In preparation of the EC seniors and teams in Vienna and the period of Olympic qualification, the EJU arranged the yearly seminar for referees and coaches together in Puglia in Italy.
The seminar was directed by Jan Snijders, EJU Referee Director and Daniel Lascau, Vice-President Sports of EJU.
89 Referees and coaches from 42 countries participated at this seminar.
Special guests at this seminar were the President of EJU, Sergey Soloveychik, the General Treasurer Dr. Laszlo Toth, the IJF Head Referee Director Juan Barcos and the General Secretary of EJU Envic Galea.
This seminar was very well organized by the Italian federation, under the direction of Pasquale Chyurlia and his staff from the region Puglia.
The seminar was run on two days, and included both practice on the tatami and theory.
There was a lively discussion about 60 examples of the brand new IJF DVD “World Flashes 2010” and finaly every participant got the new DVD together with the results of our common discussion and conclusion.
It was the first time since a long time that coaches and referees joined together in a practical seminar. Initiated by EJU president Sergey Soloveychik, the participants look back at a very positive atmosphere, and a great feedback of both coaches and referees.
Both parties may have a different goal during competition, but in this working environment coaches and referees joined on the tatami to explain situations and explain each others vision, which differs.
EJU Refereeing director Jan Snijders: “It was great to see that both groups came together more and more and were open to learn from each others angles. Coaches look differently to referees now and vice versa. This is the ground for a good decision on the tatami.”
“Both groups contributed to this joined ambition. During competition they had other opinions, but in this practical sphere, you can show videos with examples and both referees as coaches understood the explanation and agred upon the decision made and the grounds for the change of the rules.”
“We have statistics of the last international events of this year with scored ippon and waza-ari together over 70%. At the World Championships in Rotterdam this was 56%. So it contributes to positive judo. We’re now much more in the same frequency of thinking.”
Representatives of the refereeing commission as the coach commission were present like Maarten Arens (NED), Ezio Gamba (RUS), Joaquin Ruiz (ESP) and Patrick Roux (GBR).
The seminar was good contribution to judo and a good initiative for continue in the future.