Jiu-Jitsu in Management Deadlock: Is It Time to Review How It Is Run?

The controversial situation of the Jiu-Jitsu Association and its weak results at major events have raised the need to examine handing the association's management over to the Federation of Martial Arts Associations.

Ambassador Arjan - sports group; Mohammad Bairami: The recent failures of Iranian Jiu-Jitsu in international competitions have once again raised the need to review the management performance of this discipline. The repetition of unfavorable results, not just failure in the Asian Games in three consecutive periods, failure in the Asian Championship and the Beach Games, along with the ambiguity in the selection of athletes and technical staff, shows that this issue cannot be limited to the results of a few matches. What is more important than anything else is to examine the management mechanism of this field, the quality of decisions and the level of accountability of the relevant officials.

Jujitsu in Iran has the ability to develop and be more effective in the international arena with its specialized capacities and activities of different styles. However, taking advantage of these capacities requires having a coherent structure, long-term planning, clear criteria for selecting specific national and military teams to evaluate the performance of managers and technical staff. Issues that have been ignored by the current management of the Jiu-Jitsu Association so that its margins become more prominent day by day than the day before.

In fact, whenever the sports results are accompanied by serious questions about the management style, a detailed examination of the existing structure will be an undeniable necessity.

Ambiguity in decisions; An important issue in recording poor results

One of the main points of criticism raised about the performance of the Jiu-Jitsu Association is the way athletes and technical staff members are selected. Selection of dispatchers, designation of technical officials and performance evaluation of the national team should be based on clear criteria, specialized criteria and verifiable documents. In this regard, the association did not act transparently, the selection of players who performed poorly in the Asian Championship hosted by Kazakhstan two months ago and were eliminated in the first round in Nagoya.

In such a situation, the basic question is whether the current mechanism sufficiently provides the possibility of independent monitoring of managerial and technical decisions. How is it that the technical committee is formed with the presence of all competent people to investigate a failure that they themselves caused? How and by whom is the performance of the officials in the elections and dispatches evaluated? The main issue in the results of the seemingly technical committee after international failures, will it lead to identifying the root of the problems and correcting the procedures, or will it be limited to holding meetings and providing explanations?

Necessity of independent investigation of issues related to sending and doping

In this regard, the issue of doping and the issues raised about the presence of athletes in the sampling process before being sent to the Asian Games and reports on the results of anti-doping tests are also issues that should be carefully examined based on official documents.

In this context, it is necessary to distinguish between the possible absence at the time of sampling, the reported abnormal laboratory findings and the final proof of the anti-doping violation. It is claimed that an athlete who was not present at the time of the doping test, was doing weight training in a nearby gym, should be investigated more carefully! In this case, managerial negligence or weakness should be established, responsibilities should be clearly defined and appropriate corrective measures should be taken.

transfer of management; A strategy to reform the structure, not eliminate Jiu-Jitsu

In the face of the existing problems, one of the solutions that can be considered is to transfer the management of the Jiu-Jitsu Association to the Federation of Martial Sports Associations; A federation that is responsible for managing several associations and martial arts.

Jiu-Jitsu can continue its specialized activities in the form of an association, while at the same time, its macro-management, supervisory and executive responsibilities are defined within the framework of the federation.

Structural reform must be accompanied by an operational plan

Any management change can lead to improvement of conditions when it is accompanied by a set of specific actions. Publication of national team selection criteria, documenting the reasons for selecting athletes and coaches, independent evaluation of the performance of the technical staff, reviewing the results of the delegations and determining measurable indicators for the progress of the field are among the measures that should be prioritized.

Is it time to rethink the way jujitsu is run?

The repetition of failure in various competitions and its repetition in consecutive years, the ominous shadow of doping, the ambiguities raised in some managerial decisions and the need for more transparency in the selection and dispatching processes are the reasons that justify a serious review of the structure of the Jiu-Jitsu administration. Continuing the current situation without a detailed evaluation and a clear correction plan cannot meet the expectations of the Jiu-Jitsu community and athletes who strive to be successful in international competitions.