Study trip to Azerbaijan

National Cadet Coach Jessica Wahlstedt has been to Azerbaijan to study from the Azerbaijani judo system and get new ideas from Azerbaijan’s work with young athletes. This is her story from her stay in “The land of fire”. The Norwegian Judo Federation has had a close and good cooperation with the Azerbaijani Federation, National Judo Team and Atilla Judo Club for many years. Goeril Johansen, Head of our National Team started this friendship and co-operation when she lived and worked in Baku for three years and we have since benefited from common camps and trainings every year. The Azerbaijani team likes to come to Norway to calm down and adjust to Europe before big competitions. Many other countries envy us these close ties with one of the world’s strongest judo nations. In November Martin Thiblin went to Baku for a 5 weeks long training stay to prepare for the Olympic qualification starting in May and I followed him to study the Azerbaijani judo system and their work with young athletes. The stay gave me a lot of ideas to my work with our cadet team; I presented some of the methods for my young athletes at the camp in December. There are similarities between the Azerbaijani and Norwegian model, Norway just needs time and patience to advance to the level on which we would like to be. Atilla Judo Club Atilla was a famous powerful king during the years of 430. The dojo of the 20 year old club is situated in a big building which used to be an Olympic Sport school during the Soviet time. Now Atilla is training on the 2nd floor, and during a week 35 sessions are taking place. Goeril has a friend who works in the bank on the ground floor and he has said that noise can be heard from the judo trainings, and that some times when the seniors are throwing the whole building is shaking from bodies being thrown to the mats. The National team is coming to train in Atilla some days every week and they also have camps. Members of Atilla have achieved more than 20 medals in European and World Championships. Since its independence, Azerbaijan has won 2 Olympic gold medals and one Olympic bronze in judo. School and training In the Azerbaijani school system the number of children is higher than the number of schools. Therefore the children are studying in two groups, first group from 08-13 hrs. and the second from 14-19 hrs. Therefore trainings for the children take place 09-10.30 and 15-16.30. Most children start at the age of 7-10 and train 3 times a week on the different sessions. From the age of ten, the children have the possibility to attend a sports school where they can do 8-10 sessions a week, but never during the weekend when the time is set aside for sauna and massage and tea. The most talented and strong children start training twice a day when they are 12-13 years old together with older athletes who train for European and World Championship medals. This means that they can be with and look up to older and stronger athletes. Ali muellim The Head Coach of Atilla is the great friend of Norway, Ali Davrishov. The athletes call him Master Ali out of respect and honour. Alimüllelim has been a professional coach since 1980. With his nice accent and wise mind he reminds me of one of the heroes in Star Wars, Yoda. He looks very calm and relaxed, but suddenly he does an extremely fast and strong yoko tomoe nage. During sessions he often sits quietly on the sides, presumably just relaxing, but after he instructs every athlete and tells them in detail how they can improve their judo. He has observed and understood every move they have done during the session. Many athletes say Ali muellim is the best coach and that his sessions are extremely good. He makes every athlete feel self coconscious and strong during training and competition. Ali has produced many strong athletes, like Elcin Ismailov who has won 3 European Championship gold medals. The Head Coach wants the athletes not only to perform well in sports, but also that they act like polite and knowledgeable human beings. When he travels with the athletes, he takes them around to the city and the museums to learn more. Alimüellim loves Norway and feels strongly for our team and our athletes. He is Goeril’s Azerbaijani father, Martin’s loyal coach, and mentor for our coaches. Ali remembers all the athletes who have been to Baku and sometimes asks how Albin, Esther, Ane and Mr. Lavash are doing. Training The training in Atilla is not very long in time, but very intensive and hard, also during the sessions for children. I watched the session for children 8-10 years old while doing uchi komi. They did the same technique for 6 minutes, this means between 280 and 320 uchi komi. When the sessions start they bow in, not just in the traditional way for judo, they have added a ritual from the military. All the judo players are lined up and the one with the highest grade says “stand up right, look at me, rei. They always have the same warm up, from the first training until the last. The rest of the session also has a system. The younger players do more uchi komi, a lot of throwing and some randori, like 4-5 practices, at the end. Competitions Children start competing within the club, then in city championships. They get very good competition training as the number of young judo players in Baku is very high, probably several thousands. To compete in the Azerbaijani championships you have to qualify through city championships from where the ten best players can go further. In the Championships of The Republic of Azerbaijan there are 300-400 competitors. Athlete profiles Elmar Gasimov is born in 1990 and started judo at the age of 9 after the wish of his father. He has been training twice a day since the age of 13. Now Elmar is ambitious and is proud when he wins big tournaments like the European Championships for juniors. He also did very well in the World Championships in Rotterdam in 2009 where he despite his young age was number 5. Ali Rzayev was born in 1992 and started judo at the age of 7, also motivated by his father’s wish. He wanted to play football, but the word of a father is strong. Ali has been training twice a day since he was 13 and his ambition is to win medals in senior tournaments. His best results are from 2008 when he won gold in Russian, Turkey and Italy. As you know, Azerbaijan has fostered a number of big athletes like Olympic champion Elnur Mammadly, Mövlud Miraliyev, Elxan Mammadov and Kifayet Gasimova, to mention some of them. My personal experience from Baku When I arrived to the airport and had to apply for a visa, I at first experienced some problems because I didn’t have the address of our apartment. However, when I said I was a Norwegian Judo Coach visiting the National Judo Team of Azerbaijan, they all apologized and issued me the visa immediately. I had the same experience one day when the police stopped me in the street. Judo is really a very well respected and famous sport in Azerbaijan. I also enjoyed the special Azerbaijani culture, and we had several interesting and fun experiences when doing shopping and walking in the streets talking to people. Martin and I got a lot of attention, and the judo players asked a lot of questions. We had a wonderful time enjoying the Azerbaijani hospitality. Our judo friends took us to dinners with dancing, around in the beautiful, charming old city and to the fire mountain. We had a fantastic time with Ali; he told us stories about Baku and Azerbaijan. One evening we were guests in the audience of New Star, an Azerbaijani TV-show, which was also an interesting experience. A fantastic experience I had a wonderful time in Baku and felt so well received by our judo friends. I look forward to many years of cooperation and hope as many as possible of our athletes can experience the culture of Azerbaijan in competitions and trainings. Don’t hesitate; take the chance to experience an other country and culture through judo. I promise you that this will be a memory for life!