tenuous. However the local community college has allowed me to teach a credit course in beginning judo which has really taken off (10 signed up first semester and 11 signed up for this semester).

The next stages involve taking some of my instructors and branching into the high schools, then middle schools, and finally elementary schools. These programs will be after-school activities rather than academic classes in the public schools based on public school standards and benchmarks, though I will certainly be working to figure out a way to implement judo as a high school class at the military school and the local high schools.

So, that’s my theory on how to grow judo in the United States: Build a good youth program and get judo in the schools! Build good coaches and help them become good instructors!

Extra Resources:

• Successful Coaching - 3rd Edition by Rainer Martens (ISBN: 978-0736040129
• Growing Judo, January 2009 (p. 13-22)
• Growing Judo, March 2010 (p. 12-14)
• An introduction to the USJA Coaching Program
• Searching for Judo Blog, Sundays Events (As Promised) – 8 February 2010
• Searching for Judo Blog, The Last of the Las Vegas Clinic – 26 February 2010

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.