This is the Judo blog of Lance Wicks. In this blog I cover mainly Judo and related topics. My Personal blog is over at LanceWicks.com where I cover more geeky topics. Please do leave comments on what you read or use the Contact Me form to send me an email with your thoughts and ideas.
Paying the bills
JudoCoach.com Blog by Lance Wicks
Hi everyone,
I have completed my Asia tour, 9 days in China and 7 short days in Japan. It was a wonderful trip with my colleagues in the IJF team helping share the two competitions online with you.
China was an interesting event and my first time in China. Tokyo was very special, only my second time in Japan after about 17 years when I was last there, training that time.
I spent a full day at the Kodokan, where I was fortunate to be able to visit the Museum etc. As the centre of the Judo world, it was amazing to meet to walk up to the building, see the Kano statue and go inside. The All Japan Judo Association staff and Kodokan Staff were incredibly welcoming and it is a highlight in my Judo life for sure.
The Tokyo Grand Slam had my favourite match in a long time, Iliadis Versus Rakov. It was a real chess match between two fioghters who showed amazing respect to one another. It was even better for we who were there all day as we got to see them warming up together first thing, so the handshake and hug after the initial bow really resonated and highlighted the friendship and respect these two gentlemen had for one another and the sport we all love.
Which bring us neatly to the new IJF rules announced this week. One change included is the banning of handshakes and displays of respect in favor of a traditional bow.
The rule is in my opinion daft and poorly written. It is outlawing a show of respect, why? What was the rule written to prevent that was bad for the sport? It certainly is not a safety decision? Although I understand partially the idea that the bow should be enough, then why does the IJF specifically state that after the match handshakes are ok?
In terms of how it is written, the rule is specific and says "handshake", the later interpretation talks of handslaps and hugs etc. But the rules state handshake, so to me a handslap is not a handshake, I would love to be the person who takes this one to a courtroom.
For me, there is no reason for this rule.
The rules in general and in the new rules suffer the regular problem of being vague and coming form non-native English speakers are difficult to interpret as the language (grammer etc) is not good.
I don't understand (and I am focussing on this one rule a lot I know) how you write a rule that specifically says "handshake", then state in the explanation that it refers to other actions. The other rules are even less precise and through up more questions and areas of confusion.
The breaking of grips with two hands is so hard to interpret from the rules and teh additional explanation is not clear also. Does it mean letting go with two hands? or breaking your opponents grip with both your hands?
Anyway...
So 2012 is coming to an end and it has been an amazing year (that I will I hope review in a post before the end of the year). 2013 promises to be even better with the competition schedule in Hampshire, Europe and Internationally promising to keep me very VERY busy!
I can't wait!
I have completed my Asia tour, 9 days in China and 7 short days in Japan. It was a wonderful trip with my colleagues in the IJF team helping share the two competitions online with you.
China was an interesting event and my first time in China. Tokyo was very special, only my second time in Japan after about 17 years when I was last there, training that time.
I spent a full day at the Kodokan, where I was fortunate to be able to visit the Museum etc. As the centre of the Judo world, it was amazing to meet to walk up to the building, see the Kano statue and go inside. The All Japan Judo Association staff and Kodokan Staff were incredibly welcoming and it is a highlight in my Judo life for sure.
The Tokyo Grand Slam had my favourite match in a long time, Iliadis Versus Rakov. It was a real chess match between two fioghters who showed amazing respect to one another. It was even better for we who were there all day as we got to see them warming up together first thing, so the handshake and hug after the initial bow really resonated and highlighted the friendship and respect these two gentlemen had for one another and the sport we all love.
Which bring us neatly to the new IJF rules announced this week. One change included is the banning of handshakes and displays of respect in favor of a traditional bow.
The rule is in my opinion daft and poorly written. It is outlawing a show of respect, why? What was the rule written to prevent that was bad for the sport? It certainly is not a safety decision? Although I understand partially the idea that the bow should be enough, then why does the IJF specifically state that after the match handshakes are ok?
In terms of how it is written, the rule is specific and says "handshake", the later interpretation talks of handslaps and hugs etc. But the rules state handshake, so to me a handslap is not a handshake, I would love to be the person who takes this one to a courtroom.
For me, there is no reason for this rule.
The rules in general and in the new rules suffer the regular problem of being vague and coming form non-native English speakers are difficult to interpret as the language (grammer etc) is not good.
I don't understand (and I am focussing on this one rule a lot I know) how you write a rule that specifically says "handshake", then state in the explanation that it refers to other actions. The other rules are even less precise and through up more questions and areas of confusion.
The breaking of grips with two hands is so hard to interpret from the rules and teh additional explanation is not clear also. Does it mean letting go with two hands? or breaking your opponents grip with both your hands?
Anyway...
So 2012 is coming to an end and it has been an amazing year (that I will I hope review in a post before the end of the year). 2013 promises to be even better with the competition schedule in Hampshire, Europe and Internationally promising to keep me very VERY busy!
I can't wait!
Sometime ago I started work on a project JudoTicker, well it is reaching fruition. Judoticker is a project to collect data from the IJF scoreboards via a Raspberry Pi computer and post live to Twitter and also to a database for research purposes.
This weekend I have been testing the system at the Tokyo Grand Slam and having good results. Below is a Twitter Widget showing the live tweets of the results of every match in Japan.
