Friday 6 February 2009

A Recipe for Sucess?

Today I am being metaphorical with a coaching is like.........blog.

Last night I read a post by Anne Marie De Mars on her blog (http://drannmaria.blogspot.com/ ) where she talked about Outliners and the little touches of creative genius in their judo which is based on lots of hard work.

It stirred an idea in my head, and as I was watching Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares I saw an analogy with Judo. A performance Judo player is a chef and his style a unique recipe, taking a selection of quality ingredients and blending them and present them in a unique style.

Some things go together sage and onion, some you wouldn’t expect – like Snail Porridge. You can turn average ingredients into a good dish but for a great dish you need quality ingredients. You need to have flavours and textures that work well together.

In Judo the ingredients are the techniques use by a player, the way a player fights and puts then together are the cooking technique a chef is taught. Some chefs like coaches try and add to many flavours and techniques which complicate the dish. So how many ingredients should you have to make your dish?

In the BJA as part of the LPTD they look at having six scoring techniques, in at least 3 directions as they progress but if you look at the greats how many techniques did they have?

Dave Starbrook – a huge tai-otoshi
Neil Adams – tai-otoshi and ju-jigatame
Koga – hi unique versions and range of Koshi Waza and his on handed Morote- soenage

They have others they score with however these were there signature dishes. Their preferred recipes for success.

A friend once said to me watching masters was very strange you get two people who have done judo for years, they may only have one scoring technique but they have been doing it for 20 years or more, if it wasn’t good when they started it is now. Master is about who walks into the opponents technique first.

As coaches we have to get our your chefs to taste all the ingredients and learn the different cooking techniques, we then have to let them experiment with flavour combinations and different cooking styles. Then when they have found a dish they like, we help them improve it be that sourcing a better quality of ingredients ( developing technique) enhancing the cooking process ( how it is used) and sometimes add a little twist, seasoning or spice.
Dr De Mar said in her post” Those outliers are enormous variances from the mean,” they are not the people who follow the recipes in the normal book they are the people who take the recipe and start to develop it making it something special.

There are those chefs who just craft the best ingredients, there are those who understand cooking techniques and just take ingredients and make then into a unique dish. Then there are those who cook through the science of flavours and exploring different ways of delivering them – like the chef Heston Blumenthal who does Bacon and Egg flavour ice cream. ( see it on U Tube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6CLoRuvGcY ) Notice how precise he is and his comments about other chefs who saw you doing this. He also talks about overturning expectations.

If you extend the comparison as coaches are you creating a chef who can cook one or two dishes well and they win awards or a chef who has the knowledge to build their own dishes from a range of ingredients because they understand the techniques in making lots of dishes.

As a coach how big is your recipe book? Judo use to be a groups of identifiable styles – like Russian or classic Japanese, now we are entering the new gastronomic world of Fusion......and that is another blog.

Games or Drills Pt 2

Let me start this post with an apology – as I was working late yesterdays post was posted just after midnight so you get two posts today.

However following an email exchange with Lance Wicks (
www.planetjudo.com) I have decided to do two or three Blogs a week and then do smaller intermittent posts in between. I hope to post every Sunday, Tuesday and Friday.

Following on from yesterdays post about games, at present the most popular title on Judo Games is 1001 Judo games – Fighting Films has a DVD of the same name which I have bought and will review next week. A quick note on my reviews, everything I review I will have bought and paid for so I will review it as I see it. This title always frustrates me, it should read - 20 or so game ideas with lots of variations !

Taking yesterdays point that games can become or include drills but they are games first and for most. I want to look at a GAME and develop it for use in Judo. Some of these ideas are original, some are developments of things I have seen and others are as seen but then I have added a proper Judo frame work for a coach to understand them.

Before we start ask yourself the following questions?

Why am I playing a game?
What is it doing to my class dynamic?
Is it suitable or appropriate to this class, by age, skill and available space?

To many coaches throw games in without considering the above, they should be as planned as technical progressions.

The game I want to look at today is Tig or Tag as it is sometimes called. In its basic form on person is IT or ON they have to touch or tig/tag another player who is then on. The other players have to avoid being tagged, they can run around within a defined area.

The fun comes in the participant introducing risk – how close can they get without being tagged. The older the players the more risk they can take. The game helps to develop fundamental skills of speed, agility and reactions.

GAMES in general also allow the participant to develop tactics and strategies to win and to play within the rules but not always as the organiser intended.

With Tic/Tag if you wish you can then level the playing field if one player excels by adding extra conditions. This could be players moving one their knees or restricting where you can tag an opponent.

A variation is where the intention is to catch every body, so when tagged a play leave the play area or is eliminated. Here players are strategic and not so risk taking.

So we have two variations on one game. How could we introduce key skills?

Ideas could include

· When avoiding being tagged perhaps they do a forward roll or break fall.
· To avoid being tagged perform an sports specific action
· When they are tagged they stand still and they have to be freed by another play.

This last variation is often called Stick in the Mud or Stuck in the Mud, the caught player stands with the legs open and to be freed a player crawls through the legs – how this is done is up to the coach – on the belly or on all fours.

