Internationally there is often much confusion about the difference between á judo teacher, coach or trainer. In country A, you see some one with a
1st DAN and NGB coach certificate, entitled with the full responsibility of the learning and competition skills of students. While in country B, for the same responsibility you must study three years and have graded to 3rd DAN. In some countries there is a strict hierarchy, in France you are addressed as “Professor” when you are a judo teacher, while it is only possible to be a coach with a licence from the judo federation, without a licence a coach can’t support judoka in the competition.
There seems to be no uniformity in the role of each discipline. Mostly it seems that in judo, all the 3 disciplines are done or combined, by one person. Whilst in soccer these tasks are divided between several people.
At the top level however in the Netherlands, there has been a change in execution of these tasks by appointing a National JBN coach. They make more and more use of the knowledge of teachers on the shop floor. Furthermore each National Federation coach has the support of two trainers, one for technical training and one for condition training.
The top sport manager of the judo federation is responsible for the corporation and goals for the team which includes two physiotherapists and the union doctor.
Working in a good working team has enormous advantages for the judoka, there are four teams working like this in the Netherlands:
- Ladies senior’s Dutch selection.
- Ladies youth talent selection.
- Men’s senior’s selection.
- Men’s youth talent selection.
Furthermore by this approach the Minister of sport, who is advised by the National Olympic Committee and the National sport Federation, gives financial support to the top athletes that come up to the expectations of the criteria stated.
The Dutch judo Federation has also appointed a national coach for the visually impaired judo team which has six central trainings each year.
The Dutch judo Federation has appoint a national coach in 2009 for the top special needs judoka in the Netherlands. His goal shall be to form a national selection which will be active in the European competition of the IBSA
It is not only this approach of coaching top judoka, but all the policies together and the sheer breadth of the sport department of the Dutch judo Federation, which makes our country so successful in judo. That is 40,000 judoka including 2400 special needs judoka, in such a small country, a country that was only allowed to send 9 judoka to the Olympic Games in Beijing. Actually it is technically 10 judoka, because one of our visual impaired judoka is going to participate in the Paralympics.
In the annual members congress speech from the chair of the European Judo Union, he de-clared that he was very proud of the results in the World Championships , 80% of the winners came from Europe.
I only add to his words that we should be proud of the development in Europe related to the special needs judo too.
In Shanghai at the World Summer Games the number of participants was 150 special needs judoka. Approximately 130 special needs judoka were sent from the European judo organiza-tions.
In San Paulo (Brazil) 130 visual impaired participants competed in the IBSA world Cham-pionships. Approximately 100 visually impaired judoka were sent from the European judo or-ganizations who have been involved with special needs judo for decades.
Ben van der Eng
Chair of the Special Needs Judo Foundation
Chair of the National JBN special needs committee
