Over the last 12 months the amount of Competitive Judoka has dropped dramatically, the snow ball effect is this there are less and less Judo competitions, those that are run have a poor turnout or cancelled at the last moment due to lack of support. It was hoped that when the Governing body for Judo the British Judo Association opened its doors to all Judo organisations, the competitions standards would increase as would competition numbers would rise. I am sorry to say this has not happened quite the opposite has occurred, with some Judo Associations abandoning organising competition all together. Our own Young Judo Club has decided to give its own Annual “Garden of England Competition “ a rest because last year saw a large drop in entries and the club made a substantial loss something the committee would not tolerate.
WHY THE LACK OF INTEREST:
Her some of the ideas being banded about
1) Recession: people not having money and most of the public being depressed because the way the country is run
2) Kids only interested in computer games and TV
3) Parents reluctant to give up a weekend for their kids
4) Non Competitive attitude in Schools
5) Kids to soft and undisciplined
6) Introduction of the United Kingdom Coaching Certificate, which has led to lots of old time coaches retiring rather then go through rather expensive hoops to carry on teaching something they have don for 30 years
7) Introduction of the Club Mark scheme with all its unnecessary bureaucracy
8) Non competitive Grading system for all ages.
I am not sure whether any the above applies, what I do know is the Young judo Club memberships remains static, which in this day and age is good, but our youngster do not want to compete.
BJA KENT OPEN DARTFORD
This competition is a prime example of what I been saying , the BJA has the most Judo Clubs in Kent yet only 40 boys , 20 men, 15 girls and 5 women entered some weights had no entries some had only two. It was reported you could see a marked decline in the standard of Judo, of course you will the youngsters who want to compete are not getting the competitions or quality matches for them to be able to improve.
The Young Judo Club / Sittingbourne Judo Society had three entries and the reason for the small turnout nobody new about the competition until the Tuesday before the event approx another 10 players Senior and Junior could not make the event due to prior arrangements especially as was the start of the School Holiday’s. The three juniors who did enter all won Medals:
Silver Ashley Jordan had 5 in his weight and fought extremely well only just missing out on the Gold. Ashley at 15 years of age is very light for his age so it was pleasing to see him move up to the u34k class at 16 years of age the minimum weight in Judo for an adult is 60k. Hopefully he puts on weight before then even if his Judo career is curtailed for a few years he is lucky enough to belong to a club that participates and practises other Grappling forms, Sombo and Kurash both jacket wrestling sports lowest weight is 48k. Ashley has already proved himself in both of these events by winning National Gold medals hopefully he will keep up the Judo no matter what the difficulty.
Ben Franks won Gold u46k by a count back of points he had 3 fights and two wins as did another lad but Ben had more points. Ben can be a good fighter but he has a bad habit of throwing tantrums when he loses this has got to stop. There is nothing wrong with being unhappy about losing NO real champions likes losing, but you have to take defeat gracefully and learn from the defeat so make defeat a positive rather then a negative.
Jamie Marzetti o73k had 4 in his weight and steam rolled his way through to a convincing Gold with no losses, at 15 years of age he is a big strong boy and his training in the Adult class since he was 14 years has made him Tough Hard Fit and technically sound
Next big event is the British Sombo Open Swallows Leisure Centre Sittingbourne April 19th
More information on BJA/IBF judo go to www.sittingbourne.org sombogb@blueyonder.co.uk 01795 437124
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