Hi All, well Thursdays in the summer block are always interesting, with the debate and conference, this year it was no different.

For we fourth years it's a bit odd really as we've seen it all and done it.
But really interesting to observe how the later years tackle the projects we did previously. Take this years debate, they debated the new grading system and if their should be a competitive element in the BJA grading syllabus.

Really topical as the non-competitive system only got implemented in April.
I tried to let the debate decide how I would vote rather than my personal (entrenched) position. The arguments for the team arguing there should be a contest element actually swayed me there way over that of their opposition. Specifically Luke and Emyr That was till the questions where I was swayed back to thinking that a non-competitive system is the right thing. Loretta Cusack's response to a question from Mike Callan in particularly swayed me.

After the debate I took a look at the Research posters of the third years ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/lancew/ ) and listened to some of the mental skills presentations.

After all this i spend some hours in the Library with the rest of the fourth years finishing off our website assignment. Which is all done, which raised the interesting question of how does one tack a coversheet onto a website? :-)

Anyway... this evening we have the official presentation evening for the third years who graduate following my year and the regular social event, so I shall have to go now and be sociable. :-)

lance

P.s. Did I mention the female TV celebrity professing her love of me?? ;-)

Shortly the annual Judo debate will take place here at the University of Bath.
Below is the live video stream:

A fully edited version will be placed online once it has been edited together.

*** I have also added a few of the mental skills presentations from the conference of which the debate is the main event.

Today was a day of two halves really, the first was our first assessment of the block, the Viva that I mentioned yesterday. Basically, how it worked out was that I watched a full fight, in my case the fight between Teddy Riner and Kosei Inoue at the Rio World Champs.
I then left the room and a little while later sat down with World champions Jane Bridge and Emanuela Pierantozzi and I had to describe the fight to them. So I had to describe the players, the strategies, the tactics, the grips, the attacks, etc.
They then leveled a series of questions at me and we discussed the various aspects of the fight.

The second part of the day was our whole year group working on our group assignment, which is a website about performance Judo structures. It was really interesting to be involved and engaged with everyone working together on one project but in small subset groups.

It was in fact almost exactly what I had hoped for at the EJU Seminar, it had that "Hackday" feel. Everyone was working away in pairs or small groups and moving between the groups checking that what they were working on would match up with what the whole group was producing.

Awesome!

Anyway... Judo debate is tomorrow and lots of work so I had better keep this short.

This video is now on on www.08judo.com do go take a look, 08Judo.com will soon get busy as the Olympic Judo Tournament in Beijing begins.


Puskitas Olympics - video powered by Metacafe

Mike, Gene from www.the judopodcast.com and I sat down a while back and had a conversation talking about the lecture I gave in April at University of Bath (and am giving again in August for the BJA).

Well it is now online over on the site. Take a listen over at http://thejudopodcast.com/?p=357

If you want more my original post on this site about the lecture is here: http://judocoach.com/blog/index.php?ent ... 326-043928

Or if you want to hear/see the lecture live, take a look here: http://www.britishjudo.org.uk/home/cale ... =2008#2308

JUDO GAMES & DIGITAL NATIVES WORKSHOP - BJA COACH EDUCATION (REVALIDATION) COURSE - M07-08
TIMES : from 9.30am to 2.00pm.
VENUE : Walsall Judo Centre, Walsall, West Midlands.
ORGANISER : Joyce Heron.
CONTACT : 07967 773813 or email as below.
COST : £20.00 per candidate (cheques payable to BRITISH JUDO ASSOCIATION please).
APPLICATIONS : to Joyce Heron, 40 Waterfront Way, Walsall, West Midlands, WS2 9NH.
CLOSING DATE : 18th. August, 2008.

Course tutors for this course are Dave Elmore (Development Officer for University of Wolverhampton) and Lance Wicks who has developed ”digital natives” which tackles keeping junior judo players interested through the use of computer communication - a new approach.

THIS COURSE IS SUITABLE FOR THOSE CANDIDATES SEEKING COACH REVALIDATION.
Email: joyceheron@britishjudo.org.uk

*** Note I did not invent the term "Digital Natives" I just applied it to coaching sport and specifically to our sport Judo.