Anglia Ruskin retain BUCS judo crown – News – Anglia Ruskin University

Anglia Ruskin retain BUCS judo crown – News – Anglia Ruskin University.

Even more BUCS photos – Podium shots

Here are some of the podium shots from BUCS, we won three golds and two bronze in the individual making us the top of the medal table and then the mens team championships. Medals went to:

Mike Stewart Gold U66kg

Adrian Markov Gold U81kg

Andre Cojuhari Gold O100kg

Johnny Morris Bronze U81kg

Janaina Magalhaes Bronze U63kg

More BUCS Photos – Markov Vs Morris u81kg

This fight was the semi final of the u81kg, two Anglia Ruskin players – Johnny Morris and Adrian Markov, the fight went to gold score and then to hantei. Adrian won on hantei and this was the only fight Johnny lost out of the 12 he had over the weekend.

Some Photos from BUCS

 

There’s more to come, we have lots of video too.

BUCS 2012

For me, the best judo competition of the year is the British University and Colleges Sports Championships or BUCS. You have around 25 sports competing over the week and once accredited you can go and watch whatever you want. The judo is fought on the Saturday and Sunday, individuals on the Saturday and teams on the Sunday.

One of the great things about BUCS is the variety in players, universities generally have a three year cycle so the players you see each year are always changing plus there is a lot more foreign players and every year at least one university turns up with someone special.

Last year Anglia Ruskin won the mens team event and got a gold and a silver in the individuals. of course I would love to win the mens team event again, we’ll see. For me the journey there is more interesting, last year we had to borrow white or blue belt off our opponent – how embarrassing going into the final of the team championships and having to ask your opposition (Loughborough) for belts! If nothing else we’re much better kitted out this year thanks to last years win, all players fighting in the team have two superstars fighting films kits with the uni logo embroider on it plus we have t-shirts etc

Our training has been very different too, last year we had a 2-3 week “beat up” where we intensified the training. This year we have been at a slightly lower intensity for about 8 weeks with a lot of competitions. The players have been very motivated and have bonded well. We have used video pretty affectively again.

Last year we had the British number one in the -73kg Danny Williams, he won every fight but we do not have him this year, he is in Japan preparing for London. We’ll see what affect this has.

Another development this year is that we have some women players, this is great and I am really hoping they do well.

We are at a new venue this year – Don Valley stadium. I really hope this venue is good, last year we were on the running track at the EIS and it was great. I just hope they haven’t ruined this great event by moving it somewhere poor.

So I guess we just have to wait and see, about 40 hours to the weigh in and the battle commences Saturday morning. I have looked at the teams and there are 10 on my ‘serious’ list and 4 of them go on my ‘seriously dangerous list’. Can we do better than last year? I’ll let you know 😉

Army Judo Skill Course

Last week was the annual army skills course at the Army School of Physical Training in Aldershot. Over the 5 days we offer a beginners skills course, and intermediate skills course and an advanced skills course, we also offer the BJA instructors award, the SCUK safeguarding children course, a grading and a referees course. Obviously this is a busy week.

Capt Geoff Chapman (RAPTC) led the beginners course, he took around 25 soldiers from novice to 6th kyu over the five days. It is interesting working with soldiers, they learn combat sports much quicker than the general public for obvious reasons.

I took the advanced group, this is really interesting. Predominantly dan grades but a huge mixture of ability. There are dan grades who haven’t done any judo for a year, maybe two and then full-time athletes who train around 20hrs per week – two of these fought in the last world champs. The first session was more of a “get back into judo” session based on uchikomi and nage komi, the main aim was to get some timing back in tot hose players who had been off a while whilst allowing the full-time players the chance to work hard.

I didn’t take all the session, I am aware there were players there who were much more technical than myself, I allowed them to take sessions, some on ne waza, some on kumi kata and one on movement/posture. One of the players, Sgt Abbas Salihu, competes for NGR and is an EJU level 4 performance coach. He train full-time at the University of Bath and is a member of the Royal Logistics corps. Other Sessions were taken by LCPL Johnny Morris of the Duke of Lancaster Regiment, they allow him to train full-time and are very supportive. He currently trains with Dr Andrew Moshanov.

The refereeing course was run by Alan Medley of the BJA refereeing commission. I think we qualified 4-5 referees.

The Instructors award was run by Kerry Finney and Dermot Heslop from the BJA technical team. They qualified around 6 new instructors.

I am waiting for some photos to be sent over, once I get them I’ll upload them 🙂

I have just realised……

I have just realised I haven’t posted about the national teams. It was an interesting weekend really.

I met up with the combined services team on the Saturday morning as I arrived late at the hotel. We went to weigh in with no problem and the team fought pretty well. They ended up with a bronze medal. The semi final went 2-2 and with Lewis Keeble as our final fighter we were pretty confident but it wasn’t to be. Lewis threw his Scottish opponent and scored but landed in an arm lock and his opponent was quick to slap it on.

Unfortunately by this time one of our players, Johnny Morris, was suffering and we replaced him with the reserve. I think it is unfair to say the team was weaker though, as I looked at that team that faced Scotland 4/5 had fought in a world championships and the other was u23 European Bronze medallist. Not a bad team for a national team championships.

I also had Natasha Collins fighting in the u52 category for the eastern area women’s team. It is very interesting to see how the teams contrast in term of the management yet both teams secured bronze. Natasha’s first fight was a bye, the second fight she won by ippon and the third fight went 4 mins before she lost to a second wazari, to be fair she was fighting the European u20 bronze medallist. She was happy with this fight though, in fact she was happier with this one than the one she won. I think it show a maturity that she is looking at the quality of the fight rather than the outcome.

The national teams this year didn’t have the atmosphere as previous years, I am not sure why this was, maybe it was just me.

On Sunday I have seven youngsters fighting in a local age banded, they did pretty well, we got three golds, a silver and a bronze. Two things about this competition made me really happy. The first is that the two older boys were given specific things to work on, to the point where if they went into newaza and were pinning their opponent they would let them up. They both worked hard to develop their new techniques and both secured gold.

The really great thing about this weekend was one of out new players Rosie, she also won gold but this is insignificant in relation to how confident and cheerful she was through the day. At Comberton JC we have a blog that the children write on competition day to keep them entertained, improve their writing and encourage reflection. You can read what Rosie wrote here: http://combertonjudoclub.wordpress.com/2011/07/10/littleport-age-banded-by-rosie-aged-9/

It is interesting working with such a variety of players day in day out. On Sat I was with a team of full-time judo players and on Sunday I was with a group of predominantly red belts. Most weeks I coach a huge range of players like this which is interesting but has its challenges.