UKCC Coaching Standards Group Report

Good morning to you all,
 
Despite being told by sports coach UK that their meeting with the Chairman of the Coaching Standards Group was imminent, I have had no further communication.
 
Please see the attached letter that I have sent to Martin Crick at sports coach UK.
 
Good wishes,
 
John Goldman

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SAVE INDEPENDENT JUDO

A campaign to maintain the rights of independent judo groups

 

Campaign office:       
41, Willow Walk
Crediton
Devon EX17 1DD
e-mail saveindependentjudo@tiscali.co.uk


Martin Crick
Coach Education
sports coach UK

November 7th 2008


Dear Martin

In October you wrote to tell me that the Coaching Standards Group had met on September 12 to discuss principles of access to UKCC and that you were expecting to meet with the chairman of the group very shortly to hear his report.

There are two main issues that I had asked be looked at;

(1)    Access to UKCC judo courses for non BJA members

(2)    The mapping over of (assimilation process) non-BJA judo coach awards to UKCC.       

For nine months non-BJA judo people have been denied equal access rights to the national UKCC award. The BJA stipulate that non-BJA people have to either join the BJA or be tested by the BJA to gain a certificate of grade equivalence.

You say the BJA argue that they have imposed these restrictions largely on health and safety grounds.

Not only is this is discriminatory, it is sheer nonsense and does not hold water.

The BJA is a mess. Earlier this year, as part  of their "technical renaissance", the BJA revised their grading syllabus.

Prior to the new syllabus being introduced this spring, technical requirements for BJA senior grades were abysmal. The technical requirements for senior BJA Blue and Brown belts (now the entry levels for UKCC Levels 1 and 2 respectively) were less than those required for a Junior Orange Belt in the vast majority of non-BJA organisations. This means existing BJA Blue and Brown Belts, with very limited knowledge, are openly accepted as candidates to UKCC courses just because they belong to the BJA. In contrast, those outside the BJA, regardless of whether they are a Blue or Brown Belt or a Black Belt, as in my case a 7th Dan with forty five years experience in judo, has to take a test to gain a Blue or Brown before they can apply to take part in a course. Its all double standards isn’t it.

Whereas the new BJA syllabus is far more comprehensive than the previous BJA syllabus, it includes techniques that are unheard of in Japan and the rest of the judo world! The BJA have taken it upon themselves to invent names for a number of movements used in contest. Not only do these have no or little meaning to non-BJA people but those within the BJA are having to decipher what they are and  subsequently learn how to do them.

Another change to the BJA promotion system, is the exclusion of contest from the syllabus. The BJA, have dropped the contest requirements from their Kyu grade (under Black Belt) promotion syllabus.

Since the BJA had, for many years, been critical of non-BJA organisations who put a lesser emphasis on contest and the winning of medals than the BJA did, the rational behind the omission of contest is incomprehensible.

The fact is that the vast majority of non-BJA organisations have always included, and continue to include, competitive elements in their Kyu grade syllabus as part of their all round balanced development programmes.

Having taken contest out of the syllabus, the BJA introduced Kata.  A good and sound move. Kata is acknowledged world wide as the heart of judo, fundamental to judo practice and development. Kata is an aspect of judo that the vast majority of non-BJA organisation have always practised and continue to practise as an essential part of judo practice and development.

Now, just six months on, the BJA have dropped Kata as a compulsory component of grading examination! Kata is only required for promotions to 3rd Dan and above! It beggars belief and reason.

Does the Coaching Standards Group monitor what the BJA does?

The UKCC is a national award. Our demands our simple.

Non-BJA judo people wishing to gain a judo UKCC must be given right of access to the award without restrictions, and on equal terms as those who are members of the BJA.

Existing qualified non-BJA coaches must be afforded the same rights, and on equal terms as BJA coaches, in the mapping over of their existing qualifications to the  UKCC award.

We were told by the previous Minister for Sport that details of access to UKCC for non-BJA judo people would be included in the final submissions for endorsement of the judo UKCC to sports coach UK.

Those details, pre-requisites, that have belatedly been included, are unacceptable.

When can we expect to hear of the Coaching Standards Group report on principles of access to UKCC?

Good wishes,



John Goldman
Campaign Leader

Copies:

Rt Hon Gerry Sutcliffe
Tom Hibbert MBE
Angela Browning MP
Roger Knapman MEP
Andy Davies
Paul Clifton
Gordon Lawson
Jim Lawson
Others