Judo coach honoured

“For them to choose me over a lot of the high level coaches in the province is incredible. It’s something that I would’ve never ever really dreamed of,” said Amy Harris, an NCCP Level 1 coach at the Hayabusa Training Centre Ltd.

Harris, 27, was nominated for the award, presented annually by the Alberta Kodokan Black Belt Association. Requirements include: coaching athletes at provincial or national tournaments; demonstrates and abides by the coaching code of ethics and has made significant contribution to the growth of judo in Alberta.

“I was actually really surprised so it’s pretty surreal,” said the first-degree (shodan) black belt.

Harris is the head instructor of the children and youth judo programs at the Hayabusa club and the students range in age from four to 15.

“Our program is so young being only seven years old, whereas all the other judo programs in the province are probably 50, 60 years old. They’ve been around for a long, long time and they’re very developed and we’re pretty new in the sport,” Harris said. “It’s pretty amazing to be recognized as coach of the year since we’re only seven years into the sport.”

Harris has been mentoring kids since obtaining her Early Childhood Development Certification in 2006.

“I’ve worked with kids for a very long time and it’s been one of my passions,” she said. “I want to be able to help kids. A lot of them who come to me are either troubled kids or ones with some learning disabilities. They can’t just go to any sport and be successful so through my teaching methods I’m able to have them be successful. They learn discipline and show dedication that a lot of parents say they’ve never been able to do before.

“To be able to do that with kids and helping them grow as students is amazing and for them to get that self confidence that they never had before is what makes me want to keep coming back and teaching them.”

Her coaching philosophy revolves around having fun.

“No matter what you do with them as long as they’re having fun they’re going to be coachable,” said Harris, who is busy preparing eligible students for the 2016 Alberta Winter Games and nationals. “It’s going to make them respond a lot better than just being so strict that they don’t even want to be there so we have a lot of fun. We play different drills and some you can call them games but they’re really drills and exercises that get them doing movements that they need, to be able to do technique.

“They have fun, they learn and it creates discipline.”

Building confidence is another rewarding aspect as a coach.

“If they come in and their heads are down, boys and girls, we just try to keep their head up so confidence is huge. That takes a lot of time and when we’re able to finally build their confidence then they’re able to kind of let you in and be able to coach them to be able to learn techniques that they’re able to do.”

Harris also takes pride as a role model for females.

“At the beginning we had very little girls, usually it was only boys in this sport so being a female growing up in the sport I had only male training partners, even right from five years old and up I always trained with boys. Now probably at least over half of our program is girls so it’s amazing to be able to coach them to get to the next level and have fun and learn just basic self defence,” said the certified personal fitness trainer, corrective exercise specialist, TRX suspension training instructor, yoga for athletes instructor who also has her Olympic weightlifting certification.

Her mandate is to spread awareness about the martial arts and the importance of making positive decisions.

“Being a kid growing up in martial arts it changed my outlook on a lot of things in life. When you’re in school there is a lot of those pressures to make different choices so when you’re in sports and athletics and martial arts you get a lot of respect for yourself and you show respect to others, whether it’s your teachers, your peers or your other classmates so to be able to teach that to other kids at a young age where you can a make a difference is something you can’t really explain as a coach.”

Harris credits Keith Bibbey of the Tolide Judo Kwai in Fort Saskatchewan as her guiding light as a coach.

“He pretty much had a kind of a no BS mentality in the sense that if you want to do well you show up to practice, you train hard and you go to every tournament and every training camp. You pretty much eat, sleep and breathe judo,” said Harris (nee Bienert), who joined the Fort Saskatchewan club at age five and had to be convinced to experience her first competition. “At times as an early teen you can kind of have those moments where you don’t want to listen. It’s like you know everything and he was very good at keeping it balanced while getting you ready for that tournament. He would always make notes and say this girl is doing this, how do we train to beat her and how do we train to improve. He was always really good at bringing stuff back to the club so I could train properly to be successful at my next event. Even if you won there were still things to work on so we would always tweak things to make it better for the next time.

“He was inspirational that way. He put in a lot of effort. A lot of people don’t realize as a coach what really goes into the team. It’s not just that couple of hours a week on the mats, there is a lot above and beyond what your coach goes through for the athletes so it’s good to kind of show the appreciation back to students.”

Judo has engulfed her life, from competitor to coach.

“The reason I’ve stuck with it so many years is the environment of it. It’s not just at practice, which I always had fun going to, but it’s like when you go to tournaments and training camps you build relationships outside of your home team that last a lifetime,” said the Ardrossan High School alumna. “Putting hours in training is hard. It’s not just anybody that can put in the hours training, there has to be more than that to be able to get longevity out of the sport and for myself it’s probably the friend aspect of it and being able to meet new people.”

Harris was 13 when she competed at her first nationals in junior and in her fifth and last nationals she won bronze as a brown belt in the U18 minus-57 kilogram division in 2005.

The multiple provincial champion was also named the Judo Alberta IJF female athlete of the year in 2005.

The next year Harris was the only female selected by Judo Alberta to train with the French national team in Paris before competing on the international stage for Canada in Arlon, Belgium and finished fourth overall.

“That was a very pivotal year I would say in my life. My best friend (Stephanie Kerr) who I trained with died that year and so I didn’t want to train anymore and I didn’t want to do tournaments but my coaches convinced me to try and do one more year so I did. That was the year I ended up getting my bronze on the podium and then I got invited to go to Europe so it was a pretty big year for me.”