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Lowestoft’s Goshindo Judo
Club have delivered the sport to local schools and introduced
120 students to judo after receiving £4,939 of National Lottery
funding from Sport England.
The highly-regarded club
has now established links with six local schools as they’ve introduced
the sport to students aged five to 19.
The funding covered new
mats for each school which were utilised for before school, dinner
time and after school sessions.
Goshindo Judo Club’s secretary,
Phil Church, said: “Without the funding we wouldn’t have been
able to take the sport to the children.
“Judo is difficult to put
into the schools as mats can be expensive and there’s often an
issue with storage so the funding and programme has been absolutely
fantastic for the students.”
The club have worked closely
with John Hughes of the Suffolk Sports Partnership and the British
Judo Association’s Eastern Development Officer, Stacey Smithson.
“Stacey and I were approached
by John to go into schools and the existing mats weren’t up to
scratch so that’s when we looked into funding.
“Having given the students
the opportunity to have a taste of the sport we hope they’ll come
to the club and we can see our numbers continue to grow.”
Phil believes judo is an
ideal way for children to keep active and engaged in regular exercise.
“The main this is for children
to do something with their bodies and judo encourages discipline,
respect and many health benefits such as improved fitness.
The programme has been
successfully delivered at Elm Tree Middle School and Warren School,
who held a dinner time and after school session.
Ashley School features
a dinner time session while Gisleham was after school.
“Ashley School have really
taken to the sport and we’ve established a really positive link.
They’re happy to keep the mats over the summer and we’re looking
at adding an 8-week from September,” he said.
“Ashley and Warren School’s
both had children with learning difficulties and it was enjoyable
to see them engage and have a good time on the mat.
“We’re looking into other
schools and have really seen some important development’s for
the sport among children in the region.”
“We really need to say
a big thank you to the Suffolk sports partnership Claire Henwood,
Chloe McMorran for their support and Ben Jackson of Sport Unlimited.”
Goshindo Judo Club train
at East Anglian Martial Arts Centre, Lowestoft, NR33 9JU. Boys
and girls train on Friday at 19:15 – 21:00 while men and women
train on the same dat at 21:00 – 22:00.
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