Castle Hill’s Budokan Judo Club, which has produced Olympians and Commonwealth Games medallists, honoured their excellent athletes, coaches, and volunteers at its current twenty first Awards Night.
Having been began by the highly-experienced judokas Rob and Kerrye Katz 25 years ago with simply 10 members and two classes every week, the Budokan Judo Club now has greater than 200 members and runs nine lessons each week.
Budokan Judo Club Budokan Judo Club’s Crowning Glory
“When we took over the membership in 1999, Kerrye and I tapped into all of the experiences that we had as athletes coaching at different clubs all around the globe when we had been competing,” Rob explained. “Our goal was to build a membership with a novel tradition: one which focussed on a grass-roots entity as a community-based family-oriented judo club whereas also paving the best way for high performance and worldwide competitiveness.
“Our vision has all the time been to be recognised within the judo and general communities as the premium judo coaching centre in Australia. Rather than focussing on outcomes, our teaching tradition instills acknowledgement for participation in each aspect of the game, in taking up challenges and placing in the most effective efforts in all actions, lessons that help in all aspects of life.’
Olympians Nathan And Josh Katz Budokan Judo Club’s Crowning GloryRob said that they succeeded in constructing depth in each age group. Thanks to a robust mentoring ethic by senior athletes, this has resulted in vital efficiency achievements, he said.
Rob mentioned their largest achievement in competitors is having consistent representation yr after yr on the World Championship level across all three senior age teams: under-17, under-21, and senior.
“The pinnacle of accomplishment has been having two Olympic representatives in Athens, followed by our first two home-grown Olympic representatives in Rio 2016 and then once more in Tokyo 2020,” Rob stated. The club had been also very proud to have received two bronze medals on the 2022 Commonwealth Games, including to their growing international profile.
“We have one athlete presently on monitor for qualification to Paris 2024 and are additionally pleased with our diversity,” Rob mentioned. “We had two athletes successful a gold medal and silver medal at the Virtus Asia-Oceania Games, the primary time that Budokan has been represented at a global multi-sport competitors in the Oceania-Asia area for elite athletes with an mental impairment.
“Budokan Judo Club’s membership ranges from four to eighty one years from recreation players, to fascinated dad and mom to Olympians and every thing in between.”