In this post we shall cover some basic ideas in relation to setting sensible and useful targets/goals for Judo performance. the aim will be to define the parameters that you will use to decide if you performed well at a competition.
First things first, performance is not results. There is a relationship between the two, but a good result does not mean a good performance necessarily, nor does a great performance necessarily mean you win the competition. Unfortunately, too often in Judo results are considered the be all and end all of deciding if a player performed well. The IJF is cementing this attitude with the use of a final position based world ranking system (see JudoMetrics.com for more on how the system works).
The target audience for this blog is Judo players just reaching a higher level of competition, you are entering National or International competitions for the first time perhaps. As such, winning events is to be honest a unrealistic goal and can be detrimental to your development as a player. You need different criteria to medals to define if you had a good or bad day.
Below is a selection of targets you might use to make a measurement of your performance, unlike a medal these performance targets are based on things that for upcomingplayers can be more realistic.
Scoring: One target you might use is scoring on every person you fight.
Go the distance: You might aim to either win or at least go the full allotted time with your opponent if you can’t win.
Not get dumped for Ippon: You might aim to not get thrown or not get thrown for Ippon at least.
Attack more than they do: This might be good against a superior player, strive to attack more than they do.
Control the grip: You may not be able to to it consistently, but perhaps aim to control the grip at least 1 (or more) times.
When setting these sorts of targets, itis important to set them at the right level. They need to be challenging yet achieveable. You may want to average the target out across all your fights or be specific to who you are fighting and that match. It may mot be realistic for you to aim to score against every player, so you may aim to score against 75% of the players you fight.
Depending on your level you might have more difficult goals, such as “win at least half my fights by Ippon” or if you are really progressing you might set a target to “win this competition without using my favourite throw“.
It can be especially useful to set targets like the last two mentioned, if you are fighting in an event below your personal best level. These test/training events are an opportunity to test aspects of your development. So you may aim to fight 5 minutes, even if it means you don’t throw everyone for Ippon; this might test your endurance. Alternatively, aim to beat everyone in Ne-Waza to test if your Ne-Waza is developing as planned. Or throw everyone you fight with a the new technique you are working on; you get the idea I hope.
It is quite uncommon to see players and coaches fighting in such a structured way. You can help your development considerably if you use targets like those above to measure your success and plan to fight accordingly. It can also help with your motivation and mood. Nobody likes losing (least of athletes) but you may be able to divert some of the negative feelings by knowing that although you lost, you threw all your opponents for a score or you went 5 minutes with the #1 in your category, etc.
You should talk to your coaches about setting performance based targets for your competitions and try and ensure you have set them at the right level and in the right areas. Any questions let me know.
As a Judo athlete not everything is under your control. One thing that fits into the “not under your control” category is the selection of players to compete in events. We are fortunate in Judo that many events are open to anyone, but especially once you hit the international level you need to be selected by your national governing body. In this article we shall explore the selection process and how you as a Judo athlete need to operate to ensure you are selected.
One of the problems you will encounter when it comes to selection is that everybody has a different system. Your club may select one way, your area another, your nation a third and of course Olympic selection involves people outside of Judo in the process.
For example within the BJA and example of selection policy can be found at http://www.britishjudo.org.uk/home/documents/WCSelectionPolicy-U232008_FINALDRAFT_.pdf This document outlines the selection criteria and process used by the British Judo Association to select athletes to compete in the 2008 Under 23 European Championships. (please not that this document has the suffix “Draft” so actual selection methods may have varied). This is very Britain specific, but the principles apply to all nations.
As a Judo athlete there are some key points for you to understand.
1.The BJA Board of Directors is ultimately responsible for selections. If push came to shove, they decide who gets selected. At present the BJA board is nine men (http://www.britishjudo.org.uk/executive/board.php) no women. These nine people hold in their hands the power of selection. If you are loved by one of these people your selection process is going to be easier than if one (or more) hates you!
