West Coast on You Tube

Saturday we had an easier practice than usual as we had some new people starting at the training center for the first time, a couple of people coming back from injury and several of our players at the Fall Classic/Ladders and Junior World Trials.

Kudos to Crystal Butts for her first place in the ladders today and good job to Yazmin on her third place. Three ippon wins and only a brown belt is not too shabby. I heard you were attacking a whole lot more than at Golden State and I was very happy. It is okay to make mistakes as long as you learn from them. The people who make me shake my head are the ones that make the same mistakes over and over.

Given that practice was fairly light, it was an opportunity for Tony and I to pay more attention to our younger and lower ranked players. One thing we did was give a video camera to Dan (a.k.a. Eileen's dad) and to Allen Wrench (a.k.a. World's Most F***ing AWESOME masters player) and have them take random clips of 30 seconds to one minute during drill training and randori.

Here is a clip from the first warm-up drill.

A few comments ---

Harmik - your throws look good. Keep doing it like you're doing it.
Jonathan - most of yours are good but your technique needs improvement. Sometimes you lean backward on that harai goshi, which is a very bad habit. You WILL get countered. Focus on going forward every time. It's okay if you feel off balance, your partner will cushion your fall when you land on top of him. Make sure you find time to work with Tony on that harai over the next few weeks - every chance you get.
Megan - D*mn! I didn't know you had a drop seoi nage. The only thing I ever see you do in tournaments is uchimata. Nice seoi.
Erik - Throw harder! I know that you and Julia are the youngest ones in the place, but she isn't a baby. You can throw her harder than that. I know it doesn't bother her to slam you when she gets a chance.
Kamal and Sammy - Okay, I know one of you is new and the other just came off a serious injury but I have two words for you. Harder. Faster.
Rachel C. - Nice technique, but you can do it harder. Your throws are pretty but we want them to be effective, too. I know you are relatively new but just so you know, everyone here is tough, you don't have to go easy on anyone.
Eileen - One word. Harder. Be sweet when you go home.

Whatever You're Doing, Stop It: The meaning of life explained through judo

"Whatever you're doing,quit doing it, because it isn't working."
My friend, Steve Scott, a former junior development chair for U.S. Judo, quoted to me this opening sentence in an article written years ago by a top weightlifting coach. His point was that the sport was not growing in any sense, the athletes were not winning Olympic medals, the number of participants was going down - sound familiar? The logical thing, he argued, was for people to stop doing what they are doing and do something else.

I have been thinking about what we have been doing in judo and what we could do instead.

1. Accepting that there are three national organizations, we must work with one of them, the National Governing Body is trying to exterminate the other two, the three fight all the time and there is nothing anyone can do about it.


2. At the national level, and sometimes even at the local or regional level, accepting the necessity of working with people we believe are unethical and plain don't like.


3. Having a group of juniors who attend every possible tournament to have points for the junior world team, at enormous cost to their parents, almost none of whom ever win anything internationally as seniors,


4. Having coach certification programs that seldom provide much education on how to be a coach, but are required to be allowed to coach in tournaments.

I could go on but these are enough for now. In the past two days, I have had two great experiences that make me happy I teach judo, and both of those were a complete contradiction to all four points above. I attended practice at the West Coast Judo Training Center, and even with several of our players at the Fall Classic/ Junior World Trials and one out injured, we still had two dozen players on the mat. Starting at 10 a.m., Tony ran everyone hard (literally) and at the end of practice, he added 10 extra minutes of strength exercises after practice was over. Mind you, they have already done four and a half hours of training during the day at this point.

In an excellent strategy for pushing players of different ages and levels, he had the youngest players lay on the back of the older ones, who did 15 push-ups, then ALL of the players did another 30 push-ups. He did three sets of this along with squats and other drills. Since we had several new people joining us, we did not do the usual hour of randori and half an hour of matwork at the end. We only did a half hour of matwork and forty minutes of randori, then 20 minutes of working on throws.

With several new people coming in and a couple coming back for the first time after being out for injury, Tony and I agreed that we should run practice a little lighter than usual (although I know from the comments of those folks it didn't feel light to them). Here is what is great about the training center. Those people who were just dead tired and could not go another round of randori went over to the edge of the mat and did sit-ups. If someone was hurt and couldn't do throws, they did grip-fighting. A few people were bumped, bruised or strained a little, got off the mat and iced down, and then got back on again. These players are a joy to coach because every one of them puts out more effort than two average people.

A while ago, I posted about what coaches' kids have as an advantage and I mentioned the luxury of time. These players receive time in two ways. First, they get the hours on and off the mat of extra conditioning, instruction. Second, we are not in a big rush to send them to every possible tournament. None of our kids won a triple crown this year because none of them went to all three junior nationals. We don't encourage it. We tell the parents to save their money and efforts for when their child is older. Parents burn out, too, as my fellow WCTC coach Gary Butts, says. If you have spent thousands of dollars and all of your vacation time on judo from the time your child was 10 to 14 years of age, you may be getting pretty tired of it, not to mention running out of money.

