The inaugural Australian Adaptive Judo Games celebrates the Judo spirit
The first Australian Adaptive Judo Games was held in Tweed Heads last weekend bringing adaptive judoka together to share community and match their skills in competition across both shiai and kata.
Adaptive Judo is Judo for people with disabilities, featuring an adapted rule set that encourages people with intellectual and/or physical impairments to learn, train and compete in welcoming environments that maximise the Judo spirit.
Judo Australia developed this event as an initiative under the Australian government’s Play Well strategy, an important step forward in our commitment to ensuring Everyone Has a Place in Judo.
Spearheaded by Judo Australia’s Shane Alvisio working with the Adaptive Judo Advisory Committee led by Melissa Avgoulas, the inaugural event attracted more than 20 athletes and a good crew of coach and family support.
Growing the number of participants in Adaptive Judo is a key objective for Judo Australia, with a functional competitive framework a necessary starting point for all athletes.
“With a smaller Judo community spread across a huge landmass, Australia has some very specific challenges in developing Adaptive Judo,” Shane Alvisio explains.
“Even though Australia has offered Adaptive categories in all our National and State Championships since 2012, the increase in numbers has been slow. Having guests from the EJU to share their knowledge and experiences has helped us see where we might want to go and gives us a chance to get the formula right from the start.”
Those guests were Kerry Tansey, Sports Director (Judo) for the intellectual impairment sporting body, Virtus, and British Judo’s leading expert on Adaptive Judo. Accompanied by her husband (and fellow coach at their club, Merseyside Judo), Kerry and Paul were on-mat, leading teams, and working behind the scenes as well as delivering educational sessions.
Working alongside Kerry and Paul were Croatian Adaptive Judo specialists, Marina Draskovic and Sanja Delladio. As the European Union’s Adapted Judo Project Manager, and actively coaching for Judo Team Fuji, a specialist club for people with disabilities, Marina was accompanied by fellow Croatian judo coach, Sanja Delladio, of Judo Club Pinky.
Shane Alvisio said both the formal education sessions and the important on-mat times gave our Australian coaches and judoka new ideas, new approaches and fresh motivation to take the lessons back to their home clubs and grow the sport.
“I hope this is the catalyst for our Adaptive Judo committee to garner more support and help grow Adaptive Judo in Australia, with a greater focus on domestic competitions and interclub events.”
The overwhelming need for a national-level event like this was demonstrated to Australia’s adaptive judo community by several years of attendance at the EJU’s Venray Get Together.
Venray demonstrates the value of shared knowledge and shared community to sit alongside the goal of adaptive competition, said Melissa Avgoulas, chair of Judo Australia’s Adaptive Judo Committee and head coach at specialist Adaptive club, Kitsune Judo.
“I went to Venray and returned home inspired. When many of our players are only seen as their disabilities, at Venray everyone recognised what they CAN do, and what they are doing,” Melissa explained. “We want to be able to give more people the competitive experience they need to be able to compete on the world stage.”
The possibility has real power, particularly with several Australians already winning big in international competition: only a fortnight ago South Australia’s Lillee Wakefield and Western Australia’s Robert Girdwood claimed gold medals in their respective categories at the Ecole Mont-Olivet Adapted Judo Grand Slam in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Lillee then returned to Australia to participate in the Australian Adaptive Judo Games, not only as a competitor, but as a leader and mentor for other athletes.
“That’s what it is all about,” says Melissa Avgoulas. “Connecting people, demonstrating how good judo is for our community, how much people can grow and thrive once they step onto the mat and discover what they CAN do.”
View the full results of the Australian Adaptive Judo Games: RESULTS.