2.The Board delegates selection to the selection panel. The selection panel is less easy to identify. It is not listed easily on the BJA website. So as a Judo athlete you will need to ask around to find out who the panel members are. These people have been given the responsibility of selecting players by the Board of directors, so again you want to know who they are and make sure you have an understanding of how they select players and if any of them have strong feelings towards you.
3.Eligibility. Not all Judo athletes are eligible for a specific event. In this example there is an age restriction, also the document outlines that you must have a full British Passport and be a current member of the BJA and of the BJA national squad. This highlights some of the issues of an international society, you may be from another country and not have a British passport (like myself). You may have let your membership lapse.
The requirement to be a squad player is an interesting one, as the squad itself will have selection criteria you must meet.
4.Selection. The BJA system uses a common method, they choose “The player with the most potential to win a medal.”. They also specify that they will look at “all the player’s competition results within the 12 months immediately prior to time of selection will be taken into consideration.” They go on to list the events they will consider and that they will factor in other variables such as the draw and injuries.
Another important selection criteria listed is “attendance record at training sessions and competitions. In considering ‘attendance’, factors such as performance, attitude and behaviour will also be taken into account.”. what this basically means is that you need to attend national training and be a good team player, you had better not just show up to get a tick in the box.
As you can see, there is a mix of subjective and objective criteria here. I would argue more subjective than objective. As a Judo athlete what this means is that people are going to make judgment calls about you, based on their opinion of you and the other athletes wanting your spot on the team. As such you need not only to perform well in competition but also ensure that the board of directors and selection panel members think you are the best darn player around.
Simply being able to (or even winning) every fight is not enough, although an undefeated streak is always going to carry a lot of weight. If, like most athletes there is genuine competition for your “spot”, then you need to ensure that you look like the athlete who has the best attitude, best training, best chance of winning medals.
The best way of achieving this is to be the best player, the hardest trainer, the nicest guy or girl. But even then, you need to ensure that the specific individuals who are involved in the selections know about how great you are. How many of the selectors (and board of directors) would recognise you walking down the street? How many would know where you train, how hard you train, etc?
How many know what the last fight you had was? How many know who the last “big name” you beat was? How many like you as a person? How many hate you? How many thing you are not the best person to choose?
If you don’t know the answer then you have a problem. If you have negative answers you have a problem. But, as a Judo athlete you will tackle these “problems” just as you would any challenge. You can plan out a strategy to ensure you know the selectors and they know you.
The single most important thing you can do is identify the people who make the decisions and speak with them about how the process works and about what they think you as a player should be doing. This is entirely ethical if you are genuinely just trying to learn from them.
Another important issue is to consider who you train with and their relationship with the selectors. If you have a friend who is not popular with selectors, is it wise for you to “hang out” with them? Is you club coach popular or unpopular with the selectors? Again, if so you have some thinking to do about how to deal with this.
Having said all the above, and got you worried, I need to point out that in the grand scheme of things, selection “should” be the least of your worries. I would hope that someone reading this is a dedicated and talented Judo athlete who would be a natural choice for any spot on a team. However, sometimes selections are difficult and often controversial as you may have a fellow athlete at the same level as you. In this situation having explored how selection works and who makes the selections and perhaps worked on ensuring that all the relevant people know you are the best choice might swing the balance in your favour. And if that does happen and you get a fellow athletes spot, you had better make good use of it and win gold!
I hope the above has given you some food for thought about selection, the BJA u23 example I think shows just how complicated it can be. The rules change based on event, personnel, policy and many other elements. As a Judo athlete you need to ensure you understand the process and stay current.
Managing your selection chances is like all things in sport, 100% your responsibility as a Judo athlete. You can’t complain you were not selected if you did not take the time to understand the selection process and do what was required to get selected.
As always, you should always discuss with your coaches (club, area and national) and you can always ask me ( lw@judocoach.com ) if you want some advice.
Kumi Kata is one of the most important elements of modern Judo, establishing a good grip and negating your opponents grip can be what wins or loses you a match. In this article we shall not teach try to teach you how to grip, rather help you understand the importance of developing your grip fighting skills.
The most important single thing I could say in relation to gripping is to have a plan. You need to know what grip works for you and how to achieve that grip when facing a variety of situations. To develop this plan and do the practice required, you will need to consult with your coaches.
