New England Uechi-ryu Needs Your Dojo Support! |
First. . . My Great Idea!
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"Team
Officials"
Jay Salhanick
and his hard working officials have
done a great job since the
kids' series began. However, as a promoter, whose
job it is to make sure the
tournament has sufficient numbers of officials to man
six rings, is a nightmare.
Then, on tournament day, much time is wasted
attempting to get everyone
together, assign rings while. . . attempting to do a
million other things. . .
No one is happy with the extra work
or time taken up with this
task. Instead of getting the kids into their respective
rings and beginning the
event on time, historically parents and competitors
wait patiently while the
rings are set up with officials, time keepers and
scorekeepers.
After going over and over the problem
of getting sufficient
officials to handle our six rings, I finally reasoned that
we were approaching
the problem wrong. Why not find six captains who
will identify and train
five dependable and talented dojo mates and three
people to fulfill the
time-keeper/scorekeeper responsibilities. Although we
could probably make due
with fewer people on a team, having a couple extra
members will allow the
captain to rotate officials for different reasons during
the competition.
I've discussed this idea with a number
of people who liked the
concept and felt that it would really solve many
problems that plague all
tournaments.
Now. . . The implementation!
I've been on the phone working on
identifying the captains. So
far, I've received confirmation that two teams are in
place and two more are
confident they will have teams by the event.
That leaves my "Great
Idea" two, possibly three teams short.
The benefits to your dojo?
We all get those motivational e-mail
letters from martial art
organizations that help build those million dollar dojos
into multimillion dollar
dojos. These newsletters are filled with suggestions
for building a "team"
mentality among students. Get them involved, along
with their parents (no reason
a parent can't be a score/time keeper) in activities
where team-spirit is
involved. Individual martial art practice requires lots
of discipline, patience
and tons of practice. Getting students to work in
teams is a great way to take
advantage of this group spirit. Motivated students
stay with the program. The
old Mattson Academy had one of the largest and
most successful competition team
in the USA. This team provided motivation for the
dojo and for themselves. Why
not implement an "Officials' Team" that
train together, motivate one another and
provide a needed and very necessary service to the
New England Uechi-ryu Series?
A win-win situation for all.
Just think of the positive benefits
for all!
- Tournaments that begin on time!
- Tournaments that are "all
action", no waiting!
- Tournaments that end on time!
- Consistent and fair judging in EVERY ring!
- Officials that are happy, because they
are enjoying the experience and
can go to the bathroom when necessary! :)
- Relieving the hard working tournament
administrators, enabling them to
more efficiently do what they are supposed
to do.
How about a
team trophy for the officials'
team that did the best job during the event? I can
see some of the "old timers"
who attend these tournaments, walking around and
making notes on which teams are
doing the best job, based on
-
Attentiveness and awareness.
-
Attitude and dress. Hey, how about if
each team adopts its own official's
uniforms???
-
Accuracy in calling points
-
Accuracy in judging kata
-
Best
center judge control of matches.
-
Clarity
of calling points and awarding
point/fouls/matches. (Does the audience
know who won the points and match?)
-
Best
control of competitors.
-
Best
manner of awarding medals and
trophies.
As individuals,
officials tend to vary in all
these important. . . no . . .
Essential areas of running a
ring.
As a team,
members tend to improve their
skills and help one another overcome problems that
will arise.
Will You Help Get
Your Dojo Involved? Call me or e-mail me today!
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Dear George,
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Yes, another
plea for help and yet another
great idea from George Mattson!
You have to admit, I've had some really great ideas
over the years. Some say I
was just thirty years too early in getting my black
belt. (And maybe 30 years
too old as well?):)
The martial arts has come a long way in
professionalism and cooperative
attitude in the past 45 years. I get e-mail
from teachers who tell me they
gross over a million dollars a year in their dojo
business! Whew. . . How
many Uechi dojo are able to say that?
Well, I'm not writing to you, promising a million dollar
conversion secret for
your dojo. In fact, I'm once again looking for unpaid
volunteers to work very
hard for one day this month (Saturday, April 30th)
But don't delete this message just yet. I promised
you a really good idea and in
addition, a very nice award for all who decide to help
out.
