Just like that, it's time for the final club round-up of 2024. Although it was a shorter month of judo, with the club closing on the 21st for the festive break, there was still plenty of action in December to end the year with a bang!
Thank you to Edinburgh University Judo Club for welcoming some of our girls to their JudoGirlsRock session with World, European, and Commonwealth Champion Loretta Doyle!
It was amazing to share such a busy and vibrant mat with so many girls and to gain great technical insights from one of the most influential figures in women’s judo.
We look forward to working together to create more opportunities that bring women and girls together through judo!
The weekend of the 13th-15th of December saw a number of our performance squad players make the trip down to Warwick University for the biggest and toughest domestic event of the year: the 2024 British Championships.
We had players competing in both the junior and senior events, with everyone showing great determination, positive judo and team spirit across both days of competition. Win or lose, the whole team took something away from this event to work on, as they return to training in the new year in preparation for the first competition of 2025 - the Scottish Open on the 18th of January.
Congratulations to Sarah A for retaining her title of +78KG British Champion for the second consecutive year!
You can read a full recap of the weekend’s events and see the full results by clicking the button below:
In case you missed it, our friend Philipp came to EdinburghJudo from Germany in 2022 for an internship with the club, where he trained and coached with us, all while making lifelong memories and friends. Philipp has taken the time to write a great account of his time in Edinburgh, which you can read in full by clicking the button below:
We look forward to welcoming you back for training again soon, Philipp!
With competitions, camps and training done for the year, it was time for some festivities before the club closed its doors for Christmas. Our senior members socialised over some drinks and snacks following their last training session of the year, and then we had a great Christmas party and day of Christmas camp for our junior members to close out 2024!
Thank you to our coaches, staff and volunteers for their hard work in creating two great Christmas events for our young members. There was plenty of excitement and festive spirit across both the party and camp, with lots of fun games, prizes and face-painting for all participants!
As the year draws to a close, we’d like to reflect on what has been an incredible year for EdinburghJudo. Here are some of the highlights of 2024:
⛩️ Our second Festival of Judo, where over 140 kids from 9 clubs/schools developed their skills and had fun together.
👏 Many successful club gradings and new belts earned throughout the year by our junior, senior and school members.
🏕️ 5 fun-filled kids camps run by our coaching team during the February, Easter, Summer, October and Christmas breaks.
🗓️ The launch of our new expanded timetable, featuring the new No-Gi Grappling and Skills & Drills sessions.
💪 28 adults achieved their 6th Kyu (red belt) on our new 6-week Beginners Judo Course.
🌎 Visitors from France, Germany, Japan, Canada, Poland, the USA and Cyprus joined us on the mat for training.
🥇 Lots of competitive success at a variety of events throughout the year, from our youngest members, right up to our veteran players.
🥋 8 EdinburghJudo members successfully achieved their 1st Dans (black belt).
You can watch a little recap of some of the action from 2024 at EdinburghJudo below!
Finally, we'd like to wish a happy new year to all of our members, family and friends. Thank you for your continued support throughout this year and beyond; we're very fortunate to have such a wonderful community within EdinburghJudo, and you are the ones who make the judo club a great place to be!
We look forward to welcoming everyone back to judo on January 6th, and for all that 2025 has in store.
See you then,
The EdinburghJudo Team