Is a young judo coach a good bet

With young coaches such as Yuri Alvear, who will become a mother soon, but also the recently retired An-Chang-Rim of Korea and Antoine Valois-Fortier from Canada, the judo world can look out for new wind and energy in the world of coaches. With the retirement of other meaningful athletes such as Masashi Ebinuma, Sally Conway, Paula Pareto, Majlinda Kelmendi, Miklos Ungvari, Yarden Gerbi and many others, judo will definitely have a choice. New changes are made in this new Olympic cycle that will start in 2022.

It’s always interesting to see the tombola in the coaching world. Even in Brazil the establishment was replaced by an athlete of just 30 years young. Sarah Menezes will become the new head coach of the Brazilian women, replacing the always respected Rosicleia Campos who celebrated many successes with the Brazilian women since the 2008 Olympic Games, including that precious gold in London at the Olympic Games in 2012 where tiny Menezes captured the gold U48kg on the first day.

Matchmakers look for the best combinations that deliver a fruitful chemistry. In Football, especially around Christmas time many coaches are replaced at those clubs that didn’t met the expectations. The bookmakers offer stats of the coaches who are on the verge to be released. In judo it all goes in much more harmony, fitting our judo values. Some sports betting sites have odds for Judo such as William Hill, you can find more information on this and other sites on the Gambling.com Canada page. In judo we don’t have those forced trainer buy outs. We tend to use the gentle way.

Driton Kuka awarded by the fans

Who would have thought that perhaps the greatest of all, Kosei Inoue after nine Olympic gold medals stepped back by himself. He was replaced by his good friend and 2008 Olympic Champion Keiji Suzuki. These coaches are experienced, same for those nominees of IJF Coaching awards: winner Driton Kuka, Christophe Gagliano and Larbi Benboudaoud and Swedish long lasting coach Robert Eriksson who was appreciated with a nomination. The rookie Yvonne Boenisch is also an Olympic Champion who had a successful year as coach of Austria. She is example of the new generation. There are many success coaches of around forty but the age seems to get of coaches is getting younger and younger. Compared to the past, most coaches seemed to be older, not per definition wiser, not even more theoretical. Perhaps that may be your impression as well, certainly with the current generation of young coaches who had a dominant role as an athlete in world judo. With the fast transition of Antoine Valois-Fortier, another world medallist welcomed into the World Tour, bringing in essential experience.

An Chang-Rim’s advertisement

The remarkable advertisement of An-Chang-Rim who is just 28 years young is typical. He wants to work as a coach abroad and was tired of performing at top level. He is still ranked as number three of the world, can you imagine the impact. Perhaps the judo world desires coaches that stand totally within their players, in fact what Ilias Iliadis is showing with his successful men and even women in Uzbekistan. He not only coaches them, he is their psychiatrist, their physio and fitness coach. He feels their temperature and form, he sees, discovers, motivates and inspires. He is the triple world champion and Olympic Champion.

The coach seems to take a role in between its athletes. Think like the athletes but with a helicopter view of experience. Fresh solutions and understanding the need of each athlete, tailored for their specialties. In fact more and more athletes get a tailored solution for their skills. It’s a development that is similar to other sports. A coach, a trainer, a mental coach, physiological coach, nutritionist and whatever an athlete needs.

This is the time to make decisions

The retirement of An Chang-Rim is a sign to escape from the outside pressure, certainly in an Olympic year or qualification year is huge. In a post Olympic year, athletes at a certain age starting to think like Maryna Slutskaya who retired after her father passed away. And world class Kim Polling who is pregnant and will try to become a mother and do that attempt to return successfully as one of the few, quite a challenge. Some athletes even thought so much in the period of corona that they even gave up in advance of the Olympics such as Sally Conway and young mother Nekoda Smythe-Davis. Pressure makes athletes think and some are brave and make up their conclusions that top level judo is super demanding for the athlete and their environment.

It was not a surprise that we see Sally Conway as a coach of a very nice team. Perhaps a team with not such high pressure, the team of Sweden fits perfectly to Sally Conway.

Top judo requires top athletes, whatever their age and coaches who understand new tools in a world where information, data and video analysis are a key asset.

Antoine Valois-Fortier is a good bet

It is not a surprise that young coaches such as Ilias Iliadis, Yvonne Boenisch, Tomoko Fukumi and Sugoi Uriarte, are so successful at a young age. In fact Antoine Valois-Fortier is likely the youngest with his 31 years, now that Yuri Alvear pulls back for the next year becoming a noter. Antoine already showed his face in the World Tour this year. We think that a combination with a more theoretical coach can be fruitful. The most appreciated coach by fans this year was Driton Kuka who wasn’t the best athlete himself, he didn’t have the long list of performances such as all athletes mentioned above but he definitely stands in between his athletes like a tiger, a mentor, knowing and feeling all pains, motivating for that extra year and finally celebrating successes with them. We’re convinced that young coach can add value and bring inspiration to the 2024 generation.