CoachingJudoCombinedFeed

Flip and throw

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 09:55:29 +0000

VIDEO NOW WORKING

This drill shows a simple “flip” over a partner in a ball, it helps children learn spacial awareness and gives them confidence but most importantly they find it fun.

When you teach this flip to children they have to be able to handstand first, they run at the person in a ball and try to handstand not roll over...

The video then shows this flip being integrated into judo with older children, they use it to break up the nage komi they are doing.

Lastly the video shows so high performance players from Camberly judo club, fist doing nage komi with the basic flip and then adapting it to more advanced gymnastic type moves.

For me the key is keeping the judo varied and interesting and by doing this type of drill you can break up the nage komi and improved spacial awareness.

Progressing games

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:30:35 +0000

The whole point of games in judo class is that they progress onto something that can be used. We don’t just do them for fun or for something to do, we do them so that eventually the players will be able to build it into something that will help them win judo fights. This might be better balance, or more confidence in throws, maybe better coordination, in can be anything.

I am using this video as a very basic example - the young class learn to hop and this is progressed onto hoping with an uchimata movement. You could add a 180 hop so it is like turning in and you can do it for any throw where a player might hop, O Soto, harai goshi etc Im sure you get the idea!!

In a controlled environment like this (hopping on discs) it is easier to spot postural changes, poor body alignment etc and correct them so that when the player does do it with a technique the basics are correct.

Cone Splat

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 21:13:32 +0000

Another very simple game. This one is designed to get younger players moving and throwing. I often find that when you ask younger players to move and throw they are either too stiff as uke (because they worry about being thrown) or they get tangled up as tori. The reason this game works is because the children are thinking about splatting as many cones as possible and nothing else!

You just give them one minute to splat as many cones is possible. In this example I have split the class (one minute on one minute off) for safety reasons. I give them one point for each cone (they count) but I deduct points for poor throws.

You can use discs (as in this case) or squashable cones, even sheets of paper.

Following on.....

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 00:05:12 +0000

I read a blog this week by Lance Wicks on Judo4parents.com and thought I would follow on with some ideas along the same theme. Before reading this you should read Lance’s post (Click here).

In order to answer this question (and hopefully arm coaches with some science based answers for parents) I will consider two areas - Genetics & sociology. I feel a basic understanding of these areas will help coaches far more than the hugely debatable areas of psychology/mental toughness and physiology in judo.

Genetics:
In the presentation “what is talent?” which was previously posted on this website genetics was split into two main areas - Genotype (anthropometry or build) and Phenotype (physical abilities).
Genotype: Most coaches will tell you genotype is not important in judo, “you can be any size or shape in judo” & of course this is true. However; it can be looked at another way - say the child is particularly small or large, is this talent? Well in GB we have a serious lack of -48 players and +100 players for the senior team, so it can be argued that just by being one of these genotypes they have more chance than, for example a 73kg player. Of course it is not talent in itself but certainly it adds to the equation.
Phenotype: Judo has a huge diversity of physical attributes and judo players have an ability to turn their physical strengths to “judo strengths” for example a player who is very powerful but lacks endurance will fight a very different fight to one who has good endurance but lacks power. There are some players who should make you stand up and take notice though, those who adapt and respond well to training stimuli, those who seem to be able to cope with the huge physical demand of judo. An example could be a female player I work with regularly, last year she was on a strength program throughout the year (and had been for a couple of years). In the eight weeks prior to the British champs she changed her strength program in order to peak - she increased her strength by 91% !! Should this ability to train this hard and the phenotype to adapt to this training be ignored?

