Judo carries this interesting dichotomy of a sport and a martial art. If you've ever read The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Dubois*, this is sort of the same deal as "double-consciousness," where two different labels on a single object prevents that object from fully becoming either of those things. There are perceived aspects of "sport" that are contrary to "martial art" and perceived aspects of "martial art" that are contrary to sport, which is why I believe that Judo has struggled to maintain growth in the United States.
One of the big problems that Judo has in the United States is that it is still perceived as foreign. The mysticism associated with martial arts works against its marketing as a sport for American children, even though it is definitely one. Judo is rarely introduced alongside football, basketball, and baseball when kids go through that try everything phase. Why does this matter? While Judo definitely values its late-bloomers, having a strong base of young competitors is the key to success, both financially and in tournaments. Adults tend to be on and off with practicing, but young practitioners provide a more reliable source of income because of the parents' influence. That doesn't really answer my question, because couldn't we just market towards children? I say, definitely not. At that age, parents want their kids to fit in and kids want to do what their friends are doing. Judo needs to be casually brought in as an option so it seems more "normal." I can say, without a doubt, that doing Judo in lieu of baseball or football has alienated me from my friends. I still feel the effect even as I enter my 20's because they can talk about these sports with each other while the amount of people I can talk Judo to is very limited.
To examine the state of Judo in America more closely, let's isolate ourselves to the United States (obvious), considering Judo to be an American sport that's not living up to its full potential. Can we do that? Judo doesn't exist anywhere except the United States and it's not growing as fast it should be. Well, for one we can see that successful sports in the United States tend to follow this progression: first the lower levels, then the high school level, then the collegiate level, and then the highest level. To clarify this, baseball would be little league/middle school team, high school team, college team, then the MLB. What does Judo have out of these? Judo has a large range of low level up through high school, a poorly developed collegiate system with less than 20 universities being represented, and national competitions. Remember, the Olympics don't count because Judo only exists in America.
How do we make the infrastructure of Judo more like that of other sports? I think the most logical way is from the bottom up. By introducing Judo to children at the same time as other American sports (as I suggested), local clubs will have more attendance. In the best case, the club won't be able to accommodate the wave of youngsters. This will force expansion, and will also justify employing more instructors and charging higher rates for instruction. Even if every town won't have a Judo club, the bigger individual clubs will have enough resources (people) to travel and compete against each other. There is definitely a difference between the distances parents will travel with a team versus just their own child. A team of a few strong players may look great on paper, but having a lot of people of all skill levels attending tournaments contributes more to the feeling of togetherness within a dojo and, in my opinion, is very much the spirit of Judo. If new generations of kids are getting involved every year, naturally the state of the lower levels of Judo will improve.
From there, what happens? Part of the draw of sports in America is that in addition to long-term goals (Major League for Baseball), there also a lot of intermediate goals to look towards (Varsity teams). If the local clubs become strong enough, I actually don't think that it's necessary for Judo to try to penetrate the high schools. Regular competition and engagement with people their own age is enough to keep people interested their whole life. A truly successful Judo program should produce people who, when applying to college, ask themselves "Where's the nearest Judo club to campus?" I grew up with a nice, wholesome grappling experience and when I went off to college I missed it so much that I co-founded Judo Club! Moving back, I mentioned how I thought that NCJA (National Collegiate Judo Association) is underdeveloped. I think the organization itself is great, but it simply does not have enough participating schools to sustain its activities. A step that I think would be successful in fixing this would be to focus on the big state schools (a lot of which already have small clubs) and offer small scholarships that require a person to be on the Judo club's roster for a year. Okay, so this is the part where money magically appears, but this would turn state schools into centers for Judo. A strong foundation of Alumni needs to be built at in order to support it, just like folkstyle wrestling has, just like football has. These schools also tend to have large gym facilities which provide more locations for intercollegiate competition. There are Judo programs at smaller locations that are drastically underfunded, so they can't afford to travel that far. Funding from a university relates directly to the amount of success a team finds in collegiate competition!
I've gotten kind of scatterbrained with this, but if you're an instructor look at how local sports advertise and emulate it. If you graduated from a college that had a Judo club, reach out to them. If you're in a Judo club at a college, reach out to your alumni. It's important.
Thanks for stopping by, you're alright!
Ben
P.S. If you'd like to hear what the more qualified Jimmy Pedro has to say about this, check out this interview.
*If you've ever read The Souls of Black Folk, you're probably also mad that I simplified it so much. Forgive me.
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