The football World Cup has delivered football fever all over the world in recent weeks. Lionel Messi remains unrivalled, for example, Argentina’s crown jewel. But is Lionel Messi arriving at his local football club each week to coach the children of his town? Wimbledon is also front and centre on screens everywhere but is Novak Djokovic helping 12 year old tennis newcomers to improve their backhand? Let’s take an educated guess and say no.
Judo is different! For so many reasons, judo finds its way into people’s blood, into their hearts and once it’s there, it never leaves. On the top of a hill in the city of Peja, Kosovo, Olympic champion Majlinda Kelmendi can be found in the dojo coaching daily judo classes for local judoka. She doesn’t offer a one-off masterclass, but runs large parts of the club programme on top of her national team duties.
Kosovo’s heroine, the blueprint for statues and awards in the country, a retired champion who doesn’t need to work each day anymore, is still driven to be present on the tatami, to give back on a constant basis. Teenagers, children, young seniors, all are given one-to-one help during classes.
Perhaps this feels normal in Peja but it is a special occurrence, a situation that should be recognised and appreciated, one that is becoming more prevalent in different places across the world. World champion Ryunosuke Haga (JPN) is teaching at a dojo in Germany at this time; world and Olympic champion Shohei Ono (JPN) has just completed two years coaching in Edinburgh and London in the UK; Ilias Iliadis (GRE) and Rustam Orujov (AZE) are coaching together in Saudi Arabia.
The ultimate goal of judo is to improve oneself in order to contribute to society and the judo community is evolving constantly to ensure that this part of our genetic make-up is honoured, more and more. The handing down of knowledge is a core part of what we do and nowhere is this illustrated more clearly than in Peja. The local children are coached by a legend and it is normal; what a sport!