While the USJA and USJF gave money to start the training center (and we appreciate it), nothing at practice today or any day was in any way due to being involved with any national organization. Frank Sanchez donates the space, parents pay a fee that covers special events such as the weekend in San Diego in October, coaches donate their time, very kind donors have covered the cost of new crash pads and a videocamera to use for analyzing players mistakes. Allen Wrench taped 30 second samples during randori today, which Gary, Tony, Ronda and I will review. The NGB has no connection at all. It is possible to do terrific things and only work with people you really like and respect. Interesting thought.

We are selecting our teams for the All-Women's Tournament, planning the weekend in San Diego in October and trying to decide what additional tournaments we want to target over the next year. Any funding we get for these events will come from three sources; donations from people like yourselves, the local organizations and the players themselves. (And yes, Dennis is looking into that PayPal link.)


The second experience this weekend that renewed my faith in judo was the West Coast coaches conference. I was really sad I could not be in two places at one time because, if I could, I would have gone to the second day of this conference AND practice at the training center.

The organizers, Professor Hayward Nishioka, Professor Mitchell Palacio and Nanka Development chair Ryan Fukuhara put together a stellar program. Mitchell and Hayward are not professors like all those jiu-jitsu people who give themselves the title. They are in fact actual college professors with tenure at City College of San Francisco and Los Angeles City College, and also, incidentally, former world team members, national judo champions back in the days when it was a whole lot harder to win the national championships. They asked me to talk about theories of Developmental Psychology applied to judo. This kind of made sense because as judo coaches we teach people of all ages AND a Developmental Psych course is required for teacher certification for elementary or high school teachers. Thirty people attended the course. Thirty people who could have gotten certified as a coach in a two-hour workshop by USJI decided instead to spend two and a half days on a college campus because they wanted to LEARN HOW TO BE GOOD JUDO TEACHERS rather than just get a certificate. Isn't that something to raise your faith in humanity in general and judo coaches in particular?

Funding was provided by the local yudanshakai, the state governing body (California Judo, Inc.) and donations.

What have I learned this week? Well, a primary lesson came from this web page on the meaning of life. The question asked was how it happens that you might be a person sincerely trying to do your best to improve the world and are frustrated by the fact that a significant proportion of the world seems to be insane. For example, if you have a training camp with outstanding players and coaches, very close to home for many people, at a low cost and they don't come, you might (if you were me), find yourself thinking - What the hell?

According to this author, people have different world views. For example, some believe artistic and aesthetic value are important. I never really thought about it, but those people who say they want to win by a beautiful ippon or not at all are different from me like people who made all the artwork in the Getty Museum did that instead of programming computers. I don't think artists are crazy, I just don't want to be one. Material wealth, security and power are important to some people. I can't blame anyone for not wanting to be poor, worried and powerless. However, two of the world views fit me to a T. One is "honor,valor and courage". Do I think that is more important than relationships? Yes, I do.

B.F. Skinner, a famous psychologist whose theories shaped a lot of the world around us, whether the average person knows it or not, wrote a book that used to be required reading in many universities, called, "Beyond Freedom and Dignity".

Despite what my professors said, no matter how many journal editors, principals and colleagues told me that was the accepted theory, I still believe what I told one of them as a 16-year-old college freshman,

"I believe there is NOTHING beyond freedom and dignity."

Probably the phrase from history that resonates with me most is not Martin Luther King's, I have a dream, not even Sojourner Truth's, Aint I a woman, but rather, the saying, attributed to lots of different people,

"It's better to die on one's feet than to live on one's knees."

Lots of people don't agree with me, I realized. They believe, like the Italian in Catch-22, that it is better to live on one's knees, after all, what's the sense of dying?

My other world view would fit what the same web page calls the scientific view. If you see a relation between two things, a cause and effect, that would determine your behavior, no? Apparently not. As I started out saying, we have many people who for years have been doing the same thing over and over. It hasn't been working but they keep doing it. They keep electing people to boards who have failed miserably at worst and been mediocre at worse. They follow failed policies because "they don't have any choice".

I had a discussion with my friend, Tina about this today. She mentioned someone she knew who wanted to train in one place but USA Judo told him he "had to train in Colorado". I asked her:

"He had to? Do they have him tied down to a bed in Colorado Springs somewhere? Let me know, I'll call 911. Are there armed guards standing outside his door who will shoot him if he goes somewhere else to train? Does he have a job? Yes? Does he pay his own bills? Well, then, I bet he can move wherever he wants and get a NEW job because the one he has currently is not the only job in America and if he wants to move to Los Angeles or San Jose or Boston, guess what, I bet they have places he can rent there,too."

