On Sunday 28^th June around 20 Instructors ranging from 7th Dan to 1st Kyu and from a number of British Zen Judo Family Association Clubs attended a course at Basford Zen Judo Club in Nottingham, hosted by Shihan Gordon Lawson and his Club Instructors. Clubs from Nottingham, Manchester, London, Trowbridge, Portsmouth and Bognor Regis made the hot and humid trip up for four hours of Judo Instruction by Shihan Andrew Millard B.E.M 7th Dan BZJFA.

The intention of the course was to go over the complete BZJFA syllabus and to pass on to more recent instructors some of the rationel behind the Zen Syllabus. The session started with a warm up which was to set the standard for the rest of the day (I'm still recovering), after this we moved onto ukemi and Shihan Millard described how this was always taught for at least fifteen minutes at the start of every session. We then moved on to the standing techniques, both right and left handed. After a very short break to take on badly needed water, we moved on to cover technique fives, again right and left handed, counter ones and two's and counter two by two's. The course was finished off by some very, at times "spirited" randori. Before the course came to an end, Shihan Millard presented David Bennigton (Portsmouth Zen Judo Club) and Yvonne Robertson (Bognor Regis Zen Judo Club) with there BZJFA 1st Dan Licences.

For more details on this course and future events visit the British Zen Judo Family Association website or see this site for announcements.

Congratulations to the following students who graded at Petersfield on Sunday 7th June 2009:-

Black Belt 1st Dan:
Yvonne Robertson - Bognor Regis Zen Judo Club
Matthew Everett - Horndean Zen Judo Club

Brown Belt:
Christopher Pettitt - Horndean Zen Judo Club

Blue Belt:
Jon Taylor - Bognor Regis Zen Judo Club

Green Belt:
Robert Jess - Petersfield Zen Judo Club

Sensei Phil Watts awards Matthew and Yvonne new Black Belts

Grading Panel:
Phil Watts - 6th Dan
John Robertson - 3rd Dan
Richard Wells - 3rd Dan
Martin Robertson - 3rd Dan
Sharna Robertson - 2nd Dan
David Bennington - 1st Dan

13/05/09

Saturday 3rd May

 

This year marked the 6th year that the Spring Martial Arts Course has been held and once again all the feedback I have received has been positive. With around 36 attending on the Saturday and 26 on the Sunday. Instructors and students came from as far away as Nottingham, Thatcham, Reading and Exmouth.

The main aim of these courses has been always to give instructors and students the chance to meet and experience other martial arts and allow them to see the often common roots and principles underlying them.

This years course as usual covered a variety of martial arts:

On the Saturday Shihan Gordon Lawson (6th Dan BZJFA Judo) opened proceedings with a session on Zen Judo Movement and applications, this was followed by Sensei Jo Harbert (6th Dan TJU Judo) with a session on groundwork skills, covering arm locks, leg locks and strangles.
After a relaxed lunch break we all returned to the mat for a lively session on the Go-No-Sen_No-Kata by Sensei John Goldman (7th Dan UBA Judo) and his Instructors Ruth Goldman (5th Dan UBA Judo) and Nigel Hopkins (5th Dan UBA Judo), after a short refreshment break the afternoon was finished by a choice of martial arts with a Tae Kwon Do kata applications session from Sensei Ron Davidson (7th Dan Tae-Kwon-Do) or Jujitsu stick work with Sensei Tony Richards (5th Dan Kensekei Jujitsu).

Go-No-Sen-No-Kata movement session with Sensei John Goldman 7th Dan UBA Judo

The Saturday evening's entertainment

The Saturday evening has become a bit of a social occasion with some of the instructors and students with there families going out for a Chinese meal. This year the highlight was the sight of Graham teaching a table napkin to behave.

 

This course was possibly the most professionally run course I have ever taught on or attended and that is a lot of courses all over the world.

Sensei Ruth Goldman and her helpers worked incredibly hard to make it a fantastic course.
I believe there were 108 juniors on the course and approximately 30 seniors; if the figures are wrong I am sure Sensei John Goldman will correct me (he is so organized).

Judo was taught by Myself and Sensei Keith; With a great session by Sensei  Danny  DA COSTA; Ju Jutsu  by Sensei Tony  Richards and three of his Dan Grades and Body Combat by Mickey (Hard aerobic session to music).

The Highlight of the course for me was the demonstrations from the children to close the course.
So much work was put in, for them to get to the great standard they produced.

To all of you that were not there, you missed out, not just on a great course, but the wonderful weather and scenery of Devon.

Gordon Lawson  6th Dan Shihan BZJFA
(British Zen Judo Family Association)


Footnote: 
It’s a pity that no one was  present from the B.J.A .  to see how an “outlaw and pirate” organizes a course for all those children and their families, not just for the talented few. All this done without any government hand outs amazing.

 

 

CAMPAIGN UPDATE
From John Goldman

The Campaign continues its quest to ensure the rights of independent judo groups are maintained and is in continuing communication with the authorities to resolve UKCC issues.

Our demands are simple. We insist there is equality and equity for all who wish to attain the UKCC award in or out of a National Governing Body (NGB) in the case of judo the British Judo Association (BJA).

Principally we say:

1.    Non-NGB people are entitled to access the UKCC on equal terms, and without prejudice, as those in the NGB.
 

The pre-entry criteria to the judo UKCC is, for non-NGB people, discriminatory.
 

The BJA have said that those wishing to access UKCC courses must hold either (a) a BJA grade or (b) a “Grade of equivalence”.
 

This “Grade of equivalence” is designed, based on BJA syllabus, and administered by the BJA. Only when non-BJA people have successfully passed the BJA’s  ‘competence testing’ process, and been granted a “Grade of equivalence”, will they be entitled to apply to be considered as a candidate on a BJA UKCC course
 

The BJA have levied a minimum charge (there may be additional costs) of £200 for non-BJA members to take this test.
 

We say that access to the UKCC, a national award, must be open to all on equal terms.
 

In response to our complaint, the Coaching Standards Group, CSG, (sports coach UK), have said the £200 ‘competence test’ charge is, “unreasonably high”. The CEO of scUK has written to tell me that he has written to the BJA raising the CSG findings.
 

Separate to any question of costs, we have, first and foremost, called for a full enquiry into the whole issue of “competence testing”. We maintain that non-BJA people are equally as fully-qualified and competent as those in the BJA; in many instances to a greater standard.
 

2.    Fully-qualified non-NGB coaches are entitled to map over their awards to UKCC on equal terms, and without prejudice, as those in the NGB.

Our continuing insistence, and demonstration to the authorities, that there are different approaches, even ‘styles’, of judo, (the BJA have branded their judo “Olympic Judo”) has recently led to the Minister for Sport stating he recognises that there are different disciplines of judo. The Minister has confirmed that scUK have written to the BJA expressing a “strong desire” that “UKCC qualifications must be more accessible to these different disciplines of judo”.

We insist that teachers/coaches, within these now acknowledged “different disciplines” of judo in independent judo groups outside of BJA, are fully-qualified, in many instances more qualified than those in the NGB, are recognised as so, and have every right to map over their qualifications to the UKCC qualification on equal terms as those in the NGB.

I am in communication with Sport England on the above matters. Apart from the clear injustices in the way the UKCC has been developed and implemented, we say present UKCC criteria does not adhere to the core values and equality commitments of Sport England and fails to achieve the required level of Sport England’s Equality Standard.
 

Sport England has written to say they are in the process of reviewing my comments and the current procedures.
 

I will of course keep this forum posted on any developments.
 

Good wishes,
 

John Goldman
 

Campaign leader