Dear all,

As I will be in Austria and our good Friend Michael Pring has organised a training event on Saturday I am cancelling this Sunday’s session in favour of you all grouping together to drive over to the event on Saturday instead.

Attached is a flyer for Saturdays training.

Lance

This Sunday (3pm at St Marys) marks the completion of our exploration of the Gokyo. This I hope has been an enjoyable learning opportunity for all that have taken advantage of the time. It seems to have brought some higher grades out of the shadows to help the lower grades, which is always a good thing.

As discussed in the sessions, the objective of this exploration is not to perfect all the throws rather to gain knowledge the techniques and principles and to experience throws you don’t know well. We want to have a wide vocabulary of Judo techniques, so that you know what you like and dislike; what you are good at and not good at. You never know which technique clicks. For me personally uki waza has been the one that felt nicest, most enjoyable. What has been your highlight?

Judo is not just about physical capabilities (as we’ve discussed); it is about learning. Coaching you the gokyo is good for me to learn as much as it is for you. I have been preparing for every session by reading up on the techniques, watching videos, even discussing with colleagues.

A big help has been the resources on Judospace.com. It has an entire course on the gokyo as part of of the EJU coaching level three. All you you could consider signing up to this course to help you learn more Judo, even if you never see yourself as a coach. It’s 68 quid, but worth it http://www.judospace.com/moodle/.

For full disclosure, I am the IT director of Judospace, but I am mentioning it here as I really think its worth your time to consider studying Judo both physically on the mat as well as academically via a programme like the EJU one. The process of completing the assignments I can assure you will help you get better at Judo.

See you on Sunday, don’t forget to be early and to enjoy it!

Lance.

p.s. Don’t forget to enter the Hampshire Closed which you can do online at https://www.onlineentries.co.uk/events/hampshire/20150301a.php . Full details at http://hampshirejudo.org.uk/competitions/hampshire-championships-closed/

Over recent weeks we have been getting quite a few new people coming along and trying Judo. Welcome to you all, we are really happy to have you join us and I hope you stick with it and become regulars.

I thought this would be a good time to share a little about the club and some things that will maybe help you fit right in.

1. Enjoy yourself!
Judo is fun and supposed to be fun. You will work hard and work up a sweat, you will get thrown and throw others. Enjoy it, take it at your own pace and don’t be afraid to take breaks when you need them.

2. Think of others.
You’ll throw people, you’ll learn strangles and armlocks. These can hurt! So please look after your partners. Take it careful, always be careful and look after the people you train with. Also, you will be spending lots of time in very (VERY) close proximity with other people, so hygiene is important. Coming early and using the showers at St Marys before training is fine/encouraged if you have had a tough day. Equally, wash your Judosuit after training. We have a laundry service at teh club if you need it (make sure you have your name on it permanently somehow if you do though so it does not get lost or confused with someone elses suit).

3. Join the BJA
We want all our members to be members of the national governing body for Judo, the BJA. You can do this easily on line at http://www.britishjudo.org.uk/join/ where you can apply for a new license or renew your existing.

4. Compete!
In our club we believe in sport as a force for good, both in our personal development and in improving the communities is which we live (judo and generally). Competing is fun, it’s a chance to play the game of Judo with people from outside our club. For us, competing is about enjoying the experience and we think everyone should enjoy participating in competitions; so the next time an event is mentioned, give it a go!

5. Explore.
At our club, we try and create an environment for you to learn Judo. The learning itself is up to you. So please explore the techniques, principles and ideas of Judo following your own curiosity. Tell us what you want to learn and we will help you find it. Also, explore other clubs, other sports, other hobbies. Judo may start you along a path to something else that satisfies you, we hope it does. Judo has since it’s creation always been a vehicle for improving lives not a destination, so explore with Judo as core.

6. Ask questions.
Further to point 5, ask us questions. We don’t know all the answers; but ask us and we might know more than you do and if not together we might learn something new. We are not precious about knowing more than the new students; so ask away!

Thats it for now, we thank you for coming along and trying Judo and invite you to keep coming. You are welcome every session, or once a month. You are welcome if you train exclusively with us or if you train elsewhere too (in fact we would encourage you to tarin elsewhere, see point 5).

Lance
(coach).

All, due to a double booking issue on the computers we shall be in the squash court today at a later time (3:40pm). Please spread the word.

Lance

The club restarts this Tuesday 6th January 2015 at 8pm at St Marys Leisure Centre.

We have a busy first quarter coming up which includes the Hampshire Championships and British Universities Championships, so lets get right back into it! Competition players should be attending all sessions if they want to enter competitions.

It also means you need to have your BJA (and Solent) memberships up to date, please ensure everything is in order before the end of January.

See you Tuesday!

The club is now closed until January 6th 2015.

I would like to thank everyone who has attended, supported, coached at fought with the club this year. This year has been a tough one for us and we have not grown as much as we had hoped. In 2015 we will continue to push forward and we will be working hard in the first quarter on the British University Championships preparation. We hope to add some additional training sessions to the schedule to help our athletes prepare.

In 2015 we hope to reboot the Hampshire Team Championships so we and our friends in Judo have events to participate in. We also hope to expand the coaching staff formally and of course grow the membership. We will be spending more time with our friends in Southampton Uni Judo club and Winchester Uni Judo Club as well as taking up an invitation to visit the famous Budokwai Judo Club in London.

We will also be forming an alumni club so that the people that have shared time with us on the mat can maintain their link to the club and we can maintain our friendships.

Once again, thanks to everyone that has supported the club in 2014, have a great break and I hope to see you all fit, healthy and ready to play on January 6th 2015.

Lance
(coach)

Dear all,

Dr. Mike Callan is visiting the club on Tuesday 18th November for our 8pm session at St Marys Leisure Centre. Dr. Callan is a world expert of coach education is Judo, a 6th dan and also driving force behind creation of the Team Bath Judo programme.

Please attend and please invite your judo friends along to what will be an enjoyable and educational evening.

We have a Facebook Event where you can indicate you are coming here: https://www.facebook.com/events/294045144119392/

See you then!

Lance

Please note the club is closed this week.

Next session: Tuesday November 4th

Hi Everyone!

This week we have two things on the calendar.

On Tuesday we have our Randori night (8pm – 10pm); the goal this week is for everyone to bring someone else along; so don’t let the side down and bring a friend!

On Friday we shall be heading up to Camberley Judo Club. Those of you unfamiliar with Camberley Judo Club it is the home of some of the finest Judoka in the country. It is a fulltime training facility where Olympic level athletes live and train; including Olympic Bronze medalist Karina Bryant.

Please RSVP on our facbook event if you are planning on coming along (drivers and people with cars would be appreciated to help get as many people as possible north).

https://www.facebook.com/events/702797986455174/?ref=4

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ssujudo/