As my niece, Samantha says,

"Enough with the logic. What is it with you and the logic?"

What is the real meaning of life? To paraphrase Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the world is big, really big. You can't save the world, but you can help one person at a time who has the same world view as you. Like those people at the West Coast Training Center today, and those other people at the coaches conference this weekend.

The world doesn't want to be saved, not by me, not by anybody.

If there are enough people in the USJA who want it to be better, who have the same world view as people like me and Jim Pedro, then maybe I will be working with people four years from now within one of the national organizations. If not, maybe I will be spending my weekends at the West Coast Training Center, hanging out with good people like Jack Wada (Congrats on being the new head instructor at Gardena!), Jake Flores and Hayward Nishioka. Either way, it is my choice. There is a choice, and each of us gets to make it.

Maybe that's the meaning of life? It certainly beats having other people dictate your choices for you. That's MY world view. Freedom. Dignity.

Julia's Blog Contribution: How Gymnastics Helps Your Judo

Julia wanted to do this episode of Sneakerdoodle Zebra Judo by herself because she says I am boring.

========== Judo Tip ====================
When teaching (or learning) judo, try to put the pieces together that fit. If a student is doing harai goshi well, which is a forward throw where her leg is on the outside of her opponent's legs (as opposed to uchimata, which is on the inside), a logical next step would be o soto gari - these two go together naturally. When the person pulls backward to block the harai goshi, you would react by following her backward, hooking your leg on the outside.

Too often, I see people teaching who don't seem to have a plan. They teach harai goshi for a week and then teach a foot sweep or o uchi gari. Think about your judo. What do you do well? What follows naturally from that?

Think this is obvious? Apparently not at all. For example, if a person does tani otoshi, he lands on his side, at the side of the other person. For a side four corner hold down (yoko shiho gatame), all you really need to do is flatten out on your stomach. To make the hold tighter, move your top arm under the person's head and hold tightly, so he can't bridge. Do people do this? Generally, no. They throw with tani otoshi, then LET GO, adjust their position and pin with kesa gatame, of course giving the person ample time to escape. Every time I see this, which is at least once every tournament short of international competition, I say to myself, "What the hell?????"

The reason people do such an illogical thing is they aren't used to thinking of judo, from gripping to kuzushi to throws to pins to armbars - as one connected whole rather than a bunch of separate techniques.

Shameless begging plug - send money to the USJA DEVELOPMENT FUND
Here is a list of what I want to give money to:

1. Reimburse some WONDERFUL coaches who paid for ten kids' camp fees this summer.
   They wanted the kids to go and our fund was low, so they paid for it and asked if they could get reimbursed when we had funds.


2. Send $60 to the person who ran the last Fight Like a Girl camp so they break even (they were $63 in the hole).


3. Send a USJA/USJF West Coast Training Center team to the All-Women's Tournament in Michigan in November


4. Pay for six young (under 25) USJA members to get coach certification - no I don't have anyone in particular picked out but unless we encourage young people to grow this sport it is going to die out.


5. Send a USJA/USJF West Coast Training Center team to the Continental Crown in November


6. Offset the hotel costs and entry fees for some of the foreign competitors coming to the USJA Winter Nationals


7. Underwrite the expenses of the Great American Workout in Rhode Island, so we can keep the cost low enough to have 100 people again next year


8. Bring Israel Hernandez to the west coast to give a series of clinics.

We are short on funds because we have funded events in Mississippi, Louisiana, Michigan, California, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Texas and California (please let me know if I forgot anyone).

THANK YOU FOR THE DONATION FOR THE NEW CRASH PAD AT THE WEST COAST TRAINING CENTER AND FOR THE VIDEO CAMERA.

You can mail donations:
USJA 21 North Union Blvd., Colorado Springs, CO USA 80909
Call the USJA 877- 411- 3409 and give a credit card number.

Also, you can, if you want to donate funds for a specific purpose, e.g., to support judo in Kansas (and why not? what's wrong with Kansas?).Please email me, drannmaria@fractaldomains.com if you have any questions.

Observations on China: The same, the good, the bad and the simply different

China was different than I had expected, a paradoxical statement since I really was not sure what to expect. From some accounts, I had expected to see depressed, oppressed people living in squalor. I saw some of what appeared to be that, but no more than in Los Angeles. We have skid row, crack addicts and gangbangers, so although it is always a beautiful sunny day in paradise, it isn't heaven in the City of Angels, either.

