Influencing the judo culture

There are many players trying to have an influence upon the current judo culture. From where you can observe, can you identified who or what organizations,events, people who will have the potential to influence the ways we conduct both the judo teaching or the practices?
Are the international bodies, the sports industry, the universities, the kodokan, the national governing federations or the selected champions most likely to intervene to make changes? Will these changes influence the way we conduct our affairs?

Top-down IJF via national governing bodies for the most part, has a huge influence on how judo is practiced and why. IJF does not have a direct say in national governing bodies, however, the pressure is huge to conform.

Some countries, notably Canada (as you probably well know), do have an integrated "sport for life" type of program, of which Judo has it's part, with 13-14 years old being the age at which the decision of "recreational judo" vs "elite judo" is supposed to be made.

In some countries, one particular region or province dominates Judo administration...

I tend to agree with your comments, but is the influence profitable or detrimental to the i depth teaching of judo? Some techniques have been outlawed,others modified,traing camps have taken different perspectives stressing the champion'mode of operations. Weight classes have modified the ways we tackle the Shiai. If you consider 13 years of age to make the choice between recreational-competitive judo, are the students suffisantlely prepared mentally and physically? Are most teachers capable to adapt teaching 2 different classes? We have to ask ourselves if these questions should bear upon the way we address judo as a whole educational system or just see it as a school for a special Olympic sport?

forgeron judo wrote:I tend to agree with your comments, but is the influence profitable or detrimental to the i depth teaching of judo? Some techniques have been outlawed,others modified,traing camps have taken different perspectives stressing the champion'mode of operations. Weight classes have modified the ways we tackle the  Shiai. If you consider 13 years of age to make the choice between recreational-competitive judo, are the students sufficiently prepared mentally and physically? Are most teachers capable to adapt teaching 2 different classes? We have to ask ourselves if these questions should bear upon the way we address judo as a whole educational system or just see it as a school for a special Olympic sport?

The 13-14 years of age is straight from the Judo Canada Dojo Instructor training materials, and seems to be based on the the amount of time on average needed to develop the skill (about 10 years) necessary to compete at an elite level at physical peak (23 to 27 years old, plus or minus), plus the fact that weight training (for strength) is contraindicated before around 16 year of age due to physiological development.

To be clear, to my understanding, it is the elite competition track, not overall competition for "recreational" judoka. We know that one can compete hard and be good at Judo and never be competitive at an "elite" level.

I don't think that specific techniques being "outlawed" or "modified" in IJF competition is really the issue. Not that I fully support all the rules changes, don't get me wrong on that !

Weight classes are a good thing, IMO. With modern athletic training, heavy-weight vs light weight is pretty much a non-starter.

I'd like to see more "non-championship" types of training camps. We are having on this weekend in Creston, BC, a Kootenays Regional training and randori all day Saturday, in lieu of a shiai. Given the circumstances, we all agreed that getting together for organized training and then opportunity to do randori with judoka from other clubs would be much more edifying than a shiai.

Maybe as the "sport for life" aspects of of the Judo Canada program kick in, clubs and provincial governing bodies will be more motivated to provide more non-championship oriented regional/national/provincial group training activities.

Here's another one in BC.
Hello Everyone:
There is a girl’s judo camp being held in August by JudoBC.
We will forward further details once they are received.
Save the Date! Girls Camp, Oyama BC August 24 - 27
Mark your calendars now. Details coming soon.
Judo BC is excited to offer a camp for women and girls to explore leadership, positive self-esteem, and physical activity through the guiding principles of Judo.
Join us at Camp Hatikvah located on Wood Lake in Oyama, BC, for a unique overnight camp experience. This camp will provide participants the opportunity to attend Judo training sessions as well as engage in, leadership workshops, and mentorship activities both from participant to participant as well as through access to Women in Sport role models, and non-Judo activities.

As for the 13-14 year old being sufficiently prepared, I suppose that would depend on how long they had been in Judo already. A 14 year old beginners isn't going to be going into the elite track...A boy or girl who has been in a good program since they were 8 or 9 years old though, should be close to on track to be able to ramp up the training volume as necessitated.

Judo Canada also seem to be heading to a regional training center model, as they are opening a new one in Lethbridge, BC, for western Canada. One part of the model seem to be that those training centers would "take in" elite-track prospects, who would train there part or full time while attending school and such.

I think that your question regarding whether or not a coach/sensei is prepared or able to run two separate classes, the answer depends. In a remote/less populated area (such as is common in Canada), the "elite" track athletes are in a bit of a bind, mostly in terms of the availability and skill of training partners, even if they have a coach who can facilitate them moving to a higher level of training/competition.

In more populated areas (Toronto/Montreal, the lower mainland of B.C.), there are plenty of training opportunities. The lower mainland of BC has "team BC training" that rotates from club to club each week. Whereas we in Creston, BC (10-12 our drive from Vancouver area) don't have that sort of opportunity.

In fact, Lethbridge is an easier drive for us than the lower mainland !

I think the Judo Canada system and Canadian Sport For life is attempting to address your questions. I think it's slowly working, but time will tell.

You have some interesting observations and your comments about the BC judo are quite revealing. Judo in BC is quite progressive as is the one in Quebec, other provinces may take some times to implement similar initiatives, but hopefully, all provincial associations and dojos will step in in to make judo teaching and practices more interesting and enjoyable for all. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

forgeron judo wrote:You have some interesting observations  and your comments about the BC judo are quite revealing. Judo in BC is quite progressive as is the one in Quebec, other provinces may take some times to implement similar initiatives, but hopefully, all provincial associations and dojos will step in in to make judo teaching and practices more interesting and enjoyable for all. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

It looks to me like implementing the Judo Canada coach training and programs are pretty much mandatory... as in a club will have to have a "Dojo Instructor" level coach on the tatami at all times during practices.

Yes, there is a great effort to update all instructors to obtain the coaching certificate levels. The Institute nationale des sports du Quebec has given its ok and full support to judo Canada in this regard, there is also a very active group of seniors dan holders overseeing the implementation of the program, in BC, John Huntly of Kamloops is much involved and so are thee regional development centres in various provinces.
On the other hand, it is much difficult to make the program mandatory, we have no federal laws only the federation statutes, and many dojo, still operate outside theses rules. Mind you, the coaching credentials are part of the grade requirement for would be black belt. Time will tell definitely when get overall cohesion..

forgeron judo wrote:Yes, there is a great effort to update all instructors to obtain the coaching certificate levels. The Institute nationale des sports du Quebec  has given its ok and full support to judo Canada in this regard, there is also a very active group of seniors dan holders overseeing the implementation of the program, in BC, John Huntly of Kamloops is much involved and so are thee regional development centres in various provinces.
On the other hand, it is much difficult to make the program mandatory, we have no federal laws only the federation statutes, and many dojo, still operate outside these rules. Mind you, the coaching credentials are part of the grade requirement for would be black belt. Time will tell definitely when get overall cohesion..

My understanding is that there must be a "dojo instructor" level instructor at each training session. otherwise no judo (under Judo Canada anyway).

John Huntley and Bruce Fingarson are the two facilitators in BC.

Perhaps I confused a Judo BC policy with a Judo Canada one. Here is the link.
http://www.judobc.ca/training-development/nccp/

In which case, my apologies.

I can well imagine some resistance exists to "coach training". I know when the rather minimal standards were put into place in the USA, it was tough to tell rokyu or shichi dan they needed more "coach" training/certification.