Official Wants Judo Coaches To Train Althletes

Executive member, Commonwealth Judo Association,  Prof. Olakintan DeSouza, has urged Nigerian judo coaches to wake up to the responsibility of regular training of athletes, to raise the standard of the sports.

DeSouza spoke to newsmen in Lagos on the Nigeria Judo Federation’s (NJF) failure to discover enough talents at the just-concluded 18th National Sports Festival in Lagos.

“Coaches should be more conscious of their jobs if judo would ever reach its peak in the country.

“Sincerely, we cannot boast of promising young talents at the 18th National Sports Festival. I think we discovered one or two talents and not more than that,’’ he said.

According to him, the poor turnout of young talents at the festival was a reflection of the failure of the coaches in the discharge of their duties.

DeSouza lamented the inability of the federation to organise regular tournaments to develop the sport.

“It is a pity, we only had two national tournament this year, the second being the National Sports Festival, whereas our colleagues in other countries hold competitions every other week.

“In judo, we need techniques which must be practised constantly; repetitive training makes the techniques part of the athletes,’’ said the International Judo Federation (IJF) referee.

DeSouza, who is also a board member of the NJF, urged coaches to attend courses, workshops and seminars on the sport, to acquaint themselves with its current rules and techniques.