An introduction to Planning your Olympic Judo career.
In this post we shall look at some basic ideas around planning your long term Judo career, looking at the ultimate of our Sport… the Olympic Games.
The Olympic Cycle
Judo is an Olympic sport which means that the competition side of Judo is driven by the 4 year Olympic cycle. What this means for the Judo athlete is that everything is focussed on one day every 4 years. All your training is geared towards and aimed at the Olympic Judo tournament. So this is the starting point for any and all serious career plans.
In a recent post on JudoMetrics.com the average age of athletes competing in the current qualification events for London 2012 was identified as being around 25 years of age. What this means is that in planning your career you need to consider if you will be 25 (plus or minus a year or two) in an Olympic year. How old will you be in 2012? 2016? 2020? 2024? The reality is that you can be 20 – 30 or even more outside this range, but you are increasingly becoming a statistical outlier.
Of course being the right age is a minor issue compared to the more serious matters in planning your career. But these target years are vital and you need to work backwards from them. You need to consider how many years you need to spend qualifying; about 3-4. So you need to be on the Word Cup circuit from about the previous Olympic Judo tournament. In other words, if you are not competing in the World Cups now, then you really REALLY need to be doing so in the next year or the points deficit is likely to be insurmountable. If you are looking at 2016, then you don’t need to be at the World Cup level until 2012/2013.
If you need to be at the World Cup level by 2013, then you’ll need some experience at lower international levels prior to then. So expect to budget 2-3 years at least doing C and B tournaments. Then, you need to consider how much time you will spend at national level first? 2-3 years perhaps in the medals at your nationals before you are ready to do well overseas? How long till you get regular selection for the right events?
As you can see those years start adding up and suddenly we have 10 years of competing planned out before you step on the mat at the Olympics. Do you have 10 years till “your” Olympics?
If you have longer, then brilliant, you have extra time and can fit more training and competing in. Not got 10 years? Then you have more work to do, more planning, more training and more performing with less time than if you had more time. It is not the end of the road for you, but your path perhaps shall be harder than for others, you have more of a challenge.
So… I hope you are a 15 year old Judo athlete full of potential and starting to win some medals that people didn’t expect you to win. If so, look to 2016 and start working HARD!!
I welcome any questions, comments, etc.
Just email me at lw@judocoach.com