You will need a target grip and methods to obtain and defend that grip. You also need to have throws that match your grip. The general advice to a Judo athlete is that you will have one grip, not many. You will not be throwing from “any grip” as some might like.
If you watch someone like Jimmy Pedro (especially in his “Grip Like A World Champion” DVD) you will soon notice that he has a definite plan of attack with his gripping. Watch the video here and you will see the pattern. He is looking to secure his opponent Rhadi Ferguson’s sleeve with his right hand. He is then looking to take a grip with his left hand over the right shoulder of his opponent.
You will notice that Jimmy does take initial “stabs” at Rhadi’s lapel, but the first grip he takes and holds is the right hand sleeve grip. Of course Jimmy is fighting left handed, so that affects his grip pattern, as do the throws he uses. You will also notice that Jimmy is an “outside” fighter, he keeps “wide” and grips around his opponent.
This second video shows Toshihiko Koga of Japan in action. His gripping is substantially different to that of Jimmy Pedro’s. Koga is right handed and is looking to secure his left hand under his opponent’s armpit or low on the jacket lapel. His grips does vary considerably, but what is constant is his desire to control his opponents’ right shoulder for his seoi nage attacks.
Koga is also an “inside” fighter, he is rotating directly in front of his opponents is a small tight turn. It is very different to Pedro’s outside more linear attacking style. Koga would be unable to execute the turn required from Jimmy’s grip and equally Jimmy could not execute his attacks from Koga’s grip.
This is important as you too need to attack from your grip.
Defining a gripping strategy for you is well beyond what is achievable in a single blog post, or even from a series of posts. However, for the novice Judo athlete, I do have a gripping pattern framework that is a good starting point. The explanation following the method describes some of the reasoning behind this grip pattern and should hopefully give an indication of the thought you need to give to your pattern of gripping.
Goal:
To obtain a standard Sleeve and Lapel grip, so as to execute many/most traditional techniques.
Method:
Grip opponent’s right lapel very low, towards the belt with your right hand.
Grip opponent’s right lapel above your right hand with your left hand.
Grip opponent’s right lapel above your left hand with your right hand at height/position that you are aiming for as your most comfortable/effective for your throws.
Bend your right arm and pull your opponent towards you.
Grip opponent’s right sleeve with your left hand.
Explanations:
This grip pattern is designed for a right handed Judo athlete, seeking to throw with a forward throw such as Seoi Nage or Uchi Mata. This is more in line with the traditional Japanese style of fighting than eastern European styles.
By gripping low (1.), the Judo athlete is able to obtain a initial grip more easily than if going directly for the desired grip with that hand. It is used solely to provide a starting point to “climb” the grip to the desired height.
In this pattern, the athlete is focused on having a strong lapel grip. The sleeve grip is secondary to this athlete’s pattern.
Once you have a basic pattern such as the example above, you can develop methods/tricks/tools to secure the grip or to defend the grip. In the first example video with Jimmy and Rhadi, Jimmy shows a very effective method of removing Rhadi’s grip on Jimmy’s left hand sleeve. This tool is important as it shows that Jimmy is aiming to position his left hand over the shoulder. It is clear that this is a common situation that Jimmy found himself in and that he developed a effective technique to establish his grip. You too will need to find these common situations and the solutions to them.
Again, the purpose of this article is not to teach you how to grip but rather to encourage you to work with your coaches to develop your kumi kata in a similar way as you will your throwing and ne waza techniques.
In the sport that is Judo, there is a large technical component to develop. The Judo athlete with the best technical skills has the advantage over the opponent with equal physical capabilities but lesser technical abilities; some would go further and say the more technical player can beat a player of superior physical abilities.
In this article, again aimed at the novice Judo athlete, we shall look at how to develop a training programme for your Judo technical skills.
As with your physical training, your technical training consists of a variety of different areas which must all be developed. As with physical preparation for Judo, a well designed plan for developing your technical skills will deliver the best results.