The game in essence doesn’t change you are just adding conditions and rules – often these are safety specific – for instance you always crawl from front to back – to avoid to people clashing head if the both try at the same time form opposite directions. Or for ukemi – stop look roll – some rules however can remove some of the key initial benefits of the cam e.g. speed but it is replaced with a practice of Ukemi.

If I said you had to free them by doing 5 uchi komi of Ippon Seo-nage I have added a small drill or training exercise but WITHIN the game. If I have to change the game too much to allow that to happen, eg. You can’t tag someone during uchi komi, I can have an adverse effect as I could end up with the catcher having no one to chase as they do the drill then losing the fun element and it stops being an effective game.

The problem is coaches look at the game not the reason for doing the game, if I give more uchi komi to higher grades free someone eg. A white belts does 1 uchi komi to free anyone, but brown belts have to do 10. I am balancing out skill levels and making it easier to catch the higher grades, this helps me give the lower grades a feeling of importance and now I have introduced a skill into the game it allow people of different levels to compete collectively on an even keel. This also helps aid group dynamics and retention in participation based classes.

So to recap yesterdays point all the variations of Tic/Tag work as JUDO games in a club because they meet the criteria I have set out.....


1. A game has an objective
2. Has a time scale or restrictive conditions
3. A Challenge or task
4. Defined rules
5. IS FUN
6. If repeated immediately may have a different outcome
7. Age appropriate

So when you look at a book saying 101 games see how many variations you can find of core games. In a way games are like judo throws there are 100’s of variations but the basic throw is the same just developed and applied to different situations.

This is a subject I will come back to.

Have a great day

Marc

Game or Drill pt 1

It’s been a hectic day with a trip to London for a judo match with one of the schools I teach at. It was a good match with lots of well fought fights.

Then evening training which was an experience, as my ribs are still painful I ended up doing a light warm up and a bit of shadow Uchi-komi. However it gave me the chance to watch a couple of the boys I train. Not having to worry about teaching allowed me to focus solely on them and their Judo which has left me with lots of ideas to follow up.

Strange that as I was not teaching or trying to train I had a different mindset which meant I was more constructive as a coach – though I had more time I probably said less by focusing on only one or two key points all night.

I received a set of books today for my college course – mainly focusing on speed, agility and quickness drills, strength and explosive power drills and exercises. I will do a critical review of these once I have read them , but in skim reading I saw a number of these drills that have been passed of as Judo games in books and DVD’s.

So today’s question for comment and discussion is when is a game, a game and when is it a drill a game?

Now before I start let me give you some of my background. For over 20 years I earned my living as a professional children’s entertainer and magician. I training people to run birthday parties at McDonald’s throughout the UK. I devised party programmes, games and activities for companies for use in TV Shows, Stage shows and private parties. I have designed and run schools workshops on everything from Hamlet to Circus Skills

I also specialise in Teaching Judo to under 18’s both as a participation coach and a performance style coach. .....so I understand the Modern Child.

I have been to a number of workshops saying they are about Judo Games, there are a number of DVD’s on Judo Games but they are essentially drills and exercises to teach specific skills. Now these are needed and when used well, appropriate - BUT THEY ARE NOT GAMES!

Several DVD’s show adults in workshops loving an exercise but these are workshop games they are not effective regularly – nor are they the sort of things kids request.

Bulldog, Murder Ball, Tag/Tic they are games, things that a child may request to play. So what is a game and how can they be used by a coach?

I use a simple approach to defining a game. They have three conditions

1. A Goal
2. Rules
3. Challenge or task – be this mental physical etc.

Lieberman 2007 defined it as it up as follows:


A rule-based activity involving challenge to reach a goal

In my opinion a Judo Game must meet the following conditions to be practical in a range of classes

1. A game has an objective
2. Has a time scale or restrictive conditions
3. A Challenge or task
4. Defined rules
5. IS FUN
6. If repeated immediately may have a different outcome
7. Age appropriate

Tomorrow I will give you an example or two of games I use and how I adapt them to suit my classes then I will copare then to skill drills


Marc

Tuesday 3 February 2009

Drugs in Sport

I sit at this computer after a hectic day......more snow.....a frantic drive following a hard teaching session at Winchester College....and a badly swollen aching rib....that is the last time I try and spin out of a yoko-tomenage.

The ice packs are working and I feel a large dose of medication will be needed to aid sleep. Which bring me to today’s topic – drugs. I got an entry form to the High Wycombe Masters which stated there will be no drugs test – which is great all us old junkies who need anti-inflammatory drugs and anti rejection drugs for hip replacements can sleep well. However In a week Michael Phelps is seen smoking cannabis how good is drugs screening in sport at present?

Cannabis isn’t a banned drug ...just illegal....as it isn’t performance enhancing ...... more damage has been done to the Phelps brand than to swimming. However it does make a mockery of anti doping.
WADA – the Word Anti Doping Association have a system where all funded athletes have to register where they are for one hour a day should they be chosen for testing, this could be training , at home or any place of their choice. Even though they have to register this weeks in advance they can change location and notify WADA by e-mail, text or phone up to an hour before the hour starts.
Yet this causes a major problem for the Football Premiership as UEFA has just signed up to the WADA rules but many footballs stars think this is an invasion of their privacy, is it?