Sociology:
Lance discusses this well. One thing I feel could be considered here is that someone who is talented in one sport is often talented in others and in my opinion they should base their choice of sports on two things - the sport they enjoy the most and the sport that has the strongest club/best coaching infrastructure in close proximity to them. Lets be brutally honest here, there are roughly 150-200 children on the England programme in the UK, the vast majority will come from only 4-5 clubs. Furthermore those that progress to senior level - nearly all will come from those clubs. Quite simply put, if you’re not located near one of those clubs your chances are much slimmer.
Lance also discusses the role of the parent, I feel this is essential because it is hard to find a club that trains enough times per week and children will often go to 2-4 clubs to train, only the parent who drives them to and from training/competition has a full overview.
The coach too is very important, he/she has to know how to source support for the athlete, when to pass them on and when to mentor rather than coach- this takes years of experience.

So lets be honest, it’s not hard - you have to have supportive parents, live in the right area, have a genetic advantage, train harder than anyone in another sport, have great fundamental movement skills and be prepared to be poor for the rest of your life!

Although this science stuff is useful for coaches, I would like to bring home some reality. I was talking to a very strong player on the GB squad a couple of months ago and he told me that when he was younger he was very good at basketball. I asked him why he chose judo over basketball - the money is better in basketball, you don’t get injured as much etc ... “so surely you just preferred judo?” I said. He laughed and said “my coaches [judo and basketball] told me I had to chose one sport, I chose basketball, I went home and told my mum and she said no way! I’ve just bought you a new judo kit!!”

A reflection of a seminar

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:20:29 +0000

I was fortunate enough today to be in a question and answer type seminar with 3 judo world champions and I thought I would reflect on it here.
The three world champions were Jane Bridge (1980), Loretta Doyle (1982 & EC 1992) and Kosei Inoue (3 x word champion, Olympic champion and 3 x all Japan champion).

The questions were quite wide and varied and I wont repeat them all here as they will soon be on www.thejudopodcast.eu but one particular question was “there were lots of children in your judo club why do you think you became world champion?”

Loretta answered that she left her club because be cause she had out grown her club and coach, Jane said that she had a very technical coach and a wealth of partners and Kosei said he loved judo and always wanted to train and still does.

So my reflective questions are:
What these three world champions said is in line with the current British Long term development model - coaches should pass on their athletes when the time come, very technical players, judo for fun etc so .... Did they become world champs because of a good grounding or was their answer sub-consciously biased by what they have read and learnt since? I don’t know but it is possible.

Secondly. Malcom Gladwell has been cited by quite a few talent identification specialist for his book “outliers” an excellent book that in some way conclude that some of the most successful people in the world are successful by chance and circumstance as opposed to just talent and hard work. Having read the book I feel you cold relate this to all three of them in my opinion but I’ll leave you to decide! Catch up with the seminar on www.thejudopodcast.eu and have a read of Malcom Gladwells book.

For more information on the European Judo Union levels 4 & 5 courses click here.

Medicine ball drill

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 21:19:50 +0000

The video is quite self explanatory, three players per crash mat and a medicine ball, we tend to use 3-5kg med balls.

You must make sure the players are experienced at using crash mats before you get them throwing medicine balls.

You would change the duration dependant upon the phase of the year you’re in with shorter, higher intensity bursts near competition.

Run and throw

Fri, 13 Feb 2009 23:05:02 +0000

This game require the coach to control what can be a hectic environment, in which running and throwing are combined.

Crash mats (the number is dictated by the number in the class) are laid out randomly across the dojo. Players are paired of and label themselves A & B.

A is tori first and B is uke first, on hajimie, tori runs from mat to mat with the aim of throwing as many people as possible, you decide if they go for 1 min or 2 mins or whatever you want. You can manipulate the energy system by manipulating the duration and recovery, this would depend on which part of the year you are in.

With younger players I specify if it is a backwards throw, as in the beginning of this clip or a forwards throw, you can see how they stand either facing or with their back to the mat (ensure they leave a gap. With older players uke can choose and swap between forward and backward throws.

I would give a rest by having A run and do the backwards throws, then B does backwards then A forwards followed by B backwards, this is because it is quite tiring.

Loud music is good for this drill.

