A successful year of Judo courses in the East of England

Over the whole of 2023 British Judo has delivered a number of various Kata and Technical Dan Grade courses in the East of England, at six different venues primarily at Norwich Premier Judo Club, but also Tora Judo Club at Newmarket, The Ely Dojo, Lincoln Cherry Judo Club, Shudan Wellingborough and The Mill at Southend.

Judoka have travelled from as far as Edinburgh in the North and at the opposite end of the UK from the South Coast to attend these courses with many of the club providing their venue free of charge or at a discounted rate.

As part of a National campaign by the Kata Commission to deliver Kata education in the lesser known kata, Ju-no-kata was selected as a focus kata ending with a National Course at the end of 2023 led by Yoshihiko Iura Kodokan 8^th Dan. Ju-no-kata was delivered in the East on five different occasions to allow new practitioners to the kata, time to upskill to examination level. This included two specialised tutor training workshops. Courses were also held in Nage-no-kata, Katame-no-kata, three Gonosen-no-kata courses and three Itsustu-no-kata courses. These courses satisfy the kata requirements for promotion up to 10^th Dan.

Kata courses have also been held in Cambridge by Alec Edwards and Felixstowe by Mike Bygate.

The successful conclusion of the 2023 Kata education programme in the East, was an unprecedented Eastern area haul of four medals at the 2023 British Kata Championships. Followed by four more medals, two gold and two silver at the NHC Kata Championships.

Seven Technical Dan Grading weekends were also carried out enabling judoka to take the Technical Dan Grade examination, Competitive Dan Grade Skills examination or both.

All the courses have always been fully booked where entry is usually limited to between 12 and 16 participants to enable more individual coaching of judoka.

There are now twenty-three kata courses already advertised on the BJA calendar for 2024 with many more to follow, please have a look and book early.

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