Stagnant teaching

Discussion in 'Judo' started by blackbelt_judoj, Mar 15, 2004.

  1. blackbelt_judoj

    blackbelt_judoj New Member

    I regularly teach judo at my local club. I make great effort to attend as many courses and competitions (as well as visiting other clubs) as possible so that I can convey as many new ideas/styles/techniques as possible to my class.

    It was whilst I was visiting a certain club for the first time that I came across my worst night mare. The resident instructor was a black belt and proud of it (and rightly so), the only problem being that he had been awarded it many, many years ago and since then had gone to rot. He was so over weight that he was in no fit state to demonstrate any techniques and even if he had been able I dread to think what he could of shown his class. It was quite apparent that he had not taken an interest in keeping up to date with his coaching as the standard of judo he was teaching was embarrasing. The scary thing was that his class was about 20 strong and that they were all learning awful habits. I shudder to call it Judo at all.

    It is my strong belief that once an individual has gained his "club coach", he or she should have to attend certain refresher courses each year or have his/her teaching qualification revoked (for insurance reasons if nothing else!)

    This is certainly not the case in my affiliation. I would be interested to hear any views.
     
  2. Furikuchan

    Furikuchan New Member

    A few points. There is quite a physical demand on a judo instructor. However, no judo insturctor should be counted out merely for physical limitations (You indicated there were other problems with this guy, but I'm just making a point about this. Give me a minute here.) Right now, my head judo instructor is on crutches with his foot immobilized in a hard boot, our 'assistant' instructor (if ya wanna call her that)is over 50 and has an arthritic shoulder and knee, and a third of our major instructors is slightly overweight and has endurance problems. This doesn't stop all three of them from teaching. Our head sensei has been out on the mat, demonstrating techniques even with the boot. He can't pop into techniques, but he can still show the kuzushi, tsukuri, and kake of pretty much every throw. So don't rule out any physical handicap for teaching ability.
    How, exactly, was his judo substandard? Were his techniques not practical for competition, or was it just...not quite all there?
    Ooh, there's the other thing. Does his school go to competitions?
     
  3. blackbelt_judoj

    blackbelt_judoj New Member

    I hear what you are saying about the physical ability so I stand down on that point.

    When I said that his judo ability was sub-standard i mean that when you saw what he was doing, it was like watching a novice that has been training for a couple of months, ie you could stand back and recognise what the throw was supposed to be, BUT (and it's a big but) it was by no means anything that should be demonstrated for a class.

    Take for example his harai goshi. He was entering without breaking his partners balance. He entered too far so that his reaping leg just danced around doing nothing. He was so far off balance that he was relying on Uki to support him... the list goes on...
     

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