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!

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!