Fitts & Posner (1967), describe three stages of skill development, which BobC on the British Judo Association coaching forum described like this:
Verbal cognitive, this stage is characterised by a lot of thinking through the skill by the athlete (cognitive) and verbal instruction by the coach. This is a relatively short stage.
Motor stage, this is where the techniques has been learnt. The student may now be able to do it in several directions or from a variety of grips but there is still a need for feedback and control.
Autonomous stage – The first thing about this stage is that not all athletes achieve it. Athletes tend to be able to produce the technique (which is now a skill) on demand and may not need to focus on it as a single thing, i.e. within a tactical situation.
With these stages in mind, it becomes clear that in developing your technical training programme you must design for each stage in your own skill acquisition.
Stage 1:
In this stage you might meet with your coach and watch videos of elite players doing the skill you are wishing to develop, you might read up on the principles also. You and your coach would then start “walking through” how the technique is done; building up to a point where you are able to do nage komi in perhaps one direction consistently.
Stage 2:
Having developed a good ability to execute the technique, you need to start working towards using the technique in a variety of directions. For example when moving in different directions, from left and right grips. The technique should be reliable in Nage Komi and basic form executable regularly in Randori.
Stage 3:
Once you are able to execute the skill in a variety of directions, grips etc. You may be able to move the technique to a level where it is “available on demand”, without needing to think about it. Your training might include situational simulation. Meaning that you have your opponent play in a certain way and you execute the skill against it repeatedly. You will be simulating a number of situations that are common in competition and also in your opponents. You will be simulating not only physical characteristics but also tactical scenarios such as being behind on points with 30 seconds to go.
As you have probably guessed, each stage is likely to take exponentially longer than the previous one. So if there is a technique you decide you need to have in your arsenal then you need to start developing it months and years before it is needed. Old coaches of mine quoted the figure 10,000 uchi komi for any technique. Which rather nicely fits with the concept being popularised by Malcolm Gladwell about 10,000 hours being the magic time to master something.
Stage one may take only hours or days, stage two weeks or months. Stage three, months to years.
BALANCE
Another key issue is to ensure you are developing your technical skills is the issue of technical balance. Although elite performers display a limited set of techniques at that level ( http://judoinfo.com/weers1.htm ). They will normally have a excellent vocabulary of throws if observed in light Randori, and even at the elite level they are showing several skills capable of use at the highest level.
As a Judo athlete looking to develop, you must be careful not to become “one-sided”. If all you have is one excellent technique then you will be extremely weak in many situations. When planning your technical development you must ensure you provide enough time to each of the technical skills you are developing.
Scheduling the training
As a novice Judo athlete, one of the issues you will strike is that the Judo sessions you attend are unlikely to be working on the skills you are working on at that time. You can help negate some of this by working closely with the coaches. However, you will need to work outside of classes or independently within a class environment.
This again will mean liaising with the coaches to ensure that you are given the permission and opportunity to practice you skills, perhaps whilst the rest of the class does something else.
You will also need to ensure that when doing Randori and even when competing in training event competitions that you practice the techniques you are developing. Competition and Randori testing of your new skills should be planned into your programme.
Summary
Developing your technical skills as a Judo athlete is essential if you wish to progress to higher levels of competition. You need to plan out your training to enable you to progress through the phases of acquisition and also to develop a suitably balanced portfolio of technical skills.
This is a long and complicated process and very difficult to plan initially as you will not have a good awareness of the times required. Also each skill will have it’s own timetable. By working closely with you coaches you will find the optimal timings and methods for you.
Supplementary training for the Judo athlete is required, it is almost (if not entirely) impossible to use Judo for all your needs, especially strength and conditioning training. In this post we shall cover how to get started in the gym, so it it aimed at the Judo athlete just starting down this path.
Why go to the gym?
I and most Judo coaches will tell you that “the best training for Judo, is Judo” and we are correct. The rule of thumb is that the closer your training is to competition then the more effective it is. And lets face it Judo is a unique blend of skill, strength, endurance, power, tactics, gutas and determination. So why go to the gym and not just head down to the Dojo?
