Judo contains such a rich array of techniques – so many throws, holds, entries, escapes, tactics, strategies and each one with its own variations and subtleties – that it is only too easy to get stuck in the nuts-and-bolts detail. It happens all the time. The coach says: ‘While stepping in, pull slightly with this hand, evade the defensive arm, drop the weight, slide the other foot in while drawing your partner’s other arm up and around…’ and so on.
If it is tough and self-defeating for adults, how much more is it for kids? Bewilderment, confusion and ultimately boredom can so easily be the end result, and a club session concludes in disappointment rather than being an enriching, enlivening experience.
But when imagination and humour are injected into the teaching process, the results are transforming. Judo classes become entertaining, lively and real learning events.
Nowhere can this be seen more clearly than in these two coaching DVDs. Coaching Judo for Juniors and Judo in School Education - The Spread of Judo in Japan show contrasting styles of judo teaching, the modern and the traditional Japanese. They are the classic must-have DVDs for every judoka, whether teacher, coach or club member.
It was filmed by Fighting Films’ director Simon Hicks. He was invited by the IJF to record the seminar but filming upright judo teachers, he knew, would not make gripping video. So, displaying his own commitment and imagination, he took the time and trouble to travel to each of three coaches’ own dojos as well to show them working in their home environment. The result is a classic judo DVD, as much a touchstone of the grenre as 101 Judo Ippons.
It mixes smoothly shots of children having fun doing judo with senior coaches from around the world doing exactly the same. To get top teachers and former fearsome Olympic champions (like Yasuhiro Yamashita) playing ‘Kano Says!’ or ‘Bum Bump’ (a warm-up game) can only be done by a truly skilful teacher!
It is Yasuhiro Yamashita himself who sets out the purpose of Coaching Judo to Juniors. ‘This DVD’, he says to camera ‘is for coaches around the world to teach fun judo for children around the world.’
Yes! It is OK for judo to be fun! Yamashita says it himself (even though few of his competition opponents must have thought the experience was much fun…the strangle, the uchimata, the osoto-gari).
And fun it certainly is. The kids in clubs in Italy, France, Scotland and Brazil are having a whale of a time. You can see it on their faces. Whether they are playing galloping horses (learning osoto-gari) or inviting their partners to step on their toes (ashiwaza), being spiders (newaza) or rowing in fours (learning co-ordination and timing) their faces are alive with interest and involvement.
And they say it themselves when facing the camera. Judo is ‘cool, and ‘brilliant’ and the delightful paradox of ‘I like the fighting in judo and making new friends.’ No one who doesn’t do judo would understand that, but we do. And it is true.There isn’t a bored, or distracted or tearful face in the dojo. That may be because it is a film! But I can’t imagine any of the young students of these teachers being bored or watching the clock, because they are simply having a good time. The classes are extremely disciplined, tightly-controlled and full of new ideas.
I can guarantee that every judo coach will find something new here: a nifty way to learn ashiwaza or a simple but extremely clever gambit to get kids to fold naturally into yoko-shiho-gatmae. And there are new ideas for warm-up games and, equally important, calm-down games. So that the children leave the dojo responsibly, rather than hyped up and excited.
The essential message of the DVD is as important as the content. The numerous ideas on Coaching for Juniors should be only a springboard for the imaginations of coaches everywhere. It is significant that the three featured coaches from different countries have very different styles, each one developing out of ,and suited to. his home environment. What is shown here is not a system of teaching judo but a flint to create the spark to ignite the imaginations of coaches everywhere.
But we cannot forget that judo hails from Japan, and there is vast experience in the traditional resources within the Japanese system. Judo in School Education - The Spread of Judo in Japan shows the process that starts champions like Yamashita and Nomura on their way. It is fascinating in a very different way. The society is different and the children respond in different ways.
We tend to see Japanese judo through the upper end of competition, but this DVD presents judo in Japanese society.This includes judo in high school, judo at university level – as well as judo for the visually impaired and 70 year olds competing in grade competitions for the upper end of the dan grades!
Yasuhiro Yamashita tells a similar story of youthful waywardness! The conclusion in both cases seems to be that to reach the top of your tree you need the energy which propels you to run wild and misbehave and the good fortune to encounter judo which transforms that energy and makes you a useful, creative and contributive member of society. Certainly, as Director of the International Judo Federation’s Education and Diffusion Committee, this is the purpose of Yamashita, and the purpose of investing in these two outstanding DVDs. Certainly, not just to produce Olympic champions. Admirably, they are in five languages: English, French, Spanish, Japanese & Arabic.
It is not easy coaching judo. It is particularly difficult when judo clubs are isolated and the weekly class is in danger of becoming a weekly grind. National organizations like the BJA and the Fédération Française de Judo run regular coaching courses. But everyone will learn from these two new titles. I put them on late one night after a busy day to have a quick scan before viewing them in full at the weekend, but it was the early hours of the morning by the time I had finished them having watched them back to back. And I stepped on the judo mat newly inspired!