WARN PLAYERS TO LOOK BEFORE THEY THROW AND TO GET UP OFF THE MAT QUICKLY.

Talent id versus talent detection

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 19:39:05 +0000

This is part of a presentation delivered to students at Anglia Ruskin University as part of the talent identification module.

Talent id is not well developed in judo and to my knowledge there is very little talent detection.

What is Talent

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 23:13:34 +0000

This presentation is only part of the presentation given to students but encompasses enough information to understand the construct of talent.

Rapid Weight loss in judo

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 12:19:57 +0000

This work was written as an undergrad piece of work and may not be written that well but all the info is there.

Introduction: Despite frequent medical advice as to the harmful affects rapid weight loss is prevalent in any sport that requires the athlete to weigh in prior to competing. In some sports the athlete must weigh in as light as possible, such as jockeys and coxes. Other sports, such as, boxing, wrestling, weightlifting and judo must conform to sports specific weight categories. Unlike other sports judo players are expected to weigh in on the morning of competition (IJF manual), which means that many of the methods employed to lose weight in the other sports are even more detrimental to performance and more dangerous to the athlete as only one to eight hours will be available to re-hydrate. A summarisation of the results gathered by Coles (1999), who reviewed methods used by judoka to lose weight prior to competition, are shown in graph 1. Coles reviewed 165 subjects and found that nearly all of the judoka cut snacks and 78% used a sweat kit; a significant number also used laxatives, diuretics or vomiting to make the weight.

The use of Performance Analysis in the club

Sat, 24 Jan 2009 12:13:10 +0000

Performance analysis in the club environment.
Poster presentation presented from a coaching conference in August 07 as part of the European Judo Union’s FDSc in Sports Performance at the University of Bath.

This poster explains how it may be possible to use performance analysis to keep players in your club as well as enhance performance.

Goal Setting Exercise

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 10:58:22 +0000

In a previous post we considered goal setting from an academic perspective and in this one will will consider how coaches can apply goal setting with their players.

Firstly I would like you to consider the controllable factors of judo performance - some ideas are laid out below but this is just ideas and there are loads more.

Secondly I would like you to consider the uncontrollable factors of sports performance - again there is a list below but this is smaller than you should be able to get.

Whilst writing you uncrontrollable list you will find that some factors are ‘semi-controllable’ just astrex these.

Controllable factors: Uncontrollable factors:
Amount you train Winning & Losing
Intensity you train Referees *
Hydration The draw
Diet How far away the event is
Arrival time Injury/Illness
Your weight
Your tactics
Your technical repertoire
Correct kit
Rest/Sleep

Like I say these are just some of the controllable and uncontrollable factors to get you started.

The aim of any coach/player is to control as many of the controllable factors as possible and make as many of the uncontrollable ones controllable as possible.

Now lets look at some goal setting basics -
Goal Should be SMART -
Specific – they have to be relevant to athletics

Measurable – you have to know when you have achieved them, how will you know?

Action orientated – your goals should make you want to do them, they should be interesting even if only to you.

Realistic – There is nothing wrong with having a lifetime goal of going to an Olympics or playing for Maverick but you’re not going to do it in one year!

Time constrained – it is pointless making a goal and not putting a deadline on it, anyone can set a goal of “one day I want …..”

Stages of Learning

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:48:05 +0000

This is a small part of a presentation on learning and covers the stages of learning a motor skill.

Models of reflection

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 01:06:03 +0000

Various researchers have proposed models of reflection that help guide practitioners through reflective practice. Most of these models were constructed for professions where reflective practice is common such as teacher, medicine and nursing but the models can be adapted for coaching.

Challenges in Reflection

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 00:57:03 +0000

This presentation explores some of the challenges coaches face when trying to employ reflective practice. There are various examples such as the voluntary nature of coaching, the time constraints on coaches and a lack of education.

