Within the final days of the OTC in Poreč, Chair of the IJF – EJU Academy, Mr Envic GALEA presented the IJF Academy coaching course to hundreds of athletes participating on this busy camp.
Galea began by explaining how the organisation of the course is perfect for competitors training at a high level as much of the course covers techniques and refereeing rules, most of which they already know and the course acts simply as a formality. The course lasts only 18 weeks in an online capacity with one week physical assessment. The point was made that for the athletes looking to Paris 2024, this physical week can be delayed until after the tournament.
In regards to the physical aspect, Galea emphasised that it is better to do now whilst young and fit as opposed to later on in the career when potentially not as able. Importantly, one area of the course looks at the long-term athlete development model and athletes should consider their education in order to expand on their option post career.
Basically, this is called dual-career. This means you already have a full time activity like being a top level athlete, but in the meanwhile you are also studying for your future and the advantage for these athletes is that they are already physically fit. when you come to the exams, you don’t have the problems like old coaches coming, like me, unable to get off the mat so easily after falling. So it is easy for them and very useful, because there is a lot of studying physiology which they will already know for themselves, a hundred techniques, refereeing rules which they know very well, and we have seen with top athletes, who have done the course, continued on with competition and in fact improved their performance.
This course is available in 12 languages at the moment and the physical assessment is available in many countries. In a bid to demonstrate the popularity of this course, he brought to the from Barbara MATIC, Larisa CERIC and Krisztian TOTH who will begin the course on the 7th of August. Galea spoke of how beneficial it is to athletes to take advantage of this time,
An important point is that the registration must be made by the national federation on behalf of the athlete by the 17th of July with the aim of starting alongside the aforementioned athletes.
Judoka
Author: Thea Cowen