Talent Identification: The Key To Building A Solid Judo Program

I had the fortunate privilege of being the Head Coach of the Bahamas Judo Program. Having such a position came with a lot of responsibility and a huge learning curve. Luckily I was prepared for it. But the one thing that I was not prepared for was the understanding that I could have all the knowledge in the world, be a great coach, know how to coach, understand how to run a program, know how to administer a pre-comp and post-comp training program, understand how to market a program, have great understanding of evidenced-based coaching and everything in between and STILL lose.

I was scratching my head, but not for long.

I realized something that was very important.

I realized that the Bahamas has excellent athletes. All I had to do is look in the record book from the Olympic Games and see all of the medals amassed to understand that.
So I understood what my issue was and what makes most programs run successfully.

What is that?

TALENT IDENTIFICATION

Not only do you have to scout the competition, if you are a coach, you have to scout the population of your country, city or county and identify where the pools of talent are and recruit out of those pools. Your program will only be as good as the talent you identify. Geoff Colvin, wrote a book in 2008 entitled, "Talent Is Overrated" and it is an excellent book. And it truly speaks about talent being overrated, and I believe that it is. But it is not insignificant. TALENT MOST 

CERTAINLY DOES MATTER.

In order for your program to be superb and excellent, you must find a way to get good quality athletes and good talent.

How Do You Identify Talent

Well, first and foremost, you identify what skills and talents that the exemplars in the sport of judo possess. You also make sure that you look at things such as the intangibles, like parent commitment. You also look at sports which are similar to judo (this was difficult in the Bahamas because the Bahamas does not have a wrestling or American Football culture). You also must, when dealing with a country program, identify the previous Olympians and contact them to see what their kids are doing.

THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR GOOD PARENTS. GENETICS TRUMPS EVERYTHING!

And then you have to pray that you can sell the parents and the athletes on your sport.

But most important of all, is this: You Must Identify The Talent and Pools Of Talent.

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