I agree with Anti doping – all sports should be a level playing field ......but when an athlete can get a 2 year ban because they have missed 3 tests- not failed , not used drugs – just had the misfortune to not be in the place they said, 3 times in 2 years, and it s a 2 ban. Several athletes have served been band and then they gone on to win world championships or even Olympic Gold.
So isn’t there a double standard in a system where an Olympic Champion can take illegal drugs, be photo graphed and blame it on youthful excess and to date suffered no sanction, and an athlete who is not where they said they would be on three occasions gets a 2 year ban!!

There are cases where NGB have been informed of Steroid use in Funded athletes and ended up banning the reporting coach – but more of that another time. As a coach it is our job to inform out athletes of the laws and procedures regarding drug misuse. The problem is how do you square away the inconsistencies, no system is perfect and WADA are getting there, more sports are signing up to its codes and practices.

Part of the problem is NGB’s don’t like to see their drugs problems and cheats splashed over the papers. Perhaps naming and shaming would help clean up the sports and show the majority that we weed out the minorities who give sport in general a bad name.

So Should Phelps be reprimanded and if so how........... He wins Olympic medals , the fact he uses illegal recreational drugs......does it matter ....perhaps – perhaps not.........however when the child that sees him as a role model says it is okay to try cannabis because Michael Phelps does and he is an Olympic champion ...that is a REAL PROBLEM ...from an Olympian whose favourite quote is: “
Actions speak louder than words

Will he be fined, banned, jailed ? Who knows part of the problem is his coaches, team, university... it is better for them as long as he says sorry and can carry on swimming!

ME I am going to take some drugs for medical use ( co-codamol) and the sooth my busted rib.
See you tomorrow....

Monday 2 February 2009

Youngest Head Coach To WIn The Super Bowl

It’s a cold Tuesday morning in England with a snow dump which seems to be causing havoc! My two school classes this afternoon have been cancelled by the schools due to severe weather warnings...so I have a bit of time to write this second blog!

Last night I watched the Pittsburgh Steelers win a 6th Super Bowl! They broke many records including Mike Tomlin of the Steelers becoming, at 36, the youngest head coach ever to win the Super Bowl.

So as an elite coach he never played in the NFL, he never experienced and had to deal with the stresses he is dealing with in his players. So why is it that in judo there is an attitude that you can’t be an Elite performance coach unless have been an Elite player. This attitude can come from players, clubs and NGB’s.

I am currently reading “The Coaching Process” by Cross and Lyle, in this they say there are two different treads to coaching, the Training Process and the Coaching Process, Training being the Physiological and Psychological aspects of training, as well as the application of scientific processes. The Coaching Process is the relationships, the management and how the training process is personalised.

So is Tomlins skill in the Training Process – that is also handled by the support staff, or is it his skill in the application of the coaching process?

Lyle and Cross also divide coaching into two different type – Elite and participation coaching, the participation coach is the Sunday League Junior Coach, the Guy who runs a small Judo class once a week where it is not about being the best it is about gaining and maintaining participation in the sport. However where do we differentiate between the two types in our coach education?

Is Tomlins just an Elite Head Coach or is he a participation coach – ensuring in his early coaching experiences players wanted to play for him, helping them manage Football and College life. How do the coaches running small judo clubs or Football teams recognise and encourage the skilled player who could become an elite performer? And how do they know when to say I can teach you know more?

Part of the job of a coach is to reflect on his own performance and that of his players and acknowledge when they are wrong and when things work, and then strive to improve. Coaching is a development process for both the player the team and the coach......the problem is coaches don’t know it ....but I am sure that Mike Tomlin will wake up today with a new ring on his finger, and a place in the history books and that over the next few weeks he will review the game, and ALL his decisions trying to work out what worked and why and what didn’t work because next season it starts all over again.

I hope we can explore the differences in Performance and Participation coaching.

Sunday 1 February 2009

Welcome

Welcome to my blog...

It's about Judo and me and my love of this great sport and martial art.
As this Blog progresses you will get the a selection of thoughts, rants and ravings on everything form rules changes to coaching to the day to day graft of running a club.
So here go I am 40 and have been doing Judo for 37 years. I did my first BJA grading in 1972! I am now a 2nd Dan and a professional coach.
I teach at Winchester College, The Army Training Regiment in Winchester, a couple of local primary school and at Gosport Judo Club. As such I suffer from the affliction of many coaches, a lot of mat time teaching and not enough training and working my my own Judo.
My Judo is developing and with the help of a couple of mentors I revisiting my entire Judo style, trying a much more upright relaxed stance. I will post videos and pictures and this blog progresses.
I am self financing a FdSC Sports Performance degree at Bath University in Judo, I am currently starting my second year, and hope that this blog can also be used as a place of reflection for my own coaching and development.
So I teach Judo, I fight at Masters level and I study Judo but I have a life out of Judo and that may be touch on but only as it reflects on my Judo.
I am a regular poster on the BJA forum and I intend to expand on some of my comment there in this Blog.

So here I am and I hope that you enjoy.....

Marc