Judo is, to me, first and foremost a martial art. winning medals at competitions is nice, but i feel that it should NOT be a judo practitioner's main aim. the main purpose of practising judo should be to cultivate oneself, and learn to become a better person. sadly, i find that certain relatively high-ranking judo athletes' behaviour is quite thuggish/uncivilized. like in today's competition, one of the SJI kids made a mistake and restarted the clock early towards the end of a match. to be honest, it was a minor mistake. the clock went from 0.8 to 0.4 seconds, and at that stage, the time lost wouldn't have affected the match outcome anyway. yet, a black belt competitor (from the losing side's club, if memory serves) was outraged enough to use a nasty obscenity in full hearing range of the technical officials. makes me seriously question his black belt-worthiness.
it's not that i'm defending the SJI kid. he made a mistake, but it wasn't serious enough to warrant such a strong reaction. i'm also not saying that the other guy doesn't have the right to express his opinion, but as a black belt, he should at least have the self-control to choose his words more carefully, or the brains to say it out of earshot of the technical officials. if he felt that strongly about it, there are appropriate avenues of redress, though i think the case would be thrown out.
the other thing that annoyed me today was an issue of professionalism. as referees, we are supposed to be neutral. regardless of who is fighting, we aren't supposed to show any emotion as long as the referee badge and tie are on. yet, there was this one referee who acted more like a coach; yelling instructions and encouragement to her club's players. i was visibly displeased by this, and i think she noticed. she says it's hard to control the urge to act like a coach, to which i reply "nonsense". if it isn't easy for you, how about the rest of us? do we not feel similarly when our players are up there? referees should have the professionalism to refrain from displaying excessive emotions. that's not to say we have to be robots. small gestures (nods, smiles) are fine, but yelling and cheering is just...no.
incidents like these are making me question the standard of judo in singapore. granted, these cases are few, but that's all that's needed to destroy the good name that was much more difficult to build up. if i ever get appointed to a high enough position of power in the federation, one of my top priorities will be to sort out all these issues. but that's at least 10 years away from happening.
honours orientation and safety training tomorrow. that's long form for "boring". also signals that school is starting sooner than i'd like. back to the daily grind, i guess.
it's not that i'm defending the SJI kid. he made a mistake, but it wasn't serious enough to warrant such a strong reaction. i'm also not saying that the other guy doesn't have the right to express his opinion, but as a black belt, he should at least have the self-control to choose his words more carefully, or the brains to say it out of earshot of the technical officials. if he felt that strongly about it, there are appropriate avenues of redress, though i think the case would be thrown out.
the other thing that annoyed me today was an issue of professionalism. as referees, we are supposed to be neutral. regardless of who is fighting, we aren't supposed to show any emotion as long as the referee badge and tie are on. yet, there was this one referee who acted more like a coach; yelling instructions and encouragement to her club's players. i was visibly displeased by this, and i think she noticed. she says it's hard to control the urge to act like a coach, to which i reply "nonsense". if it isn't easy for you, how about the rest of us? do we not feel similarly when our players are up there? referees should have the professionalism to refrain from displaying excessive emotions. that's not to say we have to be robots. small gestures (nods, smiles) are fine, but yelling and cheering is just...no.
incidents like these are making me question the standard of judo in singapore. granted, these cases are few, but that's all that's needed to destroy the good name that was much more difficult to build up. if i ever get appointed to a high enough position of power in the federation, one of my top priorities will be to sort out all these issues. but that's at least 10 years away from happening.
honours orientation and safety training tomorrow. that's long form for "boring". also signals that school is starting sooner than i'd like. back to the daily grind, i guess.
-random thought of the day: Had to get all this off my chest.-
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