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Time to think about SummerFest! |
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This year's
"Fest" promises to be
another
great one. Saturday we will be hosting 100 kids from
New England on full
scholarships, thanks to the hard work of the IUKF
Scholarship committee, headed
up by Brian Finnerty and supervised by Board
Chairman, Dr. Paul Haydu.
I am very happy to announce that Kenny Schiff
will be in charge of the JrFest
activities for the day. Ken will be scheduling and
coordinating JrFest all day
Saturday, including the selection of teachers and
organization of classes. This
year we expect kids with some experience in
the martial arts, so Ken will
make sure they will be receiving
instruction, based on their skill
level.
We know, from last years experiences, that the
kids will want to continue
instruction at their local dojo and IUKF wants to
make sure this will happen.
Brian and Ken will work with local dojos, helping with
scholarship funds when
necessary, to ensure that these motivated
youngsters will have a place to
continue their training and the funds needed to pay
their tuition.
If your dojo has
any deserving youngsters who
would like to participate in JrFest, please contact us
today!
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OK. . . Nothing is Perfect! |
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Although my "Team Officials" idea is
wonderful for the promoter and everyone
who wants to see the tournament run smoothly and
efficiently, I foresee a couple
of areas where people might object to the
concept:
- Remember, the teams are made up
primarily with members of a single dojo.
- Once a team gets a ring assignment, it
is quite probable that a parent
or child from that dojo will be competing in
that ring.
- Although a team member can be
replaced when his/her child is competing,
it will be impossible to replace the team
when a child from that dojo is
competing.
It is my hope that parents and sensei will
understand that this compromise is
necessary to allow an officials' team program to
work. Although we have never
been able to conduct a tournament where dojo
mates are replaced when kids from
their dojo are competing and I don't ever see this
happening, since all our
officials come from the same dojo our competitors
come from.
On the plus side, the teams will be judged as a
team instead of individuals,
which will put great pressure on the team members
to be extremely attentive,
fair and objective in their work. Team captains will be
able to work with their
group in the dojo, providing the training and
experience that was available, but
ignored in the past.
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Last Minute Update |
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Woops. . . "My Bad"!
After contacting the other promoters, legal
advisor, rules arbitrator and
Susan. . . :) I discovered that our rules forbid making
any major changes to any
part of the tournament series, until after the final
event of the year. (The NE
Grand Championships)
However, the good news is that all the promoters
really like the Team
Official concept and we will hopefully be implementing
it for the new season.
Everyone recommended that I continue to build the
teams and ask that all teams
attend my tournament on April 30th. Len Testa, who
puts together the ring
assignments has promised to use as many of the
team members as possible and may
even be able to allow teams with a certified head
official to take charge of
rings.
This is very good news to me, since I really,
really, like the idea.
Officially, Len sent me the following statement,
which summarizes the group's
position:
"The last tournament we
had every ring staffed with a certified head
official. There were 5 rings with 3
officials in each making 15. 12 of
the 15 were certified officials.
Please see the attached spreadsheet to
see what I am trying to do with
the moving of officials to make sure
that each competitor gets as
many different officials to score them as
we can. Only this way will a TRUE
champion emerge with no perception of
bias being derived form any
Sensei, competitor or parent.
If we have teams already
in place (at 8:45 PM) , and I can justify
using them appropriately, I
will."
This means, I need the names of all team
members and any IUKF certified
officials that are on your team, by next week, since
Len works up the ring
assignments prior to the tournament.
It really would be nice if we had four or five full
teams and maybe a couple
of teams with less than a full compliment of
members, on hand for Len to work
with. And even if you are not on a team, but are
willing to help out, either as
a side judge or score/time keeper, please send me an
email.
Remember. . . We Need You!
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We Need You! |
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Please e-mail me today with your team members
names. And don't forget to
encourage the kids in your dojo to register today for
the tournament. Over 100
awards plus the New England Grand Championship
trophies to the winners in each
division.
Click on the image to bring up the application
form. Print it and send it in (You will need Acrobat, a
free program, to view)
ASAP.
See you on the 30th
George E. Mattson
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