The main reason for most people is that there just are not enough Judo sessions of the right type and quality and at the right times to make using Judo as your sole physical preparation. For higher level athletes, it is still hard to (perhaps harder) to find enough Judo, so the gym can be used to supplement Judo and help you develop physically.
A well training programme that is well integrated with your Judo programme can help immensely and is a “must have” for any serious Judo athlete.
What Gym?
For the newbie athlete, any good quality gym will be ok. The big brand fitness centres are a good choice and can be good value. You might consider getting together with others in your Judo club and trying to get a discount at the local fitness centre. The more advanced Judo athlete will want a different sort of gym, but for those just starting out a gym full mainly of steppers, treadmills and machines is just fine.
I would avoid body building gyms and elite gyms initially.
If possible, find a gym that will offer some assistance in terms of a training programme. If they have personal trainers even better! Again, depending on your level you will want to try gyms with good trainers or (as will become apparent as you read on) see if you can find a good personal trainer who will come to the gym you join.
How to start?
Step one, get a programme from a personal trainer. Step two, refer to step one!
Seriously though, if you are a new Judo athlete joining perhaps your first gym, then get the personal trainers/instructors at the gym to give you a training programme. It will probably not be overly good compared to a programme designed by an Olympic level coach, but for the new athlete it is a good start.
I recommend the gym’s instructors over “some bloke at the dojo”, the reason being that at this stage in your development you want to develop the general gym skills and physical abilities to train safely and effectively in the gym.
Do not borrow a programme you have seen someone else doing, especially if that person is an experienced gym user or elite Judo athlete. You will get hurt and also look silly!
If you can afford it, try and use a personal trainer once a week or once every fortnight for your first 6 weeks (one training cycle).
I recommend this as a trainer will help ensure that you use good technique and train effectively on the equipment available. As we shall cover in a moment, there are two things in the gym to avoid, bad technique and bad etiquette.
How to lot be a gym-tard!
A big problem you find in general purpose fitness centres is people who do not know what they are doing. This comes in two varieties those who do not know how to train and those who do not know how to behave. And yes, the two are often related.
Just like in the Dojo, the gym has rules of behavior that need to be followed, and just like Judo Dojo, each one can have slightly different rules. But, as in Judo, the majority of the rules are applicable across gyms. Below are a small selection that will help you stay on the straight and narrow. Training with a personal trainer/instructor will also help you fit in as they will know how to behave in your gym.
Bring the right kit.
Don’t show up in lycra, especially you guys! Do wear comfortable shorts, and a t-shirt. Bring trainers (running shoes), ones that you do not wear on the street. Bring a small handtowel too, to wipe down the equipment after use. Bring your own earphones and a iPod if you use them. Don’t bring your bag into the gym or you cell/mobile phone (though that rule is getting bent/ignored/dropped more and more now days). Bring a training diary and a pen. Oh and leave the weights belt and weights gloves at home, save that for later!
Don’t make up your own moves.
You won’t be doing this as you have a trainer (right?), but please don’t make it up as you go along. Use the equipment as you have been taught to. Don’t randomly start throwing the weights about or other such random activities. Do the exercises your trainer has given you and do them as they are shown to you.
Put things back as you found them.
Put the weights back on the rack, set the machine weights back to zero. Wipe the machines down (get your sweat off).
Don’t cheat.
Keep the weights down and the form good. Follow your instructor/trainers advice and guidance. Keep the weight light and don’t cheat to try more than you are.
Be quiet, work hard!
Don’t grunt and scream, huff and puff. Later you’ll be in a more serious gym (like an awesome CrossFit gym) where that sort of stuff is fine; but for now, just keep it down ok. Also, the gym should be a place you come to workout, not a place to chat. So get in there and work, then get out. One of the reasons quite a few people wear earphone and listento music is to isolate themselves from the crowd and focus on the workout.
So, there you have it a few simple rules to get you started in the gym.
It is all about working hard and properly, fitting in and not annoying or offending the other people in the gym. Getting a personal trainer may seem over the top, but it will ensure you get a better start than if you start out on your own. A trainer should help you develop correct technique and train at appropriate levels. They will help you fit right in, and give you a good start.
