About a week ago (a day after my
b-day) I made my return to San Jose (for the 4th time in a 2 year period)
although I had my dull moments this time around,there was one
thing that stood out that made my trip back to Nor Cal pretty awesome. It has
been over 3 years since I’ve done any Judo and for one time only I made my
return to train with my all-time favorite judo player Chuck Jefferson.
Not only was this a big honor but the experience caused me to stop and think about the great potential of how Judo
can be a popular and marketable sport here in the United States. Before you jump the gun let me explain what I am taking about.
In contrast with overseas countries like
Japan, Russia, and Italy Judo in the United States is not that huge when in fact
(from what my sensei told me) it is the second most practiced sport in the world
next to soccer. Being that the U.S is all about coming up and promoting yourself to gain any following or support it is crucial to endorse yourself in an attractive manner to generate an audience.
Most Judo dojos now adays are ran in the old school style which consist of an old school teaching system and overall a "love it or leave it" type of environment.The problem with this is since old heads prefer to keep everything the way it is, it leaves no room for growth in terms of spreading the great art of Judo and bringing in more hopefuls to experience it.
(and this is just from an academy standpoint)
In addition unlike BJJ and the "powers to be" running the ship that
literally rapes the athletes out of high priced academy fees, tournament fees,
no health care coverage to assist their athletes, amongst other thing. Judo is fairly cheap to train and compete
in and covers for one year medical insurance (for just 50 bucks)... What I’m
trying to say is these traits alone give Judo a distinct advantage over it
grappling counterpart.
It terms of my visit to Chuck
Jefferson's Judo it was an awesome. When I walked in and saw the layout of the facility I
had to ask myself for a second...is this the right place? (Mainly because it didn’t
look like your typical judo dojo). It was kind of a dream of how i envisioned a Judo school should look like (look at pictures).Aside from the great instructions, the
atmosphere had the same Judo customs and courtesies only with a fun energetic
atmosphere from a great head coach and four body assistant instructor staff. Nothing more to say but Mr. Jefferson is definitely ahead of the judo game.
Hopefully other judokas are able to catch on to the formula
Chuck is already doing. It would be great to see hardworking people like Taylor
Takata, Nick Delpopolo, amongst other accomplished stars
follow this same format and see these people be rewarded for
all their hard work they have achieved over the years but also help with the
growth in the sport of Judo.
