I am not being a nostalgia driven guy who cries for good, old days (I am not that old anyway), but I cannot help but notice that at large today's Judo culture in Western countries is still being carried on by aging instructors.
These aging instructor still teach very good Judo. Most of them have learned it from the source - Japanese instructors who spread the fundamental, wholesome Judo to Europe and America.
The problem is - these guys (senior instructors) are geting increasingly old, frail and incapable of "showing" the skill.
One of my former instructors is suffering debilitating ilness. His skill is vanishing. My other instructor had his spine broken, and he cannot go on for a very long.
They are treasures of knowledge, skills, contacts accross the globe, great stories, but they are inevitably going away.
I do not see the suitable "replacements" for them - specially not in USA.
So when we discuss "Decline of Judo" I see it as inevitable just due to the fact that people who volounteer their time and skills today will simply be gone tomorrow, and they will have no one to continue on. The ones that go on may simply not be good enough to preserve and pass on the unique and impressive skill of wholesome Judo.
I am hoping to have skills and fortune to be able to learn and pass on the skill as we learn it from the ones that are great at it.
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1 comment:
I completely agree with you. I can imagine that the next generation of instrucures for judo and many other martial arts will lack the skill that our past instructors posessed. It would be very unfortunate to lose the knowlege and skill that i feel is already diminishing.
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