The GB Futures Camp is returning this month for its fourth year, with 12 British Judoka and 5 GB coaches heading to Tokyo, Japan from 17^th-25^th October.

The identified athletes will train at the Kodokan, Tokai University and Shutoku High School for the duration of their stay in Tokyo.

Throughout the GB Judo Futures Camp the British judoka will have the opportunity to work on the fundamentals and technical aspects of their judo.

Sessions at the Kodokan will focus on this with the randori sessions at the High Schools and University giving them a chance to put those technical learnings into practice.

The GB Futures Camp is a key part of the GB Cadet Strategy and is aligned to the Technical Development Framework. This focuses on the helping the athletes to fight with effective technique which they can then transfer into Senior competition.

Previous graduates from the GB Futures judoka have gone on to achieve success at Cadet, Junior and Senior international level including at European Opens, European Youth Olympic Festival, Junior European Cups and most recently European Junior Championships.

All of the GB Judo team for the upcoming World Junior Championships in Morocco were previous attendees on the GB Judo Futures Camp. Most notable graduates from the GB Futures Camp is current world junior number 1 and European Junior Champion Kelly Petersen-Pollard.

As with previous GB Futures Camps, the trip also acts as an opportunity for club coaches to develop their skillset so that they can pass this onto developing athletes coming through the Home Nations pathways.

This link enables the coaches to learn and develop their skills so that they can teach the next generation of judoka. An example of this is Simon Moss of Coventry Judo Club, coach to the 2019 European Games bronze medallist Chelsie Giles. Simon is a coach who has benefited from this experience and has achieved great success with Chelsie as well as younger brother Joshua, who has been selected to represent British Judo at the World Junior Championships. Simon has achieved further success with Yasmin Javadian who is also selected to compete at the World Junior Championships following winning bronze at the recent European Junior Championships.

Ahead of the trip, British Judo Pathway Performance Manager, Tim Ellis said: “The Cadet Futures Camp is, for me, the most exciting experience of the year for the British Cadets. It is a real learning opportunity in terms of technical judo and tough randori that will stretch the athletes. This coupled with experiencing a culture many will not have been in before, will mean that athletes will be outside of their comfort zone both on and off the mat. In previous years we have seen the athletes grow and mature rapidly during the camp, the job of myself and the coaching team is to support this and help the athletes to have an experience that they will enjoy, remember for a long time and provide them with learning that will set them up for Junior and Senior level competition.”

Athletes

Coaches