Local football points the way in teaching Judo
- Carlton Ruffell
- Jul 8
- 3 min read
Pedigogy matters and when your life comes through your cell phone, delivery matters too. Several sports in New Zealand have created the fantastic AND FREE resource that is the CoachMate app. I used to play soccer and I'm extremely keen on how physical education is delivered so, I downloaded the app and looked at what is on offer.
The app has sections for coaches, team managers, teachers, caregivers, supporters and players. We assume people who help with kids sport know it should be fun, inclusive and know the rules of the game. This app fills in these knowledge and more.
Do I need to go into the benefits of a planned training session vs. an ad-hoc one? It's when you've just finished work, practice is in one hour and you have no plans in your head that this coaching manual in your pocket comes into its own. Once you've identified the age and stage of your team, you get right-sized lessons broken up into essential skills. For example, most lessons for 4 to 7 year olds are 35 minutes long and 4 skills disguised as games. If you've ever taken this demographic for physical education, you know 30 minutes is about it for their concentration span. And what will they remember after the lesson? Games.
The app continuest to break learners up by age and stage but it's how it breaks up the skills that is of use to Judo instructors and how they think about lesson delivery. This is a rough break down of the skills.
Movement
When we start the martial arts we need to be taught everything! How to stand, how to walk, how to turn. The football app starts with these basics. I'd include the Conditioning lessons under this heading. If you are doing Judo as a sport then being fit is a part of it. How Judo instructors deliver condition training can be over-done or under-done. This app doesn't solve it for us but calls it out as separate to other skill aquisition.
Attack
In Judo we teach a lot of of this. We LOVE Ippons (a full point score in the game of Judo which ends the bout) so teaching kids how to score them occupies a big bit of Judo teachers brains. Again, the app breaks attacking skills down for the age and stage of the student and turns a lot of skills into games. This is what physical education should be; fun. People are also more likely to come back if they are having fun (retention).
Defence
You can't expect to attack for the entire game of anything. At some stage, the other side has the ball and you'd better know what to do. In Judo, defensive stances and responses are included in a lot of Japanese and French pedigogy at the entry level. We can learn a lot from CoachMate and Football's approach here by including this as a part of learning.
Tactics
The football app has this right up front. Football is a game. To win games you need tactics. The football app gives parent-coaches basics they can use with their under-7's team and important frameworks for the kids who want to go further. I really like the common lexicon, and it sets up a framework that New Zealand Footballers can use to understand more complex concepts.
What's behind cool, fee apps with high prduction values? Lots of money from donors who will back high profile sports. So, a Judo specific bit on this app? Probably what they'd call a "stretch goal". But as a source of inspiration for Judo coaches constantly trying to lift their own game? I'd encourage a look. It's free...
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