the
Official
Detroit
Judo
Club
Historical
Website
The Time for Change is NOW!
Don Pohl
Associate Editor, Judo Illustrated
March/April 1969
Judo
in the United States took its first step toward being a national organization in the early
l950's when five areas including Hawaii, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Chicago
formed the Amateur Judo Association, the forerunner of the United States Judo Federation.
Although many of these early pioneers had visions of growth, it is doubtful that they ever
fully realized the ultimate fruits of their action.
The original idea was primarily to open avenues of communication and association. And, since judo was limited to but very few areas of the country, their program was adequate for the times. But events were to dictate otherwise. Judo caught on. It outstripped all expectations, and for years the Federation found itself in a position of trying to catch up.
Because of the urgency of the problem, so much of the technical and administrative development in the past few years had been of a stop-gap nature to either catch up or cope with the pressing matters of the day. As a result, long-range planning has suffered, and the Federation has now found itself in a position of serious re-appraisal.
If fault is to be assessed, we doubt if it can be laid at the feet of the leaders. It may be true that some may not have risen to the occasion; but in an operation staffed by volunteers, it would be unfair to single out certain individuals as scapegoats for real or imaginary ills which beset us.
By and large, the USJF and AAU have done well; however, today we cannot live on our past accomplishments any more than we can excuse our present position on the tremendous growth of the sport.
Many long-range plans are in order. But the one which may be paramount to our future is the creation of smaller regional associations which can service the needs of the country. The present 21 regional associations of the USJF are woefully inadequate to do the job. Communication and participation indicate that vast areas can no longer administer the needs of the country.
It would behoove all individuals and clubs to put their houses in order and work diligently for regional cooperation and development. Once this is achieved, new regional associations would be assured. One cannot, however, fill a void with a vacuum - and you cannot right the present problem by compounding it.
Complaints of inadequate service can only be justified when the area can show that they can do better. If they can, and are willing to prove it, nothing should stand in the way of separate autonomy.