Tweets by @judoticker
Please do share the @judoticker Twitter handle and "follow" the results in realtime!
Lance
This weekend I have been testing the system at the Tokyo Grand Slam and having good results. Below is a Twitter Widget showing the live tweets of the results of every match in Japan.
Tweets by @judoticker
Please do share the @judoticker Twitter handle and "follow" the results in realtime!
Lance
Hi All,
I am writing this post in advance of my next trip away with the IJF to Qingdao and Tokyo for two competitions. I am very fortunate to be able to attend these two events as China is a place not many people get to visit and Japan is the birthplace of Judo. To attend the biggest Judo competition in Japan is an amazing opportunity and I am really looking forward to it. I fly on Monday to Frankfurt to meet with the rest of the team, then onto China for the Grand Prix, before flying to Japan for the Grand Slam. Then back to Frankfurt and London.
It's been a busy period for me, those who have been keeping score will know that I went to two events in Turkey and one in Brazil last month. Also I ran the Hampshire Judo Team Championships (round 2) event. I will be away for round 3 which is a bit upsetting and I hope it all goes smoothly without me.
Worse I will be away from my Southampton Solent University Judo Club (aka Southampton City Judo Club) and Alresford Judo Club. I love coaching the kids and adults so it's hard not being there. Alresford is (as always) being taken care of by Cherie and Steve and others are looking aftre Southampton.
At the two events, as well as doing my regular duties I am hoping that my Raspberry Pi project can be tested out. This is the project to automate the collection and tweeting of results from the IJF scoreboards. You might remember I tested the software earlier in the year. It tweets from @judoticker on twitter and the data collected is stored in a CouchDB database which I should be ok to link to at some stage.
I will also be putting the finishing touches on the 2013 Hampshire Judo competition calendar. It is almost ready and that has been an interesting challenge trying to build a calendar that conflicts as little as possible with other events, spreads events over the year and provides suitable events for as many groups of people as possible (from kids to special needs to kata to ne waza and more).
It is far too late in the year to be putting it together, but I'm new to the post and it's all a learning curve for me!
I am determined in 2013 to blog more. It amazes and upsets me that in the last year or two I have been doing much more interesting things and not sharing them here. For crying out loud, I am terrible. I have been going all these interesting places, learning so much and not sharing it. And worse, not learning as much as I could as I am not taking the time to write and reflect on what I experience and see. Bad Lance, bad bad Lance!
So I shall call this post finished and wrote another hopefully from Chinas and/or Japan. Please do leave comments or email me as it really does motivate me to write more.
Lance
I am writing this post in advance of my next trip away with the IJF to Qingdao and Tokyo for two competitions. I am very fortunate to be able to attend these two events as China is a place not many people get to visit and Japan is the birthplace of Judo. To attend the biggest Judo competition in Japan is an amazing opportunity and I am really looking forward to it. I fly on Monday to Frankfurt to meet with the rest of the team, then onto China for the Grand Prix, before flying to Japan for the Grand Slam. Then back to Frankfurt and London.
It's been a busy period for me, those who have been keeping score will know that I went to two events in Turkey and one in Brazil last month. Also I ran the Hampshire Judo Team Championships (round 2) event. I will be away for round 3 which is a bit upsetting and I hope it all goes smoothly without me.
Worse I will be away from my Southampton Solent University Judo Club (aka Southampton City Judo Club) and Alresford Judo Club. I love coaching the kids and adults so it's hard not being there. Alresford is (as always) being taken care of by Cherie and Steve and others are looking aftre Southampton.
At the two events, as well as doing my regular duties I am hoping that my Raspberry Pi project can be tested out. This is the project to automate the collection and tweeting of results from the IJF scoreboards. You might remember I tested the software earlier in the year. It tweets from @judoticker on twitter and the data collected is stored in a CouchDB database which I should be ok to link to at some stage.
I will also be putting the finishing touches on the 2013 Hampshire Judo competition calendar. It is almost ready and that has been an interesting challenge trying to build a calendar that conflicts as little as possible with other events, spreads events over the year and provides suitable events for as many groups of people as possible (from kids to special needs to kata to ne waza and more).
It is far too late in the year to be putting it together, but I'm new to the post and it's all a learning curve for me!
I am determined in 2013 to blog more. It amazes and upsets me that in the last year or two I have been doing much more interesting things and not sharing them here. For crying out loud, I am terrible. I have been going all these interesting places, learning so much and not sharing it. And worse, not learning as much as I could as I am not taking the time to write and reflect on what I experience and see. Bad Lance, bad bad Lance!
So I shall call this post finished and wrote another hopefully from Chinas and/or Japan. Please do leave comments or email me as it really does motivate me to write more.
Lance
Today the men compete here in Salvador, Brazil.
If the embedded video does not work for you, try https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=IuYowfU_TAI
Please share the link with your club mates so they can enjoy what will be a very loud day of judo.
If the embedded video does not work for you, try https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=IuYowfU_TAI
Please share the link with your club mates so they can enjoy what will be a very loud day of judo.
The 2012 Judo World Team Championships from Salvador in Brazil are now being streamed live!
Visit http://www.ippon.tv if the vide above is not working on your machine.
Visit http://www.ippon.tv if the vide above is not working on your machine.
Subscribe to this blog
Random Entry