Of course, there have been lots of reports in the press about how the city was "cleaned up" for the Olympics. If that meant new parks, new construction, new gardens, then that is not a bad thing. There were certainly signs that all is not as shiny and nice as portrayed. I am a nosy person, as anyone can tell you, and although I don't speak a word of Chinese, I have visited a lot of countries and I always make it a habit to walk around the neighborhoods and off the beaten path. When I looked behind the huge canvas BEIJING 2008 banners stretched everywhere, I invariably saw vacant lots that we would call eyesores back home. So, yeah, Beijing was a lot like L.A. or any other city with millions of people.

The traffic was about as bad as Los Angeles on an average day, that is to say, better than Tokyo, New York City or San Francisco and worse than just about every other place on earth. Several people told me that cars were only allowed on the road on certain days. If this was half the cars, I can't imagine what traffic is like under "normal" circumstances.

Some reports said the Chinese were the friendliest people they had ever met. Others said it was mostly phony and the government had instructed them in everything from hygiene to proper smiling. To me, they seemed like people everywhere, if you were nice to them, they were nice to you. I didn't try being a jerk to people as an experiment to see what would happen.

Everything in China is a lot more labor intensive. For example, every morning there would be hordes of people out sweeping the streets with long brooms. In Santa Monica, all of those folks would be replaced with one guy in a big machine. I wonder what would happen if we quit giving people welfare and paid them the same amount to clean the streets. Santa Monica Beach could sure use some cleaning.

There sure are a lot of people in China, which explains the labor intensiveness. For example, if you needed someone to drive a visitor around and the visitor only spoke English, you would look for an English-speaking driver, right? In China, you are just as likely (maybe more so), to hire two people, one a driver and one who speaks English. Everything in China seemed to be like that. There were exceptions, of course. We met one very fascinating gentleman who owned a hotel, a restaurant and was a judo coach. In most cases, though, a job one person would do in the U.S would have five or seven people doing it in China.

The good
Lines were much shorter than I expected, particularly given that the Olympics were going on. When I was ready to go to the airport at 4:30 for my 8:00 a.m. flight, our Chinese hosts thought I was crazy. This is another thing I like about the people in Beijing - they don't get up early. When I came down to the lobby, the only person awake was Jim Pedro, who had just come back from jogging, and he IS crazy.

It was about an hour drive to the airport from the hotel, and I figured if it was two hours to get on an international flight in L.A., I should be there three hours early in Beijing, since it is a bigger city, during the Olympics, etc. The very polite driver and equally polite interpreter came downstairs an hour after me, shaking their heads. When the interpreter told me leaving at 6 a.m. would be plenty of time to get to the airport, I thought she misunderstood when my flight left. Even leaving an hour later than I wanted, I was through security and waiting at the gate an hour and a half before my flight took off. With two or three times as many people doing screening, baggage handling, checking passports and taking tickets. Again, I wondered what would happen at home if the people receiving disability payments were instead given some training and a job checking passports or directing people to the correct line.

The bad
None of this is to suggest that I intend to move to China any time soon. There are about a hundred ways in which the U.S. is more comfortable, beginning with the plumbing. I feel no urge to be politically correct here. Let me be frank. Those squat toilets are NASTY. They smell and there was urine on the floor everywhere that I went. (And it was there when I went in so don't go blaming me.) And who came up with having the toilet paper OUTSIDE the toilet? Is this supposed to teach you some life lesson about advance planning?

Chinese dudes, some advice - if you are so convinced that you must squat down to pee, however unfriendly it might be to people with bad knees, go to Japan and study what they do. They have those squat toilets, too, but theirs aren't gross.

Food - I already talked about the food. My niece said that Americans will deep-fry anything. Maybe she is right but I would have taken a deep-fried twinkie over that stuff any day. After a week, I was home sick for Dunkin' Doughnuts and french fries. It beats raw flatworms all to hell.

The different
I think coaching must be very different in China because I got a lot of questions about Ronda's coach, Jim Pedro, Sr., who came to Beijing. I got the impression that even when I answered their questions people were still confused.

"He let her live at his house? Why?"
"She was only 16. She couldn't live by herself."
"She cooked and cleaned for him, right?"
"Ronda? My Ronda? No, are you kidding! He cooked for her."
"Why?"
"To make sure she ate right."
"Why would he care? Is he her father?"
"No, her father died when she was little. He's her coach."
"Is he her uncle?"
"No, he's her coach."
"Why would he care about her?"
"He's her coach."
"How much money are you going to give him as a bonus since she won a medal?"
"Every time I offer to give him money he gets mad at me."
"Why does he coach her then?"
"Because he cares about her."
"Why?"

There were about 100 other questions like this. I'd be very interested to find out what coaches are like in China. From the puzzled looks I got from people, I think it must be a very different system.