One final tip, that I have intentionally left till last to highlights it’s importance is make sure that you talk to your coaches before and after you start at the gym. Especially as you progress it will be essential that your gym work enhances your Judo not detracts from it.
Proper preparation prevents poor performance, or words to that effect. To be able to perform at a competition a Judo athlete needs to prepare themselves as well as they are able. The key to good preparation is planning.
In this post we shall look at the basics of developing a training plan.
According to Wikipedia, planning consists of the following key elements:
1. Clearly define the target / goal in writing.
a. It should be set by a person having authority.
b. The goal should be realistic.
c. It should be specific.
d. Acceptability
e. Easily measurable
2. Identify all the main issues which need to be addressed.
3. Review past performance.
4. Decide budgetary requirement.
5. Focus on matters of strategic importance.
6. What are requirements and how will they be met?
7. What will be the likely length of the plan and its structure?
8. Identify shortcomings in the concept and gaps.
9. Strategies for implementation.
10.Review periodically.
Lets put that into Judo context:
1.Set your event(s). Gold at the US Open for example. You want to et the date of the event.
2.Identify the training you need to do, the events you need to enter, the selection criteria etc.
3.Review your record to date, both medals and ability to train.
4.Money… yep, you are going to need enough to make it.
5.Focus on the important areas of your training. Talk to your coaches about it.
6.Decide what needs to be achieved and how you’ll achieve them.
7.How long in the plan, is it realistic in terms of training cycles?
8.Find your the areas where you can’t achieve what you need to.
9.Decide how you are going to implement the plan
10.Review it regularly, make changes, move on.
For newcomers to planning you might want to start simple. You training plan does not need to be perfect. In fact it will never be perfect. Just remember what chess grand champion Gary Kasparov is quoted as saying
“A bad plan is better than no plan”
Your plan framework….
Start with your target event date, get a calendar and work backwards from that date, counting the number of weeks between today and the event. Take the total number of weeks and divide by 8. This is the number of training cycles you will have to prepare (6 weeks per cycle with two week transition between cycles). You also need to consider if your goal is “SMART“, which means Specific, Measurable, Action Orientated, Realistic and Time constrained
Now you know how many cycles you have to prepare, you can start slotting types of training into the cycles. A typical programme will have the following elements:
Endurance
Strength
Speed
Power
On the Judo side you might have:
Technique Development
Technique Maintenance
Randori
Kumi Kata
Transitions
Competition Preparation
You may also want to look at this in terms of the following areas of Judo training:
Technical
Tactical
Physical
Mental
Speak with your coach and work out what you need to work on, decide when it needs to be done, etc. Start slotting these elements into the cycles. You will be aiming at repeating elements, so depending on how many areas you want to work on, you may soon discover that you can’t ft it all in. Until you start planning you will not know.
While planning your training, you must also be scheduling in your competitions/goals. These are often described as being of two varieties, training events and medal events. The majority (75:25% split) should be training events and these are used to ‘measure goals’, these goals should be related to the categories above and reflect the training you are doing up to that point. The medal events are the ones where you need to win for selection or other reasons.
Once all you cycles are filled, your plan is ready to go. Start tomorrow. Follow your plan for 6 weeks. In weeks 7 and 8 you are in transition. Take a few days off altogether, then sit down with coaches and the plan and go through it from start to finish again. Make sure it is still the plan you want, change it as required. Then (week 8 in particular) do a mixed week of your old training and your new training. Or perhaps do something completely different. Maybe if you have been doing endurance work and technique development and are moving to strength work and transitions then do a week of speed work and Randori just to shake things up a bit. Or skip the gym and dojo and go canoeing and play some Basketball.
Then start your next week fresh.
In the next post we will look at the microcycles (weeks) within each of your training cycles and how to plan them out as well. This will include looking at how to schedule the intensity and duration of your training sessions, coping with the inevitable injuries and also how to tailor your Judo training to match your physical training needs… and vice versa.
