During the first half of this Olympic Cycle we have focused our work around an extensive development and foundation period, in order to fully evaluate all our players with potential, as well as make the necessary technical progressions, following the philosophy of our Head Coach Patrick Roux.  The strategy has required us at times to send larger teams abroad to train and compete against quality opposition to ensure individuals connect at the elite level.  At the same time we have established a Performance base the British Judo Performance Institute, (BJPI) Dartford, where we can house all our coaching and support staff expertise, to support our players more effectively during domestic blocks of training.  The new structure for Judo Elite Performance (centralisation of the performance plan and the BJPI ), provides the catalyst for positive competition between the performance clubs, the performance cells and also between the generations; seniors, transitional players and talented juniors, who can be exposed to a high level of training and development.

We have also been fortunate to create a dynamic partnership with Scotland at Ratho to increase the resources and opportunities for elite players and we also started to build a structured performance and talent development pathway, with the creation of performance cells for our TID players.   Currently our team is in the final preparation block ahead of next month’s World Championships in Tokyo, where are expecting our elite players to perform and reach the last eight giving the opportunity to contend for medals.    Following this milestone event we will be adopting an ‘Olympic Commando’ strategy in the Final Olympic Period, where we will essentially focus our resources on a smaller group of individuals, who have the medal potential for 2012 and development players who we believe can accelerate their progression not only for Rio 2016, but for London 2012 as well. 

© David Finch