A fun evening tonight!

I just wanted to thank everyone tonight for a fun evening as your coach.

We are enjoying a little boost in interest from adult beginners, presumably as a result of the Olympic Judo competition. As a result we had a night where we had new faces join us (male and female).

It was also very nice to have Mr. Ray Whitfield visit us tonight. Ray is one of the senior members of the Judo coaching community in Hampshire, it was pleasure to have him on our mat and to have him do Randori with our newcomers.

Thank you all for attending and sharing the mat with me, I came off the mat happy after watching big smiles from the new faces and our established players.

We are in the quiet period before the university students come back and before we start preparing for the Hampshire Team Championships starting in October. So it is a pleasure to have new people joining us now.

Thanks again, see you next week!

Lance
(Coach)

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Congratulations to Gemma Gibbons and Karina Bryant of the TeamGB Judo team on their Olympic medals!

Gemma won the -78kg silver medal and Karina the Bronze in the +78kg category.

On behalf of the Southampton City Judo Club; CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Summer training

We shall be continuing training over the summer.

ADULTS (and late teens):

  • Thursday: 6:30pm

At St Marys Leisure Centre.

All are welcome to attend, three pounds at the reception desk.

Fighting Chance Southampton.

Starting on May 15th, 2012; we are again running an eight week course of Judo at the Oasis Academy (Green Lane, Lords Hill), Southampton.

This is the second time we have run a course like this for the Fighting Chance project.

As we have some graduates from the previous course; we are pleased to announce that we have an open session at 8pm on Tuesdays which is open to previous graduates of the 8 week yellow belt challenge and members of the community.

We are very happy to be involved in this worthwhile community project and would like to thank the sponsor organisations and referring agencies for their support. We would also like to thank Lee Quilter of the Fighting Chance project for bringing the great project to Southampton.

Heavyweights are go!

After having had a lack of heavyweight men in the past; the club has recently had an influx of adult beginners.

In part this is thanks to our close relationship with Southampton Solent University and the great “Sport Solent” team.
This relationship has meant that as the university’s American Football team’ season came to a close; some of the players have come to us for something different.

The skill set and physical attributes of American Football and other contact sports like Rugby match nicely with Judo.

This matching has meant that these novice adults are progressing very rapidly in Judo and their work ethic is helping with this too.

“It’s been great to see how fast the Redhawks have taken to Judo. ” commented coach Lance Wicks after a recent session at St Marys Leisure Centre in central Southampton.

Training at the club continues throughout the summer. Beginners and experienced players are always welcome; especially on the Thursday night Randori.

For more information please email lw@judocoach.com

Judo back this week!

Judo is back at St Mary’s this week.

Thursday 6:30pm: Randori
Saturday 3pm: We host the 2nd Hampshire team champs trial competition event
Sunday 5:30pm: training

Easter break.

Please note that there will be no Judo on Thursday 5th April, Friday 6th April or Sunday 8th April 2012.

Please enjoy the Easter break and come back on April 12th rested and full of enthusiasm. 🙂

5 new yellow belts

Congratulations to the 5 young people who tonight gained their yellow belts as part of the Fighting Chance project.

Tonight was the last night in the worthwhile and successful “Fighting Chance” project that we gave been involved in.

For sometime now, club instructor Lance Wicks has been introducing Judo to the young people of Milbrook on Friday evenings.

The project, is a collaboration between the BJA, Hampshire Constabulary, Southampton City Council, Southampton Football Club, Hampshire Judo Academy, Southampton City Judo Club and the Fighting Chance project.

Tonight saw the first batch of young people gain their BJA yellow belts. In May another batch of young people will have the opportunity to participate in the scheme.

Interested organisations interested in referring young people to the project should contact Lance ( lw@judocoach.com ).

Judo during spring break.

During the students half term break, we will continue to train.

It’s a perfect time for you to return or come along for the first time as our numbers will be a little lower.

Thursday 6:30-8:00pm is Randori.
Sunday 5:30-7:00pm is technique.

Contact us for more information.

Silver at BUCS Championships!

We are very proud that our young club earned it’s first national medal on March 17th 2012.

Ilya Kalugin, part of our Southampton Solent University Judo Club programme fought through injury to claim the silver medal at Britians highest student competition. Ilya’s grit and determination was on display as he powered his way into the final; spending all his time between fights with an icepack on his rapidly swelling knee.

In the closely fought final, Ilya was unfortunate to take a knock to his spine which cost him the advantage… his Russian opponent took the moment and caught Ilya for Ippon.

Ilya was joined by team mates Ken Iizuka and Elly Tiburco at the event.
Ken fought very well in the -73kg category with Ilya. This 60+ strong category was very tough and Ken was able to make it into the knock out stages before losing to a talented fighter from Anglia Ruskin University who was tipped as a favourite for the final.

Elly fought in the -57kg category and improved fight on fight, finishing her day with a wonderful Taio Toshi. Unfortunately, this was still not enough to make it out of her pool and into the knockout stages.

 

This is the first BUCS championships the club has been involved in and the great performances were beyond what could have been expected when the academic year started.

The team would like to thank Johny Watch and Sport Solent for their support in making it possible for the players to be at the event and compete.

Thanks also to the friendly players and coaches and to the officials on the day who helped the club enjoy it’s first visit to the BUCS championships