Stages of LTAD

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 00:33:35 +0000

This presentation covers the stages of LTAD, these are the generic stages and the terms differ slightly to those used by British Judo.
These stages allow coaches to structure their lesson towards what is right for the player and the players developmental stage.

Feedback

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:24:02 +0000

This presentation considers one of the central components of the coaching process, feedback. it considers the types of feedback & how feedback should be delivered.

Coaching styles

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:21:52 +0000

This presentation is on styles of coaching or leadership. Several videos have been removed because of the pdf format including footage of England rugby, the Chinese state circus and the world judo championships 2007.

The adolescent growth spurt

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 14:49:13 +0000

This presentation looks at the adolescent growth spurt, the timings and sequence of the growth spurt and the windows of trainability.

For the pdf version Click here

Physiology & development u12 years

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 14:46:15 +0000

This presentation considers the development of children (predominantly under the age of 10-12 years) and the justification of the delivery of fundamentals to this age group.

For the pdf version Click here

Learning and the learner

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 14:43:03 +0000

Have you ever tried to teach a judo technique and wondered why certain players can’t get it? Wondered why when you get players to try what you have just demonstrated some want to sit and watch the others do it a couple of times?This presentation looks at the theories behind learning, learning styles etc

LTAD: an overview, it’s origins and principles

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 21:02:55 +0000

This presentation gives an overview to LTAD, its origins, principles and possible other modules.

Please remember that these presentations are designed for the classroom and not this form of delivery.

LTAD 2: Fundamentals

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 17:59:06 +0000

This presentation explains what children are supposed to learn in the fundamentals stage of LTAD. Many of these are alien to judo coaches, such as catching and passing but with a little imagination everything (with the exception of Buoyancy) can be include in warm up and cool downs, games can be adjusted so they include some of these whilst coaching judo. See the games and drills page!

Year planning and judo

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:53:16 +0000

This is a brief overview of yea planning and periodisation for judo. It is aimed at young coaches and A level students.

What is periodization?

First described by Selye in 1956, periodization is the correct manipulation of training times and structure to allow the athlete to peak both mentally and physically for a specific event or events based on general adaptation (Baechle & Earle, 2000; Bompa, 1999).
The training year is split into three phases (mesocycles): transitional phase, preparation phase, and competition phase. The preparation phase is subdivided into general preparation and specific preparation phases whilst the competition phase is subdivided into the pre-competition and competition phases. These four subdivisions are termed macrocycles and vary in length depending on the training phase, goals, and the competition schedule.
The smallest building block in the yearlong training programme is the individual lesson - planned so the athlete can do the maximum amount of work with optimal recovery. Individual lessons are grouped together into microcycles of 1-2 weeks and should vary to accommodate the athlete’s administration needs (Bompa, 1999; Baechle & Earle, 2000; Dick, 2002; Hoffman, 2002).
For this athlete microcycles of 2 weeks were chosen to fit around her shift work and allow enough sessions/volume in each microcycle. An example of a microcycle for the athlete is at appendix 1. Table 1 shows the process of periodization throughout a year. Kraemer, Häkkinen, Triplett-Mcbride, Fry, Koziris, Ratemess, Bauer, Volek, Mcconnell, Newton, Gordon, Cummings, Hauth, Pullo, Lynch, Mazzetti, and Knuttgen (2003), demonstrated that periodization of resistance training over 9 months was superior to non-periodization for enhancing strength and motor performance in collegiate women tennis players.
In order to ensure the correct physiological and technical adaptations, the training programme must be based on a comprehensive event analysis from both a physiological and technical perspective with clear aims and objectives.

Of course a periodised year plan is based upon what competitions the athletes should be competing in. Some competition should be used as a tool for learning and applying techniques in a contest situation. Other competitions are about winning, these competitions are the ones that are relevant to squad selection or qualification. Coaches and athletes cannot decide when the competitions are and the important competition ie those for selection and qualification will be those assigned to the athlete, therefore coaches should plan backwards from the important event down to the events where learning is taking place; this is where to start when creating the year plan.