===========REQUIRED JUDO TIP==================================
Winning is a habit. Don't go to tournaments over your head and especially don't spend a lot of money to do it unless you just happen to have loads of extra money lying around. (If the latter, please send some to the USJA Development Fund. We even take credit cards. Call Katrina at the USJA office at 877- 411- 3409, toll-free, even. We'll put it to good use. I swear. )

If the senior nationals happens to be in your hometown and you are a green belt, or you are 13 years old, going to the Ladder Tournament and the Fall Classic is the day before, by all means, give it a shot. The absolute worst that will happen is you'll get an extra match or two.

Spending a lot of money and taking days away from work or school to fight 45 seconds in one match is no less stupid for the number of people who do it. Gary Goltz suggested I tell someone this and he would listen to me. I have been telling people for years and they still don't listen. I will try again. Here is your plan:
Go to the local tournaments. Win.
When you are winning all of the local tournaments, go to the regional ones, like the San Jose Buddhist, Golden State Open, Ocean State, etc. You know the major tournaments in your area. Win.
If there is a major tournament in your area - USJA Winter Nationals,All Womens Tournament any regional event, junior nationals - go. Don't be stupid, it's right there.
When you are winning the regional tournaments, go to the senior nationals and similar tournaments, e.g., the Hatashita International in Ontario, Canada. Win.
When you are winning the nationals, go to the U.S. Open and Rendezvous. Win.
When you are winning everything in North America, go to Europe and Japan. Win.

Why do people skip tournaments like the Golden State Open, Northglenn Invitational and Ocean State right in their own backyard and then go to the senior nationals? Why do people who cannot place higher than third at the senior nationals spend $2,000 to fly to Paris to compete in one of the toughest tournaments in the world?

There are two possibilities:
1. People are stupid.
2. Some people are not that interested in winning. They want the experience of being in Paris.

Recognize these are two different things. If you really want to win, all I can say is that I followed the plan above and so did Ronda. We both won a lot. That doesn't mean you can't go to Paris, but I suggest you separate your competition from other motives. I wanted to go to the Bahamas, Hawaii. the Costa Rican rainforest, and on a couple of cruises. So, I did. It was all way cool. It didn't have anything to do with judo and I didn't pretend otherwise.

If you are not winning, don't spend a lot of money going to tournaments. Spend it going to camps where you can train several hours each day and get better. Unless you are already beating almost everyone in the U.S. (as in, you have medals from the senior national championships) don't spend your money going to Japan or Europe for camp (unless you just happen to want to go those places and have the money). Win here. Then, go there and win there.

How to Win and Why

Why to win

It was a nice weekend, beginning with my little one winning the Golden State Open. Today, I was throwing away trophies and came across the trophy from when Ronda won the Golden State Open in 1998, exactly ten years earlier. Somewhere else in the pandemonium in the hallway was a 2002 Golden State Open first place trophy and another from 2005. Years ago, Ronda threw away all of her second and third place trophies, but now even with just the first place awards, they have started to spill out of the closets again. Then, Julia is starting to come into her own and winning on top of that. For a while, I kept all of the international ones and all of her special awards, like Athlete of the Year from various organizations. Finally, those have started to go, too.

"Mom, did I win this one or did Ronda?"
"If we can't remember who won it, it can't be very special. Throw that in the box that goes into the dumpster."

I remember a time when I would feel so bad for my little kid (whichever one it was) that went home without a medal or a trophy. Jennifer, who told me as early as eight years old,

"I hate all sports and you will never make me like them,"

almost never came home with a medal. It wasn't that she had no athletic talent. I am sure if she'd had the interest, she could have been on the Olympic team with Ronda.

So, was I a terrible parent to make Jenn play soccer, basketball, judo and join the swim team? I kept looking for a sport she would like and never found one.

Am I a terrible parent that I routinely fill the dumpster with my other kids' medals and trophies, telling them, "This is not a warehouse."

What my kids learned from competition:

1. You don't always get what you want.


2. You can do things you thought were too difficult for you.


3. You will improve in anything that you work at.


4. Winning feels good.


5. Losing sucks. (Well, it does.)


6. If you lose, you can train harder and try again.


7. You were born into the wrong family if you are looking for someone to accept excuses for not getting what you want out of life.


8. If you really don't enjoy doing something, you can quit and find something else you like better. (Ronda quit swimming. Somehow, that did not ruin her Olympic chances. Jenn eventually quit all sports, moved out at 19, graduated from college at 21 and is living in San Francisco. Despite her irrational choice of location, she is reportedly not gay and has an alleged boyfriend to prove it. If she brings him to Thanksgiving dinner, we will acknowledge that he exists.)


9. You'll be a whole lot better off physically if you exercise. (Jenn may not compete in any sports but she does walk a lot and get a lot of exercise. Just look at her - is she beautiful or what?)


