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Why Judo is a great sport?
Judo is one of the best kept secrets when it comes to sport and life skills in general. The sport teaches everyone from young kids through to people in their later years the joy of movement. Specifically, it teaches foundation strength and coordination and helps every age learn how to fall so that we don’t get injured.
However, much more than that judo lives by a moral code that helps develop our ability to work as a team, to understand and have respect for others and develops our inner emotional strength while building that outer physical strength.
Here is our guide on everything you need to know to get started.
Who can do judo?
Everyone. Judo is practised by thousands of people across Britain from all ages, backgrounds and abilities and we want everyone to be able to experience the joy that judo can bring.
That includes young children beginning their judo journey through to our older community who participate in our safer falling programme. We have a broad and established adaptive programme too and of course our World Class Programme where are Olympians and Paralympians train together at our National Training Centre to help them fulfil their sporting dreams.
Where can I go to do judo?
It’s really easy. If you fancy just having a go and seeing if judo is for you, just a book a session with a judo club near you using our online Club Finder.
We have over 700 affiliated clubs across the UK and we do strongly advise that you do judo at a British Judo Association affiliated club as they have all been through our 3 Step Safe programme that will ensure that you have a safe and progressive experience in the sport of judo.
Most clubs offer a complimentary taster session so you can go and meet the coach and get a feel for judo without making any commitment beyond that one session. Once you have decided to begin judo you can work with your closest club and coach to help you map out your judo journey.
What should I wear?
For your first session you can just wear comfortable leggings or joggers and a t-shirt or sweatshirt, depending on the time of year. Quite quickly you will want to buy a judo suit or ‘gi’ and we have a variety available for our BJA members from our online shop or some of our clubs also have gi’s for sale, both new and used.