A more detailed year plan used by one of he authors players can be seen HERE

A pdf version of this overview can be found HERE

Talent Id in british judo

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 15:47:20 +0000

This paper was written in 2006 as part of the EJU level 4 coach award at the University of Bath.

Talent Identification in British Judo.pdf

Reference info:
Challis, D.G. (2006). Talent Identification in British Judo. www.coachingjudo.com. Last accessed........

The use of sports code

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 19:38:39 +0000

At Anglia Ruskin University we have been using a software package called sports code across a number of sports including judo. We have created coding windows for the analysis of own player during the contest, opposition during contest and match analysis ie number of attacks, counters etc.
The way sports code works is that certain elements during a contest are tagged (see the coding window below) and then these tags can be played back one at a time or “all the tags ie all attacks, all gripping situations etc. DVDs can then be made, with slow motion edit, “drawing” , overlay etc.

Reflective Practice lesson 1- overview

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 17:32:27 +0000

A basic overview of what reflective practice is and its importance to coaches.

Feedback

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 17:10:39 +0000

This presentation revised the students on the role of feedback within the coaching process and then went on to show how & when feedback should be delivered (also from the coaching process module) before looking at how notation analysis could be used. This is a pretty big file and you may need to wait for it to download.

An Overview & history of notation analysis

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 16:45:58 +0000

This presentation is an overview of what performance analysis is, what Notation analysis is and the history of notation analysis.

Lesson 2-Reflecting on Reflection

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 21:01:51 +0000

This presentation goes some of the way to explaining what the barriers are to reflection and how they can be overcome. It is based upon a paper written by Zoe Knowles.

An event analysis of judo

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 18:25:18 +0000

This short event analysis has been written with coaches and A level students in mind. It is brief and only gives an overview but the pdf version has a fairly comprehensive reference list.

Many studies have looked at the physiological responses to a single judo contest (Cipriano, 1993; Degoutte et al, 2003; Sterkowicz & Maslej, 2000; Wolach, et al, 2003) but in reality, to become a successful judo athlete, several judo contests must be fought in succession. On a single day of competition, a judo player can expected to have 4-8 fights (Cipriano, 1993; www.ippon.org) in order to win a gold medal; there is usually a gap between each fight of approximately 20-30 minutes. In training athletes are expected to fight 10-15 fights back to back in order to master the technical skill in a combat situation within the time constraints of a lesson/session (Inman, 2004), it should be noted that the success of Japanese judo has been attributed to the number of fights being much higher and their duration longer.
Studies have shown that Olympic wrestling and judo are physiologically similar (Pulkkinen, 2001). Studies into judo and wrestling have shown a high anaerobic contribution to both sports (Nilsson, et al, 2002; Pulkkinen, 2001; Sterkowicz & Maslej, 2000), indeed Pulkkinen (2001) postulates that the ATP-CP system and the anaerobic system are the primary sources of energy during a judo contest. Time-motion analysis (Cipriano, 1993; Sterkowicz & Maslej, 2000) has shown that judo contests are characterised by maximal (100% VO2) efforts of 10-15s interspersed with recovery periods of sub-maximal efforts that include pushing, pulling and lifting movements. The anaerobic system has a tremendous ability to completely replenish stores after depletion within 2-3 minutes (Astrand & Rodahl, 1986). High lactate scores have also been observed in judo contests (Callister et al, 1991; Nilsson et al, 2002; Sikorski et al, 1987), these authors have reported Lactate scores of between 8.4mmol and 17.2mmol.
In order to decide what training should be conducted we must first establish the physical requirements of a judo contest, several authors have suggested the following, normally based upon the physiological profile of high performance athletes:

Strength
Power
Speed
Agility
Balance
Anaerobic power and endurance within a large aerobic base
Flexibility

More information on judo physiology can be found by sourcing the reference list.