10. Win or lose, tomorrow, your family will still love you, it will be another beautiful sunny day in paradise and it will still be someone's turn to change the guinea pig cages.

How to win

Over the past two weeks, I have had the opportunity to watch the Olympics and then the Golden State Open, a tournament that ranges from five-year-olds to senior E-level divisions. It provided a good contrast for what distinguishes those who win at the international level from the average judo player.

Winning starts with technique. Yes, technique is not everything but it is one of those necessary-but-not-sufficient conditions. I have yelled at Julia about a thousand times to get her left foot back more when doing harai goshi and I will yell at her a thousand more times, I am sure. I remember when Ronda was the same age telling her over and over, "Your shoulders always go forward. When you do o soto gari or uchimata, your shoulders always go forward."
Hint: With little kids, and maybe even adults, I have always found it much preferable to emphasize what they SHOULD be doing, e.g., put your left foot back, put your shoulders forward, instead of "Don't have your left foot in front" or "Don't lean backward."



Not surprisingly, even at the senior level, the technique at the Golden State wasn't as good as the Olympics, and the further you went from the senior black belt divisions, the worse the technique. Some of the younger kids had only one or two throws they tried and those not very well.

At the training center, I use the analogy from gymnastics a lot about "sticking" a landing, where the gymnast lands smack on both feet and stops, instead of stumbling and taking two steps after the landing, or landing and almost falling over, etc. In judo, we need to "stick" our techniques.

There isn't an easy way to get good technique. You need to practice it over and over, not just throws on the crash pad but throws on the mat, throws while you are moving in every direction.

People who win aren't snobbish about how. I had good technique. It was matwork technique which made a lot of people look down their noses at me. Yet, when I would do that roll-over choke that Gary Butts calls the Rousey Roll, I whipped over, landed in a pin and choke at the same time, and then switched to an over hook for a tighter pin, and I did it in a matter of seconds. As long as the referee's hand went in my direction at the end of the match, I was cool with the fact that I didn't throw for more than a koka. Masae Ueno, who won the 70 kg gold medal, threw Hernandez of Cuba with a leg pick. The Mongolian player who beat Kenji Suzuki the first round and eventually won the gold medal threw everyone with a double-leg take down - morote gari. Hernandez, who won the 70 kg silver medal, threw most of her opponents with a double-leg or ippon seoi nage. At the Golden State, I saw players throw someone for a yuko or waza ari and then get up instead of follow through for the pin or armbar. Several of those players lost by getting thrown or pinned later in the match.

We need to train more and train harder. Crystal Butts is one of my favorite judo players for the same reason she is NOT a lot of other people's. She has an attitude. Whenever I tell her to go an extra round, or do more throws than other people she gives me "that look". She fails to realize that, having experienced three teenage daughters, one teenage niece and a ten-year-old, I am immune to any and all looks from teenage girls. The thing I like about Crystal is she will always do more. She won't do it graciously, but she will do it. I can't remember a single practice she ever missed. However, when we were doing newaza one day, it struck me - Crystal does not have a feel for matwork. I thought about this a lot and my conclusion was that her problem was that she was 14 years old. She just needs more hours on the mat. On a good day (which one never has after 50), my matwork fit the description of Anakin in the first episode of Star Wars,

"... His reflexes are so fast - like he knows things before they happen."

When I was younger people gave all sorts of Zen reasons for this, none of which I bought into. It's like that good and evil drill in the last Sneakerdoodle Zebra Judo - if you have done that drill 10,000 times when someone does an inside turn to escape from kuzure kesa gatame, you automatically hook the arm, make a wide step with your leg and switch into kami shiho gatame. When you swim, you learn to move in water. In gymnastics, you learn to move in the air. In matwork, it's the same, learning to move in another environment, when you are not on your feet, and you have another person moving at the same time. It is moving in air most of the time, even if you are only a few inches off the ground and on top of the other person. My point, and I do have one, is that you get that feel by hours and hours on the mat.

Train harder because it brings commitment. When I was in Beijing, I asked Jim Pedro, Sr. why he thought the Cubans won and he said,

"They train harder than us."

I persisted that it can't be that simple. Somewhat irritated, he answered,

"You always ask me that about people and I tell you they train harder and you don't want to accept it. That's what it is. Every one of them is a hard match because they train harder. They are in condition to take advantage of every opportunity. They spend more hours on the mat and they train harder."

(I think he may also have added something about shutting up and quitting bothering him so he could watch judo.)

He is right. (Don't tell him I said that. He already thinks he is right all the time and does not need any encouragement.) If you spend more hours on the mat, you will have more time to work on technique, you will be in better condition, you will have more time to work on tactics. If you fight HARD and get beat into the mat, when you get out there, you are going to be determined that no one is going to beat you. At the Golden State, I asked Tyrone Taketa what he thought the difference was between the Olympics and the competitors there and I was interested to see that he said exactly what I was thinking. I can't remember the exact words but it was along the lines of they were committed and expected to win.

