Coaching Report December 2001

On the 14th/21st October I held a combined Coaching and Theory Examiners Course at the Guildford Judo Club, which was attended by 11 judokas from Surrey and Sussex.

It was an intensive course as I had judokas going for Prelim, Club, Senior Club, and Theory Examiners award. Although I geared the course around the Senior Club coaching course requirements so that those doing the Prelim and Club awards would know what to expect if they decided to eventually go for a higher award.

On the Kata section of the course I was assisted by Derick and Sarah Hopkins who proved once again to be a real asset to the area with their professional but easy going attitude to teaching Kata, which went down well with everybody.

The examining of the Theory Examiners award was done by Ellen Cobb on the second Sunday. A couple of judokas also took advantage of having a Senior Examiner in Ellen being present, to do their Dan grade theory as well. It was nice to see Ellen also demonstrating some of the techniques which she was famous for in her competition days.

Due to the different awards being taken it did mean it was not possible for the judokas doing the Senior Club award to complete the course over the two weekends as some of them were also doing the Theory Examiners course. Therefore I had to travel to Westerleigh JC at St Leonard's-on-sea on the 7th November, Yohin-Ryu at Coulsdon on the 19th November, and Sussex University at Brighton on the 26th November, for them to be able to complete the course requirements.

I would like to thank those clubs for allowing me to do part of the examination on one of their training nights, and for the kind welcome they showed me.

On the 2nd December I held a First Aid course for 11 judokas at the Guildford JC. It was for those who took part in the Coaching course and for existing coaches who didn't have a valid First Aid certificate. This was taken by Ken Wheeler, who is a qualified Instructor with Surrey Police.

It is the second time Ken has taken a First Aid course for us and I would like to thank him for the time and effort he puts into it. He has also agreed to do a talk for us on Child Protection at our Coaching Seminar and AGM, which is to be held on the 24th February 2002.

After talks with Alan Rickard and Alan Roberts regarding the possibility of setting up a Junior coaching achievement/award system, I have been given the task of coming up with a syllabus and preparation paper on how it is to operate.

Over the last couple of months I have also attended the Southern Area Junior Trials at Worthing, The Millennium League at Westcroft, The Mini-mons and Southern Area Senior Closed at Crystal Palace, and taken part in the Southern Area Development Plan Working Group meetings as the Surrey County Representative.

I have arranged on behalf of David Berriman (and with the kind permission of Graham Beagley) for another meeting to be held on the 2nd January 2002 at the Sovereign JC in Reigate.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everybody a happy healthy safe Christmas and New Year.

Best wishes
Stephen Ellis
Surrey County Coach