I have been contacted by Rowena Birch the British Squad Manger today, to inform me that both Charlotte Wraith & Sophie Daniels have been selected for the 2006/2007 British Judo Squad.

Charlotte is already part of the British squad, and has been at an Elite Training Camp at Lilleshaw this week, where she has impressed greatly. This will be Sophies first year as part of the British Squad and is a great reward for all her hard work throughout the year.
I'm sure all of you will join me in congratulating Charlotte and Sophie on what is truly a fantastic achievement - I should get their autographs now, before they achieve celebrity status!!!

I hope the fact that we now have two Great Britain Squad players training at our Club will spur on some of our other younger players to try an emulate these two superb judo athletes. Whilst this is obviously a huge achievemnet for the two girls, it is also a great boost for SWJC. To have two Elite Athletes at our club will help enormously when it comes to rasing funds for further player (and coach) development, which will obviously benefit all of our players.

Regards, Allen.

Once again we were fortunate enough to be able have the two times Olympic medalist, Dave "The Iron Man" Starbrook, come and visit us at SWJC. Dave ran the normal Junior and Senior classes and taught us some of his favourite techniques. He stressed the importance of bluffing and double bluffing in Judo in order to make your opponent react how you want them to. Some pictures of the visit can be found in the gallery section.

Hello to One & All.

Well another year has come and gone, and what a fantastic year it has been for SWJC. In the last 6 months alone Club members have won an incredible 106 medals. This is a fantastic achievement, but I am absolutely confident that next year will be even better. We have also seen three of our junior members obtain British Rankings - Lorena Gomez No. 4, Jonathan (Jonny) Cooke No. 11 and Sophie Daniels No. 11. You can see a more detailed report of the year's achievements elsewhere in this news letter.

Jonny, Joe & Adam will all be leaving the junior mat as they turn 16 and make their transition to senior judo. Whilst they will be missed on the junior mat, we have a healthy crop of younger players eager to fill their shoes, and push for even greater success. The girls squad (or Team Pink as they now appear to be named!) have had a magnificent year and been a real credit to themselves and the Club. Hopefully the boys squad will be able to have a similar level of success next year, I certainly know of one young man who is definitely keen to win a few medals next year!!! The senior class will obviously be bolstered by the junior lads coming up, and together with a couple of the existing seniors who are keen to compete (and who knows even one or two out of retirement!) we should start to see a few senior medallists next year.

2006 will see SWJC move from its home of the past 21 years at the Lord Butler Centre, to its new home at Dame Bradbury's School, which I am really looking forward to. This will give us even more opportunities to further improve the standards of judo within the Club. Improving standards is not solely about improving technical standards, but also standards of Club discipline and Judo etiquette. Judo is more than just a sport and lessons learned during your judo career can be applied to all aspects of life; whether it is an understanding of tolerance, discipline or how to interact with people of all abilities, backgrounds and lifestyles. The Lord Butler Centre, whilst a nice enough venue, does not lend itself to good judo practice. Students of all ages will learn better in a quieter more focused environment. It is my intention next year therefore to promote a culture of Judo Etiquette right across the whole Club.

Whilst I make no apologies for running a competitive judo club, and wanting competition success, I am aware that for many members their motivation for doing judo may not necessarily be to win medals. Personal achievement, whether it be in the form of self confidence, fitness or just a desire to be able to do a particular technique, should not be underestimated and indeed should be encouraged within a friendly Judo Club environment. Judo is, and always should be, a sport for all. It can sometimes be a difficult balancing act to run a class to cater for the needs of all. To develop our "competition" players further I would very much like to be able to run additional classes in 2006 to help meet the demands of these players. If I am able to make the appropriate arrangements, these sessions will be exclusively focused on competition judo and as such will be far more demanding, both physically and mentally, than a regular Thursday night.

To further aid the development of the Club we now have a fully functioning Club Committee. I would just like to offer my personal thanks to George & Margaret Browning for continuing to run the Club for the past 30 odd years with very little outside help - a BIG WELL DONE to you both. With the new committee now in place George & Margaret are able to take a well earned break from the daily running of the Club, if they wish to do so. I personally would like to see much more outside involvement on the committee. We have a huge skills base out there of parents, friends and family which could and should be used to grow the Club. Judo people/players obviously know about judo, but they may not necessarily know how to run a successful club. My views and visions for SWJC may not be those of all the other members. The members should determine how the Club is run, not anyone individual, so if there are any specific changes you would to see please feel free to speak with any one of the committee members. Equally if you think we are doing a good job, then do let us know - I for one am never too proud to accept a bit of praise!!!!

Well, if you haven't fallen asleep before you have got to the end of my ramblings, I would just like to wish you all a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year, and many thanks for all your support throughout this year.

Regards, Allen.