He helped us organize our students (adults and young adults) who were willing to serve at tournaments (rather than compete) to manage mat tables, be runners, manage athletes, etc. Also, we now have a healthy group of new brown belts (sankyu to ikkyu) getting closer to their shodan too.Īllen-Sensei was an inspiration and role model for the three of us owners and instructors of Emerald City Judo Club – Thank you Sensei Gary Goltz for bringing Allen-Sensei into our lives! His presence continues to be missed.įor someone well into his seventies, he continued to inspire our members by continuing to compete at senior master's level. We were able to carry many older adults, most being parents, through to their shodan as well (see image below). We were fortunate to carry many of these kids through to their shodan. The one thing that helped was retaining a core group of families and their kids from the very youngest of ages from the beginning as well as adults passionate about learning the art and deeper meaning of judo. Our challenge however was one of retaining those many kyu ranks to stay on their journey long enough. This helped ensure our long tail base of students in the kyu ranks continued to grow. The list continues but ideas that I'm sure many of you have encountered and have implemented as well. As an example, our dojo has a been a great source for high school wrestling programs in our community, both women and men's programs. community outreach to high schools and middle schools to share judo and hopefully attract new students. Like many dojos out there, we brainstormed on what was needed to get our students from white to shodan, and there were several things we realized were necessary to establish in order to get it done!ġ.Retention of our student base was paramount.Ģ.Optimized and disciplined promotion process where students knew what they were accountable for to earn their promotions.ģ.Increased number of similar aged student groups to ensure more like-for-like training partners.Ĥ.Ensure beginners, especially kids, were engaged, having fun, and enjoying their experiences.ĥ.Establishing the notion of young leaders that act as mentors and student coaches for youngsters, as well as adults and young adults.Ħ.More social events to increase camaraderie with families and students.ħ.Encourage students to compete and establish a competition team which for us, has been very successful and rewardingĨ.Encourage those that don't want to compete to serve judo in other ways help at tournaments, be good training partners for competitors, work ibn katas, help clean the dojo, etc.ĩ.Develop a platform for students to aspire to reach and achieve bigger things in their journey.ġ0.Cultivate potential candidates (juniors and adults) for refereeing as another means to serve the greater judo community i.e. We grew what we called a very long tail of students, i.e., lots of beginner belts with few higher belts, i.e., brown, and black. It was great to see the growing number of students we had in our classes, broken out across all levels and kids in the first hour and non-beginners in the second. By helping cultivate our youth program we began establishing ourselves in the early days as an up-and-coming judo program serving the surrounding communities next to Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, WA.įor a time in the first half of our existence, we'd seen many students come and go.
We needed to establish and grow our kids' program which helped in getting new adults, i.e., parents onto the mats and joining in with their kids. We learned early on that to continue to grow and maintain a solid student body across all age groups, we had to start with the young kids. While it's not an easy road to get students from white belt all the way through to their shodan, it is a rewarding experience for both the student and the sensei's. We at Emerald City Judo have experienced our fair share of awarding many students over our 22+ years through many kyu ranks, and for those that have persevered, their shodan. So how does a dojo help its students get there? You must be able to persevere throughout its journey just to achieve it.
Many will find it challenging, life changing and full of its own ups and downs. The road to earning one's shodan in judo is one of the most rewarding things anyone can pursue. Senseis Greg Dean and Nelson Salazar presenting Amanda Rasolmoff her shodan promotion certificate. Emerald City Judo Club’s Essay on Learnings Along the Way of the promotion process