I almost never post here any more because I've been crazy busy, running the Growing Math Project but today I was answering an email from a parent of a talented little athlete and I thought my ideas might be of interest to other parents and coaches as well. Dear Parent,  From loads of experience seeing many, many kids - she is nine years old and kids pick up on what their parents think is good, right up until they become teenagers and think you are out to ruin their lives. Most likely, your child is working hard at their sport because she believes you value it. I used to think it w ..read more

 We'll be starting Gompers Judo practices up again in the fall when school is back in session. My plan for the first few weeks is getting some conditioning done, falls and basic matwork. After that, we'll be having invited guest instructors come in hopefully weekly. There are three reasons for guest instructors: I travel a lot and cannot commit to more than one day per week past the first few weeks of the semester. My day job is making educational games and, as you can imagine, remote learning has made our business skyrocket.  Also why I have not been blogging lately. I don't know ..read more

The biggest mistake I made as a judo player was not a technical one  ....... and I did not realize I was making such a stupid mistake until I was in my fifties. For someone who has a reputation for being smart, that is a really long time to make the same mistake. Seriously, it is embarrassing to say this and I am writing this post to save some of you who might be making the same mistake now. My biggest mistake may have led to a lot of my success, but I was wrong, in the endSo what was this, you might be wondering. It’s that I judged people simply based on how good they were at judo, how g ..read more

I've been thinking a lot about those gym owners and instructors who are wanting to re-open for many reasons, whether it is  a. they miss their students,  b. they miss training,  c. they need the money,  d. they want to get their team in shape for tournaments e. All of the above Here are some ideas you can try, TODAY, that I think comply with health requirements. Family ConditioningIf most families are like mine, they have been getting a lot less exercise the past couple of months. Everyone - mom, dad, kids - could do with a little conditioning. Invite 2-3 families, no more ..read more

I lead the opposite of an Instagram life. That’s not to say it’s boring because it’s not. So far this year, I’ve been in five countries, nine states and I’ve lost track of the number of cities. I’m also not opposed to Instagram. I do have an account and I post on it most days. No, what I mean is that while most people are posting things to make their life look more interesting than it is, I often forget or don’t have time to post because I’m too busy doing interesting things. Been so many places, I couldn't remember where this was at first. California, in the mountains. Where I’ve be ..read more

Few things are an unmixed blessing.I’m a hyper-competitive person. That has helped me in many ways my whole life but it’s also cost me in ways I am just now coming to realize. I have beaten a lot of people who had superior technical skills because I trained harder and was willing to put up with more pain both in practice and in a match. After seeing a demonstration at a clinic of a  technique that the coach said, “This will be so painful, your opponent will turn over to avoid it,” I went up to him and said, “I’m sure that will work with a lot of people. For me, and for the people who ..read more

I said over a month ago that there were three reasons that I am not as involved in judo as I once was and it is very fitting that it's taken me this long to get around to the third one. There are people in judo I really think the world of their knowledge not just of sports but of life. Yet, despite the best of intentions to make it to judo practice or to tournaments, it seldom happens. I haven't been doing much judo lately because I've being doing other things Sounds pretty obvious, doesn't it? Often, when someone disappears from our judo, jiu-jitsu, mixed martial arts or other club we wonde ..read more

I said there were three reasons I am not involved in judo as much as I used to be - and here is the second one ... We need to let young people run judoFirst of all, I can't do nearly as much as I did 30 years ago. I have nowhere near the strength or speed. Yes, I have plenty of knowledge, but, especially for a lot of throwing techniques, you need SPEED to show how it should really be. You need to be able to BEND to get low enough to show how a throw should be done. I cannot do that nearly to the extent I did when I was young and neither can any of those other older instructors - they just don ..read more

Every now and then, I run into people from judo who say, "Hey, we never see you around any more? Why is that? What happened to you?" I wrote this years ago for a project on the Spirit Lake Dakota Nation, and our Country Manager for Strong Mind Studios, our company in Chile, came across it recently. (If you read Spanish, check it out.) Nothing happened to me. I do run a practice or a clinic now and then, but it is true I am not nearly involved as much as I used to be. There are actually three reasons I'm not around judo these days. One is that I choose to be more selective about the people ..read more

Someone asked me on Instagram my advice on how to be ready for her first competition and since it is a good question, I thought I'd post my suggestions here. Get in better physical conditionWe're not talking the Olympics here and since you are just starting to compete, I'm going to assume that you could improve your conditioning a bit. In this, I find the old saying to be true: "The best is the enemy of the good. " People say they can't work out because they can't get to a gym, don't have a partner, blah blah blah. Here is my suggestion for anyone who wants to be a little bit better. This is I ..read more