It is sometime since I scorched the computer keyboard. The year has been a good one so far, for us. Amongst other things, Georgina Singleton has qualified for the Athens Olympic Games. To date Britain has four weight groups qualified and I am sure we have more to come.
Graig Fallon produced an amazing performance to win Silver at the World Championship; he certainly looks a good prospect for the future. I can remember when he was a little lad and my juniors were fighting him. Congratulations to his Coach Fitzeroy Davis of the Midlands, who has kept him going through the years. It is a great feat of endurance, and often of greater optimism to achieve this happy state.
I have now had someone in four Olympics, it is all very nice but I cannot get interested in all the bally hoo and excitement. I just want to watch my competitors fight, and then come home.
This presents a problem because all of the hotels have been block booked by various companies who want to let them out for a week or more at exorbitant prices. Together with the airfare, taxi and other things it can be a rather expensive outing.
The Gnome and Leprechaun, Junior, Youth, Senior and Veteran sections together, have reached my Trophy requirement of over 1,000 medals for 2003 so I am quite pleased with the year.
Fifteen medals in the Junior National Championships, seven of them Golds, was a bit less than last year but keeps our record of winning medals in every Nationals since its inception in 1968.
I see there were quite a lot of the resolutions passed at the A.G.M. The board of Directors strongly opposed most of them, so has someone got their wires crossed?
The grading systems seem to be getting a bashing from all and sundry. Why will they not leave well enough alone? The grading scheme has worked for many years, changing it for the sake of change means we are stuck with yet another method of depleting the membership.
I have to tell whoever is responsible, that most Contest Judoka do not want Kata pushed down their throats. I am not against Kata but let those who want to do it, get on with it. I used to practice various Kata and give demonstrations; in fact most of my training sessions are based on a sort of Kata, but not the formal ones.
One very good resolution was passed at the A.G.M. because the Junior Nationals group “A” will be back with the other sections next year, where they belong. There will be plenty of time because group “E” has been dropped!
In 2002 Leigh Davis made sure group” A” was a memorable day for the competitors and the N.H.C. Committee did the same for 2003 at High Wycombe. It was a great little event with some very happy Herberts and Squeakers going home after its conclusion clutching their medals.
The dropping of group “E” has created a strange situation; we could have a youngster win the European and World youth titles but be unable to take part in his or her own National Championships during their last year.
Why does every good idea seem to get spoiled? Three of my Judoka wanted to join team Bisham but they were told they would not be allowed to train at Pinewood, strange because the Club is only 20 minutes away. Stranger still is the fact, that most of the Bisham group is driven past Pinewood to another club each week.
I remember when I was in the Army a very loud voiced gentleman would tell you, each time you went to a new camp. “You can forget what you have been doing, we are now going to teach you to do it proper”? Sounds familiar doesn’t it; I wonder what master scheme I am missing out on now.
When the Bisham Judo section was first opened, with the fine facilities they have there, I felt it would be of great benefit to all. Building on the structure a Judoka already has at their own club and filling in the gaps. After all, not many of us can afford the equipment and have sufficient knowledge of every aspect of the sport. I think most of us coaches have a working knowledge of strength and fitness, diet and photography etc. However, each of these is a specialised subject, done properly, and it is better to consult someone who has studied them in great detail.
I would like to thank all the people who run tournaments, we tend to take them for granted but I know it is an immense task. We used to run the Pinewood Championships each year but it is now too expensive to hire Sport Centres in this area. Few have Judo mats and transporting them to the venue is not a reasonable option these days, either.
Our Club would be unlikely to get a certificate, but I would be reluctant to run them there because we have a canvas cover. The thought of coaches tramping across it in their boots and judoka paddling with bare feet in the toilets then transferring it to the mat would cause me some considerable concern.
The etiquette of wearing sore is one I drum into my Judoka from the start. I have to say that the one group, who always do observe this nicety, is the referees.
The World Start programme puzzles me because we were given a sheet with some unworkable schemes listed. I queried some of the points and was told they were only included in order to get funding?
I believe I know my fighters well but I would not bet a penny on any of my twelve year olds still being in the sport when they are 18 much less suggest they might be an Olympic prospect. We coaches must be the World’s greatest optimists but we have to be realistic. It would be a brave coach indeed who stuck his neck out that far.
2004 is another year with all its challenges, I wish you all a very prosperous one with the greatest success in whatever you attempt.
Don Werner