Great to have such a busy start to the month, today saw our seniors competing in the Hampshire Team Championships in Eastleigh; results and report to follow.

We ended January with the Kodokan Goshin Jutsu celebration. January marked the 60th anniversary of the formalisation of the event. It was great for our seniors to go throw it from start to finish and for our Junior Bears to discover the kata for the first time via Nerf pistols!

We have also gained some fame, when a popular facebook group featured one of our photos to create a Judo meme image.

Our Junior Bears group is slowly growing (Sundays 2pm) and one of the members created this awesome little poster; please do share it.

Later this month our University student members will compete in the British Universities Championships. We will be holding a belt grading before this and also preparing for more competitions. After grading everyone; we will be choosing another Kata to explore so let us know what you like. We are also trying to decide if we go to Malta in March.

Unfortunately Lance is unable to attend tonight.

This morning the IJF in association with the Kodokan streamed a lecture by Naoki Murata about the history of Judo that is essential viewing for all Judoka.

https://youtu.be/jG9mSJrowQE

Here is one for our growing Sunday afternoon teen class, a free Judo T-shirt prize draw.

The good people at KokaKids magazine are running a competition that’s free to enter, just follow this link:

https://kokakids.leadpages.co/thankyou-ipponprizedraw/

It’s January 2016 and it’s time to do Judo!

Our first session of the year is on Tuesday January 12th!

If you are on Facebook, let us know you will coming along via the event : https://www.facebook.com/events/107758439604171/

We have plenty of beginners normally and expect many more in January especially; so if you have never done Judo before now is the perfect time to try it! Not been on the mat for a while (be it weeks, months or years), come on down on Tuesdays for tachi waza randori, Thursdays for groundwork and Sundays for technical work and in January the Kodokan Goshin Jutsu kata.

Sundays 2pm is when we have our new teen session for secondary school age students; it was just gaining momentum before Christmas there is still room for more new faces there!

Our club is right in the heart of Southampton and focusses on allowing members to enjoy playing the sport and game of Judo. Judo is and should be fun; so we work hard and sweat and have a great time.

If you know someone else who might be interested in doing Judo let them know about us and get in touch if you have any questions!

Thank you everyone for a great 2015!
Our young club has made some historic steps forward this year and 2016/is looking likely to be our best year ever.

The club is now closed until Tuesday January 12th, 2016.

Please enjoy the Christmas period, rest up and be ready for a great 2016.

It’s a great end to the year for us at Southampton Judo Club.

Our newly started teen section is growing steadily, with kids from several schools including King Edwards VII and Wyvern college participating. What is really great is that our numbers are split evenly between boys and girls at the moment. Perhaps having a female Blackbelt on the mat is helping?

Starting this weekend our seniors will be learning the Kodokan Goshin Jitsu kata on Sundays. Which will be a nice balance to their competing in the first of the Hampshire Judo Team Championships on December 6th.

We are looking at our final sessions being on the starting 14 December and recommencing on week starting January 11th. We will confirm those dates shortly.

So tonight we restart training.

Coach Lance has been away at the 2015 Junior World Championships and 2015 Abu Dhabi Grand Slam competitions; but he is back now so training is back to normal as of today (November 3rd).

But that is not all, this week marks the launch of our teen programme. Our Junior Bears programme starts on Sunday (2pm-3pm); this is a class for teens (academic year 7+) and it would be fantastic if those reading this help promote the class in their area or around local secondary schools.

And even that is not all!!

We have had approval from the Hampshire Judo committee to organise the 2015/2016 Hampshire Team Championships. This is a 3 event series for kyu grade men. It is team based, so we need to identify -66kg, -73kg, -81kg, -90kg and +90kg players to represent our club. The fist event is on December 6th so not long to prepare.

As the hosts, it is up to us to make the event special, so please volunteer your time and skills to try and make this the best series of events possible!

Here is the poster our very own Liam has done for the event (please share with your Judo Buddies):

Unfortunately I have been unable to secure coaching cover for the 4 Judo session starting October 25th through 1 November.

This sadly means that Judo is not on on these dates. Judo will be back on as normal from Tuesday November 3rd.

On Sunday October 18th 2015, the team headed up to Eastleigh to compete in the Hampshire Open Judo competition. This level 3 event was open to all and our small team of five players walked away with 4 of the medals on offer.

Great performances were put in by Aleks, Sean, Gary, Sergio and Victor (left to right in photo). What is particularly impressive is that with the exception of Gary, this was the first Judo competition that the team has competed in. So bringing home medals is even more impressive considering the opposition included the 2012 Commonwealth Champion and a current Senior National Squad member (ranked 162nd internationally).

The performances are good indicators for success in the upcoming London Universities Competition (November) and Hampshire Team Championships (December) at which we hope to send full teams.

The icing on the cake was that the team members were awarded free entry at the next Hampshire Judo event by the organisers due to our team staying until the end and helping put the competition mats away and helping tidy up after the competition.

Congratulations to all the team for great performances, a terrific medal haul and for representing the club well and gaining the recognition of the county committee for your true Judo spirit.

More photos from the event are posted on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ssujudo/