We mustered this week and are really happy. 2019 is going to be a big year. We have our first young people off overseas. Jacob and Noah leave for Sydney this month. After spending some time training with an allied club run by a top ex-Olympian there they will travel to Japan then on to England.
It's sad for us coaches but one of the tough things about Judo is you that if you want to really get good you need to travel and spend time overseas. Six weeks or a month here or there doesn't really work At Big Judo our whole aim to develop people and to help them to achieve their potential.
So paradoxically we are most successful when our people are leaving! We are very proud though and hope that they have great time.
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| Noah and Jacob with Don and Nelly at the Nationals last year. |
At the other end of the club we had a great start to the year. We have lots of kids at both dojos and our adult class trained well through the break. Most important, We aren't starting from scratch this year, We have good depth and lots of experienced kids and adults.
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| Tracey and Geoff at Pukekohe. |
And kids are important. Some clubs take the easy option and focus on competitive players neglecting the kids. Its understandable, teaching kids is hard and takes real commitment. But at Big Judo our strategy is to go the other way. We focus on attracting kids to Judo then developing them.
Most important though is that we have real depth in the instructor pool. We have a really good group of committed instructors. We are especially proud that with Tracey back from maternity leave we have two really experienced female instructors. Nellie and Tracey were both good competitive players and add to the culture of the club helping to create a safe supportive environment for females.
Finally, its great to be back and we are looking forwards to another great year at Big Judo,
