BRITAIN’S most successful judoka of all time believes that despite home advantage, Britain’s judo team is doomed to failure in the 2012 Olympics and it is all down to bad management.
Neil Adams, a double Olympic silver medallist and former World Champion, is now graded as an 8th Dan and is currently head coach of the Welsh Judo Association but says that British Judo should re-assess its strategy and aim for success in 2016 or even 2020. With two successive Olympic failures behind it, Adams suggests that more disasters await.
“British judo is in turmoil and it is a shame,” says the man the Japanese dubbed Happo Bigin (Everyone’s friend.) “What has happened in the past is the wrong people have been given the wrong jobs. At the moment everybody is panicking because we need Olympic results and we are struggling for good possibilities.”
Adams believes that the vein of mis-appointments has continued following the debacle of the Beijing Olympics, with the Frenchman Patrick Roux being given the role of head coach for the national squad. “I would like to have seen Patrick Roux in charge of coach education and education within the ranks of the younger generation coming up,” says Adams. “I think they are doing the right thing in employing Roux. He is a good guy and an educationalist, but they are putting him in the wrong job. I think he would be perfect for British Judo in that role of educator.”
The theory behind Adams’ contention is that British judo has put the cart in front of the horse in their quest for medal success. He believes that too much pressure is put on young players before they are given a chance to develop their skills. “There is too much pressure on kids,” he says.
“The transitional age is 14 to 16, that is when we lose a high percentage of our players.
“ You look at clubs and they have charts on the wall about how many medals they have won and that is not doing long term judo any favours what so ever. The fall out rate runs into hundreds. They have hundreds of kids doing contest and then falling out. There is no retention. You have to ensure that the kids remain interested enough to follow up [into senior judo]. There is too much pressure too young from the parents and the club coaches.”
Adams himself was an early competitor in judo, but maintains that his enthusiasm was kept up by a careful management that he does not see today. “I am one of the few that has come through from 7 years of age and gone on to compete at the very highest level, but I was carefully handled by my father who did not put me into contest every week. There was never the constant pressure that some of today’s young competitors are under. I don’t see a contest every week benefiting a long term programme.”
Yet with the effective professionalization of judo, the contests are now coming thick and fast for elite players. There is now a tennis-style Grand-Prix circuit for prize money and rankings and Adams believes that the chase for money and medals is getting in the way of judo development, both for individuals and judo as a whole. “We have lost the way a little bit,” he says. “There has been so much money put into British Judo. The British Judo Association having got something like 17 full time people working for the organisation. There is so much money involved. Money is not always the key. It is not the motivator. We have got to make sure that the system is good enough for competitors to be motivated from inside themselves to get to the very top.”
Dave Hammond is author of Ippon! The fight for judo’s soul, published by London League Publications ISBN 978-1-903659-38-0
Neil Adams, Britain’s most successful judo competitor has hailed the British Judo Council’s approach to the development of young judoka.
Adams, a World Champion in 1981, has recently given up his role as Head coach of the Welsh Judo Association to take up a post in Belgium. Last year he was promoted to hachidan, but his holistic approach to judo means that his views are out of kelter with many in the British Judo Association.
“British judo is in turmoil and it is a shame,” says Adams, who believes that too much pressure is being put on young judoka too early. “There is too much pressure on kids,” he says. “The transitional age is 14 to 16, that is when we lose a high percentage of our players. I know the BJC philosophy is to develop the judo and I absolutely agree with that. You need a development tier.”
In a thoughtfully critical interview, Adams suggested that both parents and coaches are putting too much emphasis on contest judo, which leads to a burn out. Adams himself was a junior contestant before becoming Britain’s most successful senior judo player, with two Olympic silver medals, but insists that he was managed carefully in his youth. “I was carefully handled by my father who did not put me into contest every week. There was never the constant pressure that some of today’s young competitors are under. I do not see a contest every week as benefiting a long term programme.”
In attacking the overly-competitive mentality that underpins ‘elite’ judo, Adams pointed the finger at clubs that orient themselves and promote themselves through their medal count. He said: “You look at clubs and they have charts on the wall about how many medals they have won and that is not doing long term judo any favours whatsoever. The fall out rate runs into hundreds. They have hundreds of kids doing contest and then falling out. There is no retention. You have to ensure that the kids remain interested enough to follow up [into senior judo].”
Adams is hugely critical of the BJA’s money and medal orientation, pointing out that the national Olympic governing body has in the region of 17 full time employees. “Money is not always the key,” he insists. “It is not the motivator.
“When I was sixteen I went down to London and worked full time and trained. I worked because there wasn’t any money available. I did anything to make it happen, to make it work. Now some of them have it too easy. They are moaning if they haven’t got money, free kit, free food. It is a shame, for me. There is not so many people doing judo now and I don’t think there is the same sort of motivation.”
Adams views are not merely the outpouring of a bitter former contestant, however. He remains highly active, and is happy to work with judo organisations outside the BJA.
“I think at the end of the day the most important thing is to develop judo across the board, it doesn’t matter what organisation.It is good if we are teaching good technical judo.”
It is on that basis that Adams has saluted the arrival of Patrick Roux within the BJA set up. Yet even then, Adams believes that the BJA have made a mistake.
“I think they are doing the right thing in employing Patrick Roux. He is a good guy and an educationalist but they are putting him in the wrong job.
“In the past the wrong people have been given the wrong jobs. At the moment everybody is panicking because we need Olympic results and we are struggling for good possibilities.
“I think Roux would be perfect for British judo in the role of coach educator. We have to start off with the kids and develop them from a technical and tactical point of view. We need to put judo into their bodies. We have lost the way a little bit.”
Adams believes that the path that British judo has taken means that any attempts at gaining Olympic medals in 2012 are going to be tough going. Two consecutive Olympic failures are not, he believes, going to be followed by a third time lucky scenario. The problems that need to be addressed will take too long for that to happen
. “What we have to do now is not look to 2012, we have to look beyond. We have to start off with the kids and develop them. They [The BJA] have to look at 2016 and 2020. I would like to see the development of the young ones, get them started now for then.”
Adams’ philosophy dovetails with that of the BJC. He believes that you have to put a smile onto the face of youngsters who are involved in judo. Keeping them happy in their activity is the way to retain them into adulthood. A true elite can only emerge from a wide pool of activists. This philosophy both ensures a higher retention rate and a greater chance of breeding an elite that can and is willing to compete at the very highest level.
It is strange that Adams, who has also coached in France and is highly regarded even in the Kodokan, where he was nicknamed Happo Bigin (Everyone’s Friend), is not utilised more by the BJA.
Since retiring from contest judo he has kept his knowledge levels high and is a respected coach of judo and mixed martial arts across the world as well as the author of a number of acclaimed books.
His coaching style is infectious and he has a good ability to get his points across. His competitive record would ensure a level of respect from the new breed of competitors, yet Adams remains on the periphery of the National Olympic Body. It is a loss to British judo that is baffling.