On Saturday 6th March 2010 over 40 women and girls from numerous clubs in England gathered at the Village Hotel, Walsall for the inaugural BJA Women and Girls Conference. Judoka, representing all aspects of judo were present, including performance, coaching, refereeing and officiating. It was also a great privilege to be joined by former World, European and Commonwealth Champions Ann Hughes and Loretta Cusack.

The day started well with a motivational welcome and introduction from Colin McIver, BJA Technical Director. He outlined the goals, activities and aspirations included in the BJA's Women and Girls Initiative in his usual light-hearted humorous style. We were then pleased to welcome Tim Woodhouse, Head of Policy and External Affairs for the Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation (WSFF). In his talk, Tim outlined the work of the WSFF, the available participation data for judo compared to other sports and the key factors why women and girls choose whether or not to participate in sport and fitness activities.

We know that judo has much to offer all its members, as not everyone can become a top competitor or is interested in participating in competition. To demonstrate this, Dr Lisa Allen eloquently took the audience through her personal judo journey, starting as an average young player to becoming Judo Manager for London’s 2012 Olympic Judo Events. One of her most powerful statements in her talk was that in her experience “even small opportunities should be taken - you never know where they will lead” .

After a brief coffee break, ex-competitive player and ‘Women’s Action Group’ member Simone Callender went on to discuss, in her uniquely humorous fashion, the communication aims of the Action Group. These aims focus on the use of the current popular public communication areas - i.e. Facebook, Twitter and BJA publications.

The BJA’s new National Volunteer Manager, Elaine Down, then went on to mesmerise everyone as she described moving through her judo life in various stages from a young competitor to a top International ‘A’ Level Referee. Elaine’s journey has definitely been filled with fun, positive experiences and more a few obstacles and challenges along the way. Continuing with the personal journey theme, Olympian Joyce Heron went on to discuss her early judo experiences and how she managed a competitive lifestyle with bringing up a young family - definitely a tug-of-war but possible with good time management and a fantastic support system in place.

Following the busy morning sessions, a lovely healthy lunch was enjoyed by all. It was then on to the University of Wolverhampton, Walsall Campus, for the afternoon’s physical session.

Ex-world Champion Loretta Cusack began the afternoon mat-based technical session with an introduction to basic movement skills which led on to one of Loretta’s favourite techniques – ko-uchi-gari. It was a real privilege for all to be coached by such a huge judo personality. Following on, Claire McDonald (nee Shiach) took everyone through our first women’s judo fit session to music. Everybody was literally on their knees by the end of this enjoyable and challenging fun activity. Well done to everyone – we survived!

All in all a brilliant energetic day, this for some ended with a well-earned evening meal. A big thank you to everyone and we look forward to welcoming you all again next year.

Following the conference it was great to receive an email from one of the university student delegates who wrote - “I just wanted to send you my thanks for putting on such a great day on Saturday. I really enjoyed myself and it was really useful for me and has provided me with some good ideas of how I can promote female judo...Thank you very much for picking me up at the station and introducing me to some of the other players there...it was good to hear from a range of speakers that were all involved in the different aspects of judo. I thought that the sessions Loretta and Claire ran were particularly good...Thanks once again, it was a great day and I shall definitely be attending the next one!”