This site has been created to be a source of information for Judo athletes, that being Judo competitors of any level. Specifically it is aimed at those athletes that are just starting down the long road of competition. Those that perhaps are rewaching beyond the club and area and looking at National or International challenges.
Many people at this stage have little support till much later in the journey. It is not till later often that they have access to the advisors that will help them along their way. This is even more true for those players who are not based in the big Judo nations like Japan, Korea, Russia, France, Germany, etc.
The aim of this site is to give Judo athletes access to information, that they might not be able to access otherwise. To give Judo athletes a second opinion. To give those without support an opportunity to be supported. It is not the aim of this site to work against existing support mechanism or to replace your club or national coaches. The aim is that this site will help you work with these important people.
So what will be covered?
This site will not be covering things for recreational practitioners of Judo. It will not be looking at the grading syllabus or how to tie your belt correctly. Nor will there be lectures on etiquette, history and other important Judo elements. This site is about the sport of Judo and the athletes that play that game.
This site will cover preparation and performance of the game of Judo.
We shall talk about mental skills, physical skills, Judo skills. Tactics, technique, training. This site is all about preparing to be and the act of being a Judo Athlete. It is about the sport of Judo, not the other elements of Judo. These elements shall only be covered if and when they intersect with winning Judo competitions.
To that end, you will find on this site regular posts about a wide variety of activities that will help a Judo athlete perform at their highest potential. Some shall be Judo specific, some will be based on Science and some will be simply there as information for you to consider.
How to participate?
This is a new site, started on the 19th of January 2009. It is freash and open to being moulded by those people who visit it…. you!
Please participate in this website and help ensure it delivers what you need/want. The best way to do this is by leaving comments on the articles posted on this site. The second best method is to email the author of the articles and ask questions.
When you do comment or email, please say what you like, what you dislike. Say what you would like to see and ask questions for your own personal benefit.
Please imagine that this website is being written just for you, the author(s) are your personal writers, tell them what you want to know!
Thanks….
If you are reading this, then you deserve thanking!
This site is all about the reader, no readers, no site. So thank you for reading and stay tuned for more.
these are the words of Will Smith , the actor describing in his own way why he succeeds where others don’t.
For Judo athletes, the message he is trying to impart is important, Will Smith will die rather than stop working before you! but don’t take my word for it, listen to Will describe it himself in the following video:
As an athlete, the difference between you and your opponents will normally be very little, especially as you get closer and closer to the top. What will make you win over your opponents? Will talks about “Out Working” everyone and anyone, are you willing and able to outwork every person you meet on the mat? Both at competitions and in the Dojo?
In Judo as an athlete, you have limited resources. You have limited funds, limited time and limited training partners to name a few. The same is true of Will, he has limited time, he in the past had limited finances, he had lots of competition too. Ann Maria De Mars (former World Judo Champion and mother/coach to Ronda Rousey) has written quite a few posts on her blog about people moaning the lack of resources they have and why it is preventing them from being the best in the world; she basically describes these as B.S. excuses.
The reality is that every person in Judo has limitations and barriers to overcome. If you want to be Club Champ or World Champ, you need to overcome these obstacles, real and otherwise.
One way you can beat those with “all the advantages”, is to outwork each and every one of them! Be the first one to training and the last one out. Do an extra half mile on the road, do one more set in the gym, watch one more video of your oppoenents. Or, as Will Smith puts it die on the treadmill rather than come off first.
Thanks to Caroline Radway for blogging about the Will Smith video.
Other blogs cater to the martial art aspect of Judo or recreational Judo. This blog is aimed at young (and old) athletes in the sport of Judo.
Judo is a combat sport which requires a huge amount from athletes, it is exciting to do and to watch. It is complex and challenging and the path from once a week to gold medals is a tough one.
This blog is aimed at providing some snippets of advice and perspective to Judo athletes which may help them find their own path to glory.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=b1d7d6c2-b6c1-455d-a58c-46b37f1b5b06)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=b54d766c-beb6-4b2e-b9ac-ad7227026521)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](https://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=a4600819-fb62-4531-99f3-024c6a9c904a)