When Ronda went against the Hungarian to get into the bronze medal match and went in to her o soto gari , she intended to make it work. She wasn't thinking, "I hope this works," or "This probably won't work". I am pretty certain that her real thought was "I'm throwing you." Period. I have seen pictures of it - it was a knee drop o soto - where both her knees were in the air and Annette's feet were both off the ground. That's commitment. Part of that commitment comes from having given up over four years of her life, training in Massachusetts, Japan, Spain, running at 6 a.m. a thousand times, having Jim yell at her until she cried to train harder, lift more, fight harder. You need to commit in practice to commit in the tournament. You need the will to win not just on August 23rd at the Fairgrounds but on Monday morning when you get up and run, and every other Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday an Sunday for years on end.

HINT: Be careful who you ask that commitment of. That is going to be part of the subject of my talk on Friday night at the coaches' conference - when to push harder, how to GRADUALLY develop an athlete appropriate to his or her age.

Judo for Kids: Questions answered and the good and evil drill

I get a LOT of questions from parents, often apologizing for taking my time and worried that they are overbearing parents. If you are worried about it, you probably aren't. It is perfectly fine to ask people about how to help your child. I do it all the time and I think most people do. Unfortunately, we don't live in communities with three generations of our families like a century ago, so now we have to ask people on the Internet.

Two really common questions are:

1. How do I get my child to be tough? Judo is a tough sport. Ronda is tough as nails and my nine-, ten- or eleven-year-old is not that tough. Should I be worried?

2. How do I help my child get better at judo.

Answer: Does your child cry easily? Is he or she too shy to talk to other children? If so, your kid is just as tough as Ronda was at 10 or 11, which is why I put her into judo.

Development is a graduated process. I say this all the time. Ronda swears I put her in with giant monster black belts when she was younger. Actually, her first tournament was a novice division, white and yellow belt girls. She won by all ippons. Her next few tournaments she also fought in the 11-12 year old novice division. Because she is left-handed and came from swimming so she was already in good shape, she won a lot in the novice divisions. When she was still a white belt she had probably won a half-dozen tournaments by all ippons, so I put her in the 13-16 open division, where she came in third place after losing to two, older purple belts, both of whom won the Junior U.S. Open in their weight divisions that year. Ronda cried in the corner for half an hour after she lost.

Success breeds success. I did NOT move her up into the open divisions until she was winning in novice. Then, I had her do both the same tournaments, so even if she lost a couple of matches, she came home with a gold medal and a bronze one. By the time she was no longer in the novice division, she was winning the open division for her age group regularly. One answer to making your child tougher is to gradually increase the challenge level as he or she meets each one.

There is a LOT more I will write about in the next few posts.

This week's Sneakerdoodle Zebra Judo features a matwork combination drill that Julia and I call the Good and Evil Drill. I stole this from Jim Pedro, Sr. who taught it at a clinic years ago. I already did this combination - well, the last three steps anyway - but the way he broke it down into steps for teaching was a great way to teach little kids and beginners. Oh, by the way, I do know that the pin at the end is kami shiho gatame, I made a mistake, yes, I feel shame, no need to write me and rub it in.

We have a couple more videos that were Julia's ideas and after that I will do a couple on drills I did not steal from anybody but made up myself. Ronda will be home by then, so maybe we will get her to do the Chokey-chokey song and drill.

Volunteering, Judo and Other Things in Life

After coming back from China, I coached at the West Coast Training Center the next day, slept 11 jet-lagged hours the day after that and still had a paper that needed to be finished by Monday for publication in the proceedings of a software conference where I will be presenting. I worked on it for 17 hours straight and submitted it on-line at 2 a.m. Tuesday, Gary Goltz, the king of all salesmen, talked me into coming out to a showing of the Tokyo Olympiad, sponsored by Nike, where we did a 45-minute judo demonstration that included a match between me and Ashton.


(Note to self: Fifty-year-old grandmothers should not be lifting young women half again their size up on their shoulders because even if they throw and armbar them, said young women pop out of bed all springtime fresh-looking and go jogging the next morning while the aforementioned grandmothers try to move while groaning, "What the hell was I thinking?" and "Ooh, my arthritis! Where's the aspirin?")

Since I had already been to two practices and a demonstration in the four days since returning from China, I decided to skip practice tonight and clean the house. Yes, I know that sounds as if I have lost my mind, but lately, I have had an epiphany of sorts. It started with a couple of comments that Ronda made in the middle of a really long post on her blog.

