The Japanese MMA Federation (JMMAF) has announced ambitious plans to consolidate the development of amateur MMA as a sport in Japan and take it to the next level operationally, following the visit of IMMAF Director of Development, Andrew Moshanov.
The JMMAF has held a series of meetings with key stake holders and engaged a range of experts to enable the effective development of the amateur sport.
“IMMAF’s MMA Coaching Pathways and Progression Scheme have been introduced for JMMAF at the right time,” commented Moshanov on his visit. “The Japanese Sports Association is currently revising its coaching standards and wants to see coaches’ competency expanded in areas such as coach-athlete communication and presentation skills, sports science and sports training methodology. Though JMMAF has an exceptional range of coaches, many of them successful pro-fighters, it is recognised that a good athlete does not always make a good coach, if they lack education in teaching.”
During the IMMAF course weekend, the first wave of JMMAF coaches were trained, tested and received their official IMMAF coaching qualification. Additionally, five young trainees commenced studying towards coaching qualification Level 1 under the supervision of JMMAF Head Coach, Mr. Suzuki.
JMMAF President Masakazu Sakai
JMMAF Head coach, Mr, Suzuki, commented:
“There has never been any coaching syllabus for MMA since day one in Japan and the sport has always been presented to students so that they might learn intuitively. We are happy to receive these guidelines from IMMAF and are keen to work in this direction.”
The JMMAF also plans to introduce training for referees and officials and to host its first All-Japan National Amateur MMA championships on September 2, 2019 in Tokyo.
JMMAF President Masakazu Sakai said:
“The Japanese MMA Federation will structure the development of MMA to become a recognised sport for the 2028 Olympic Games. We will follow IMMAF guidelines in building our federation in Japan, and we will develop a youth education program for MMA. We’d like to bring a Japanese youth team to the next IMMAF Youth World Championships.”
IMMAF President, Kerrith
Brown, said:
“This is an exciting development from our Japanese MMA Federation and we look forward to watching MMA reach new heights in Japan, one of the founding countries of the contemporary sport. We expect the All Japan Amateur MMA Championships to be the first of many and look forward to seeing more Japanese talent follow the successes of IMMAF World & European Junior Silver medallist, Reo Yamaguchi, on the IMMAF | WMMAA platform.”
