It's been a busy summer at EdinburghJudo with July starting off with Big Sarah, Scott, Alex, Ollie and Billy out in Mongolia for a training camp after competing at the IJF Ulaanbaatar Grand Slam.
Following the training camp Scott, Alex and Ollie hopped on a plane from Mongolia to Japan where they spent 4 weeks training across the country with JudoScotland (with a quick stop in South Korea in between). The boys were hosted by Chukyo University in Nagoya and Tenri University near Osaka, where they were put through their paces at the daily randori and strength/conditioning sessions with the students there. There was lots sightseeing, tasty team meals, an attempt at learning Japanese calligraphy and even a trip to watch the football at Toyota Stadium!
Meanwhile a bit closer to home, Reece E and Andrew L put in the hours down at the U23 GB Training Camp at the BritishJudo Performance Centre in Walsall. The camp offered the boys the opportunity to sharpen up their tools by training with their GB junior peers from up and down the country as we head towards the Scottish and British Championships this winter.
After a quick two week club closure to recharge our batteries, it was time for our annual summer camp for our young members, non-members, friends and family. This year we hosted two weeks of camp that were packed full with exciting games, judo and other fun activities. Thank you to everyone who came along and to our coaches and volunteer team who ensured that the camp ran smoothly for participants and parents!
Check out our video of a day at this year's summer camp above. If camp looks like something your child would enjoy, or if you're looking for something to keep the kids active and engaged throughout the school holidays, keep an eye out on our website and social media pages - as we run multiple fun camps throughout the year!
At the beginning of August, we were honoured to have Shinji Hosokawa (1984 Olympic Champion + 1985 World Champion, coach to Shohei Ono and Tadahiro Nomura) and Shohei Ono (2x Olympic Champion and 3x World Champion) join us on the mat for a night of our senior sessions.
Mr. Hosokawa delivered two excellent technical sessions that covered a newaza turnover for our beginner/kyu grades and an ashi waza combination for our dan grades. If you couldn't make it along, you can find a short video of Mr. Hosokawa's newaza session over on our Instagram and TikTok pages.
We are very fortunate to have such distinguished players and coaches come visit the club from all over the world to share their knowledge with us. There will no doubt be further opportunities to learn more from Shohei whilst he is in Edinburgh and we look forward to welcoming Mr. Hosokawa back again soon!
From 8th - 12th of August some of our squad members took part in an in-house performance training camp led by Billy Cusack.
Over the course of 3 days, the camp covered technical and competitive judo skills, strength & conditioning training, outdoor team activities and physical testing. We were also lucky enough to have 2x Olympic gold medallist Shohei Ono drop in to run a technical session on Uchi-mata, where he explained how to achieve more effective uchi-komi and showed a few competitive variations of the technique.
For some of our younger squad members, this was their first experience of performance level fitness and judo training; however everyone put in maximum effort and showed great determination throughout the whole camp. We're looking forward to building up these elements by delivering more performance and competitive judo camps in the future!
To round off August and this summer recap, last weekend a group of our 1st Kyus participated in the JudoScotland Kyu & Dan Grading over at Cluarankwai Judo Club in Kilmarnock in hopes of getting closer to achieving their black belts. Paul started the morning off strong by passing his theory exam before going on to pick up some points in the competitive section of the grading. Patrick and Finn gained 20 and 10 points each respectively to add to their existing tallies, then Laith successfully completed his line up and in doing so secured all the competitive points he needs for his 1st Dan - just the theory exam to go now!
As we head into September, things are quickly picking up at the club again with the school term and academic year beginning... If you want to keep up to date with upcoming news and events as they happen, make sure to follow us over on Facebook and Instagram!!
See you in the next update,
⛩️EdinburghJudo Team⛩️