How Judo clubs work
This post is taken from my www.judocoach.com site.
Most clubs are charities, being run for love by the instructor.Very few are businesses or supported by local government etc. A majority of clubs are benevolent dictatorships, the instructor is the boss. Some have fully fledged organisational structures that you may be more familiar with, but these are the minority and often beurocracy kills clubs that go this way after a long period of dictatorship. A club will normally have a single head instructor; luckier clubs will also have other instructors who will teach regularly or not. The instructor (or sensei) will normally run the club and organise everything.They also tend to pay all the bills and keep clubs afloat by spending their own money on the bills. Unlike most martial arts, Judo clubs are often deceptively informal. With many clubs having only the most basic traditional bows being practised. This varies greatly from club to club. Judo clubs will normally have a large number of child members and a much smaller umber of adults. Many of the adults will be graduates from the children’s classes. A vast majority of adult Judoka started as children rather than as adults. This sadly means that experienced players often dominate adult classes with little planning for adult beginners. That said the parent considering learning Judo to support their child should not be put off. Every judo club I have ever encountered welcomes adult learners and parents are especially welcomed. One of the strong points of Judo is that a singe class can handle both learners and experienced players within a single format. Participation at any level is possible in a class. You should however be prepared for the fact that as the minority, the class will be focussed on experienced players. Having said all this, at kid’s classes the opposite situation exists. Judo takes many years to achieve a reasonable level of competence, so kids classes are normally almost entirely involved in teaching at a low technical level. Often a good way to learn Judo yourself is to assist in the instruction of children’s classes. I personally have met people who have been involved in national and international Judo following an initial start helping the kid’s class. You do need to consider if your child would want Mummy or Daddy there of course. Also as we will talk about later in the book, you need to possibly distance yourself from your own child to prevent you becoming the stereotyped “Pushy Sports Mum/Dad”. Photo by Christian Bachellier