Talk clubs and schools with the IJF: your chance to contribute!

The International Judo Federation is sending a delegation Down Under to discuss ways of growing judo in Australia - and Judo Australia is inviting Clubs to help guide the discussion with them.

Judo Australia chairman Simon Read, National Participation Manager Shane Alvisio and Pathways and Performance leader Maria Pekli will represent Australian judoka in a face to face meeting in Melbourne next month. On the agenda will be a wide range of issues around the challenge of growing judo in clubs, dojos and schools around the country.

To inform this discussion, Judo Australia is collecting specific feedback from judo coaches and clubs around the country. Four specific questions are posed in a Google form now open to the public - CLICK HERE.

The IJF is particularly interested in the whether or not Clubs employ a full-time judo coach (or coaches), whether they have access to permanent mat areas, and whether they own or lease their premises for full-time use.

A second set of questions revolves around the teaching of Judo in schools. This is an area of focus for the IJF and JA is looking to identify how many clubs have private arrangements to teach Judo as part of a regular sports/PE curriculum and how many offer short courses to schools via the Sporting Schools program. Your feedback will help fill a data hole around how many students in Australia are undertaking Judo as part of their school curriculum.

UniSA Judo Club coaches Masa Motoyama (left) and Yui Hosoma (right) lead Hawthorndene Primary School students Luka and Felix in a Judo4Kids session via Sporting Schools last year. The IJF wants to collect data on how many Australian kids are learning Judo at school.