Shany Hershko looks back at best moments as coach

This week the European Championships for judoka U23 are held in Tel Aviv. For the first time since 1992 European athletes come to Israel for a European Championships event, then in Jerusalem. In 1974 Tel Aviv was the place for the European Junior and Cadet Championships. One of the Champions was Neil Adams, the later world champion and double Olympic finalist.

Shany Hershko is one of the successful coaches of the senior Israelian women’s team and also responsible for the European U23 Championships.  “I am always looking for the challenge and the motivation to coach my athletes, with these elements and we do it with love, then everything is possible. During the draw I tell them the draw and we start looking for the video and the information. We walk through the competition, and we like to do that immediately so that the athletes have some time to relax” he said to the IJF team.

“In the morning we talk about it again. As a coach you know almost everyone and its’ easy to focus on the fight. I give them the challenge what to do in the match. Even if they haven’t done it, it’s nice, because we have material for the next competition and next training. But as a coach you are not part of the fight. You have no influence, maybe just 10%. I am their advisor, but they need to choose and take the right decision. “

“We can only advise in those matte situation of a few seconds. We need to be accurate and we have a few seconds. So if you say too many things, it’s too confusing, say ‘less is more’. It’s not always a technical thing, also a mentality thing and in the end we should advise them how to do things the right way.”

“For me the two highlights were the world title of Yarden Gerbi in 2013 as first World champion of Israelian, no one will take that away, it’s forever. The second moment when she won the bronze medal in Rio, and those moments make me very happen. Yarden is the second female who won a medal for Israel. When we came back, it was amazing, everyone knows her.”

Israelian Junior coach Omer Izhaki is one of the three other coaches at the chair for the Israelian team.  “There are three Israelian coaches for the women. Michal Feinblat, Shany's assistant because we have 3 seniors of 22 years old. Secondly there is Einat Yaron. He is the coach of our cadet team,  because we have three cadets competing this weekend. And then there’s myself as coach of the juniors with also three judoka fighting in Tel Aviv. We want to push our new generation.”

Israel motivated by all the successes of the last years in both men and women’s divisions will certainly have a stake in the medal table this weekend. Izhaki: “Our expectations in every competition is medals. In this event we want that the girls show to the crowd their good judo and we hope everyone will enjoy. This is the first time after 24 years that we host European championships so we hope the venue will be full of judo fans.”

“Of course we want to show good judo, spirit, and a lot of wins to continue and follow up the success of the Olympic Games.” 

photos by Emmeric Le Person