On the 6th of January 2010, I climb onboard an airplane and fly to Oklahoma City, USA! I'm heading over to the official opening of Mike Darter's new dojo, which based on the photos I have seen is amazing!

Mike's club OKCDT opens officially whilst I am there and we shall be doing some training sessions/seminars to celebrate. If you are in or near Oklahoma City between the 7th and 10th of January 2010, please try and be at OKCDT and come and say hello!

Then... as if a trip to the USA was not exciting enough, on the 20th of January 2010, I return to the Royal Navy Judo community. I'll be taking over coaching the HMS Collingwood Judo club; stepping into the big shoes of Mr. Peter Powell.

I'm looking forward to coaching the club and being involved in Navy Judo again. My plan is to run the club as a sports club, with the focus being on the sport of Judo.

I'll be encouraging lots of competition Judo, and using some more innovative methods to develop the players. I'll be applying many of the approaches I have experienced via the University of Bath, EJU Degree course and the mentorship programme with Brian Ashton.

If you are a past or present Navy Judoka and in or around Portsmouth, please let me know. I'll be needing lots of enthusiastic people to make the club grow and thrive!

Lance

Dr. Mike Callan of JudoSpace pointed me at this terrific video clip.



It is a trailer of sorts for "Be Strong, Be Gentle, Be Beautiful."A in progress film about Keiko Fukuda.

In 1934, at 21 years of age, Keiko Fukuda embarked on a long journey with judo as her vehicle. This path meant giving up marriage, family, and her Japanese citizenship. She has endured war, discrimination, and crossed oceans, to become the highest ranking woman in judo history. She is the last living link to judos original history. Today at 96, she still teaches judo three times a week, and through her gentle soul she exudes wisdom and inspiration to all who come in contact with her. Be Strong, Be Gentle, Be Beautiful, is an hour-long documentary film about Keiko Fukudas inspirational journey. The film will be released summer of 2010. Please visit our website at: www.flyingcarp.net

Given the recent and very sad loss of Rusty Kanokogi, it is great to hear that someone is capturing some of our Judo history.

They are looking for funding I understand to finish the film; so if you have any ideas to support this project, please visit their site and contact them. You can also donate via this website: https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=10065

I am a Judo coach, (the domain name gave it away right). Regular readers will know that over the last 5 years I have spent weeks and weeks working on myself as a coach, via the EJU Degree level coaching qualifications at the University of Bath.

Some of you will be aware that the Level 3, 4 & 5 courses were terminated by the University of Bath. Which really upset me at the time it happened as I knew students on all levels of the courses and knew the great opportunity they were losing.

Well, here we are at the end of 2009 and I am pleased to say that a page has turned and it is with great joy I can tell you that the EJU Level 3 is back!

That's right, the course is back and it is starting now!

The course is now being delivered by http://www.JudoSpace.com which I am honoured to be one of the directors of. JudoSpace is lead by Dr, Mike Callan (who created the Bath programmes) and has an amazing board of advisors:

* Envic Galea,
* Roy Inman OBE,
* Densign White,
* Mike Chamberlain.

These names are probably well known to European Judoka and it is rather odd in ways to be listed on the same page as them ( http://www.judospace.com/who-we-are ).

The level 3 course itself is something that is open to Judo coaches from not only Europe but anywhere. It provides a solid foundation for all coaches, which covers these broad topics:

* Principles of Gokyo
* Culture of Judo
* Planning & Physiology
* History & Development of Judo
* Communication
* Competitive Judo

You can signup for the course right now at http://www.judospace.com/application and you can get started right away as the modules are all delivered electronically over the internet.
And you'll want to get started sooner rather than later as you'll not want to miss the residential assessment being held from 5-8th July 2010, to be held in Malta! It is not that mush time to progress through all the modules, do the assignments, discuss the content and understand our art and sport better.

Please do email office@judospace.com for more information, or ask me direct ( lw@judocoach.com ). You can also learn more by following the JudoSpace blog at http://judospace.blogspot.com/

Lance.

Today has been one of those days where other people have amazed me!
Within the space of a few short hours, Gene, Mike and Tris have published amazing works to the Judo community!

It started with Tristan Greaves' terrific Blog post on the new rules being promoted by the IJF. The post is a great balanced piece of writing about the rules that have been trialled recently. It is a great article and be sure to read the comment by Luke Preston from Camberley Judo Club too.

On my drive home from work I was fortunate enough to put on Mike & Gene's terrific podcast titled "Judo is an Art". The show is a conversation with Justin Flores about art and Judo. It is an amazing listen and really struck a chord with me. They also discuss the new rules there.
The podcast is one of the highlights of the 47 episodes they have produced so far. I really felt in my heart much of what they talked about.
Gene's quote from his club information is amazing and really sums up well what being a Judoka is all about.

For me they also highlighted that sensation of getting Ippon, how that is art. How that is what makes Judo more than just sport. How even if you throw someone a million times, an Ippon is a unique creation that is beautiful and emotional and magical.

They also fitted those into competitive Judo and how the two are linked. They spoke about how the evolution of Judo styles is a differentiator and part of the allure of Judo. This merges with the discussion Tris starts about the rules, about if Judo is to be allowed to continue to evolve or if we force it into a shape through rule changes?

A great day for the Judo online community between these two.
It reminds me how great the online Judo community is and I am amazingly lucky to live in an age where I can have this interaction with people like Mike, Gene and Tris and learn more about Judo online.

So go listen/read and enjoy!

But before you go, here is a GREAT video by Mike and Gene's guest Justin Flores which I wanted to include because itis really great Judo art too.



Lance

So, regular readers will have noticed I whinge alot about the state of the BJA website and as per my last post, about the rubbish clib list system they have on their website.

So... I decided to do something about it!


So I can introduce to you all "DojoList".
DojoList is a small piece of web based software that allows you to easily create a list of Dojo. It runs on pretty much any webserver and automatically does the following:

* Store the list in a open XML format
* Store the list in KML format for GoogleEarth.
* Show the list in HTMML
* Show the list as an embedded map

DojoList is Open Source, which means that you (yes you) can use it for free. You can take the software and install it on your own server. You can change the software and make it match your specific needs. Did I mention it was free?

I have licensed it under a AGPL license, which states all this in legalese, but the summary is that you need can use it pretty much as you like, but you need to share any improvements you make back to us/me.

Now, you can find the software at http://github.com/lancew/DojoList where you can grab it via Git if you are technical. I'll create a .zip file soon for the rest of you.

If you want a test drive, try it out at http://www.lancewicks.com/dojolist/ where I have a test installation running. Please take a look and let me know what you think of it. Specifically, I'd like to know what is missing for you. If you had it installed it yourself, how would you use it? What would you need?

If you like the software, and would like some help let me know. I would love to help you get it running. I'd like that as it'll help me test the system further and make it better and better.

So...
One less excuse for the BJA or you to not have a list of Dojo.
Enjoy!
:-)