First, she mentioned Sayaka's remark that 100 yards away from the stadium where people were battling it out for a gold medal, people on the street didn't even know judo existed. Second, she pointed out that the day she competed was just Wednesday. It didn't stop being Wednesday because the 70 kg women fought in the Olympics that day.

Judo is great. I have been involved in it one way or another for 38 years of my life. I have fought in everything from the 12 and under white and yellow belt division to the world championships. I've coached at all levels from preschoolers through college and held positions from committee member in the local black belt association to president of the largest state governing body to vice-president of the United States Judo Association.

As far as all of the organizations, my involvement has a very simple motivation. Back in 2004 when Jimmy Pedro, Jr. was running for president of USA Judo, I told Jim Pedro, Sr.

"All I want is for judo in the U.S. not to suck. You and your son are part of that not sucking. That's why I am supporting you. It has nothing to do with liking you or not."

Actually, I like Ron Tripp, the current president of USA Judo. He's smart, he's funny and a nice guy to have a beer with. However, on all dimensions from ethics (come on, we had a child molester on the board of directors for years ) to the abysmal showing in the Olympics (as I said in my last post, if it hadn't been for Jim Pedro, Sr.'s athletes, we would have had exactly ZERO medals out of the 224 given out in the last four Olympics - 14 divisions times four medals times four years (for those of you who don't know, there are two bronze medals given out) our general performance as a sport can be summed up as "sucking".

Where do volunteers come in? First, if it wasn't for volunteers, we would have no judo at all. I try very hard - and unsuccessfully - to return every email and voicemail message that I get. Currently I have 326 messages in my in-box. I will probably set aside Sunday and get it down under 200. Often, I will get email from judo coaches, parents and athletes around the country saying,

"I can't believe you took the time to answer my question."

I try, because you ARE judo. I have been somewhat discouraged with some of the people in our judo organizations lately because, in my opinion, they are losing sight of the fact that judo will live or die based on that person who has a dojo on the corner, that parent who drives his son to practice, that coach who volunteers at the community center. Having a title, having a high rank, doesn't increase the number of judo players - offering a class at the YMCA does.

I went to the absolutely beautiful Doheny Library at USC today to get a couple of books. Doheny has NINE FLOORS of books and magazines and is one of, I think, 26 USC libraries. I am sure they have over a million books in their collection. I took two books I really wanted and decided to pick up the third one at the engineering library after I finished these. Like everyone else, I have the option of being a volunteer at judo activities, or reading any one of the million books in the library or cleaning my house.

Speaking to another very nice man yesterday, I said that if I could not trust people in his organization, I would not work with them ever again. He said,
"Oh, you don't mean that."
I said,
"Oh, but I do."

I don't think he understood it. Even my friend, Gary Goltz, seemed unclear. He said,
"AnnMaria, when you say you will never work with someone again, you sound like a loose cannon, like you are threatening people and no one likes that."

What Gary didn't quite get is that I was merely stating a fact. Like any other volunteer, I have a lot of options. I can give back to my community through volunteering at my church, my child's school, my local judo club, my state organization, Save the Whales, Save the Freckled Three-Legged Iguanas (okay, I just made that one up but you get my point).

At the showing of the Tokyo Olympiad, I ran into my old team manager and former Tenri homeboy, Dr. James Wooley. I reminded him of the time after he had retired from competition when I asked him if he was depressed he couldn't compete any more and he said something like,

"Oh God, no! I had a great run and I loved it. Two Olympic teams, Panamerican Games, everything else, but now I'm done, I have a practice, a wife, a son, I couldn't be happier."

At the time, at my great pinnacle of wisdom at 23 years old, I thought he was just putting a good face on it, that of course everyone who could not compete any longer was depressed because their life was essentially OVER.

Well, I retired from competition at 26, married, had children, got degrees, a career and was very surprised to find that my life was not in fact over but was just beginning.

I told Jim Wooley that I had not decided whether to run for the USJA Board in 2009 or not but that I had decided for sure that I was absolutely done after that. I asked his advice and he said,
"I think you are exactly right. You and Jim Pedro have done an enormous amount. Your share and more. Whenever you feel you want to hang it up and go fishing or sit in front of your computer or whatever you do, you have earned that right."

I know that I am not more important than, deserve more votes than or any way different from the rest of the volunteers in judo. I do what I do because I enjoy doing it, trust the people I work with and believe I am making a difference toward 'not sucking'. Whenever any part of that equation changes, I will quit volunteering with that group, forget all of their names, and instead probably read a book or clean my house or walk down to the ocean where the sun will be shining on another beautiful day in paradise.

And it will still be Wednesday.

So, that is why I always try to call and email everyone back and thank them for being involved in judo. Because, if you get disenchanted with us and go fishing, our organization will have one less valuable person and we will be the lesser for it, while, for you, it will still be Wednesday, regardless AND you'll have fresh fish!