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Colchester Judo Club has
been awarded a grant for over £8,000 from the National Lottery’s
Awards for All to transform the club’s training facilities and
programmes.
Established for over 30
years, Colchester Judo Club has been based at the town’s Leisure
World sports centre for most of that time. With the £8650 award
the club has been able to buy brand new competition-standard judo
mats and send the instructors on training courses which will allow
them to continue to deliver the high standard of instruction that
members of and visitors to the club have come to expect. The Lottery
funding will also see the club move to new premises with classes
run at St Mary’s School on Lexden Road from Friday 5 June.
Judo is a martial art that
means ‘Gentle Way’. Judo consists of grappling, throwing and holding
techniques that use your opponent’s force and effort to beat them.
Unlike other martial arts the sport of judo does not involve striking
or hitting, which allows competitors to practice techniques and
skills at full pace without fear of getting injured.
Colchester Judo Club is
run voluntarily by Senior Club Instructor Tony Boyd and a small
team of coaches and assistants and has classes for judo players
(or judoka) from 5 years old, with no upper age limit.
Tony said, “When I found
out we had been awarded the money, I was over the moon. The funds
will go to making sure we have the best equipment to train on,
it gives us far more flexibility as we don’t have to rely on using
someone else’s facilities and it has allowed us to continue to
run the coaching sessions without raising prices during what is
a very difficult time for everyone. With the new equipment and
the money for more coaching courses, we aim to continue to provide
top quality training to young and old alike and the Club is in
a great position to go from strength to strength.”
The club has had some considerable
success in recent weeks with senior players taking medals at a
major national competition in High Wycombe and one of the clubs
youngest players winning a medal locally. In the High Wycombe
Masters Judo Championships for competitors over 35 years of age,
Tony Boyd won Gold in the under 66kg category, with Liam Ashmore
winning Bronze in the same event and Clive Ambrose won Gold in
the under 73kg event. High Wycombe Judo Centre is considered a
British Judo centre of excellence and the competition was hotly
contested by judo players from across the country. And 7 year
old Sasha Harvey won a silver medal at the Marham Judo Club Competition
in Norfolk after demonstrating a series of throws and break falls.
If you are interested in
trying judo or just to find out more about this dynamic sport
both as a method of self defence and as a fun and exciting way
of keeping fit and live in the Colchester area, you can contact
Anne Greenall on 01206 571460 or at annie.greenall@talktalk.net
or visit the club’s website at www.colchesterjudoclub.co.uk
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