A small change is ahead, in the shape of the way we grade our players! *Please read below to find out more*

Paul has touched upon this over the last few Saturdays during the mid-session announcements that we are working on a slightly reworked system to grade our players.

For those that have been doing Judo for 10+ years this new system will ring a small past bell as we will be adopting a system similar to the old grading system the BJA used to use.

For those that don't know there used to be two sides to a Grading; the theory side and competitive side - you would do your theory test at your club and then go and fight to earn your belt (once you got past Yellow belt).

Now we will not be taking on this system in its entirety, more taking parts from it. We have some players that want/are competitive and some that do it for the more recreational/social/exercise aspects of the sport which is absolutely fine!

The change will affect the ones that want to compete; we as Coaches are concerned for players that are 'x grade' enter a competition and are not up to the standard of competitive skill that that 'x grade' should represent, and what we don't want to see is our players confidence getting knocked due to this.

So with that in mind, we will be introducing a system (which is still in its development phase) that you have to show activeness towards entering competitions to build up that experience. (It will incorporate a points system similar to how 1st Kyu and Black Belts earn their points.)

We are aware that one of the first thoughts towards this is we are expecting you to enter competitions left, right and center in the 3 months between each grading - this a very much not the case; we want to find a way to encourage our competitive players to enter more competitions to help with their Judo Development. (We do also massively appreciate that the amount of competitions in the local-ish area isn't what it once was!).

It is also worth noting that we will not be taking a blanket approach to this and will be looking at it on an individual base, in particular with some of our Additional Needs players.

As mentioned above this is the early development stage and is something all the Coaches are involved in and will be working on to present the best system that works for all.

If you have any questions speak to either Paul or Larry; we will keep you posted as this develops.