Castle Hill’s Budokan Judo Club, which has produced Olympians and Commonwealth Games medallists, honoured their outstanding athletes, coaches, and volunteers at its latest twenty first Awards Night.
Having been started by the highly-experienced judokas Rob and Kerrye Katz 25 years ago with simply 10 members and two classes a week, the Budokan Judo Club now has greater than 200 members and runs nine courses each week.
https://hillstohawkesbury.com.au/budokan-judo-clubs-crowning-glory/ ’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 completely different clubs all around the globe after we have been competing,” Rob explained. “Our purpose was to build a membership with a novel tradition: one which focussed on a grass-roots entity as a community-based family-oriented judo membership whereas additionally paving the best way for top performance and worldwide competitiveness.
“Our vision has always been to be recognised in the judo and general communities as the premium judo coaching centre in Australia. Rather than focussing on outcomes, our coaching tradition instills acknowledgement for participation in each side of the sport, in taking up challenges and placing in the most effective efforts in all actions, classes that help in all elements of life.’
Olympians Nathan And Josh Katz Budokan Judo Club’s Crowning GloryRob mentioned that they succeeded in constructing depth in each age group. Thanks to a strong mentoring ethic by senior athletes, this has resulted in important efficiency achievements, he mentioned.
Rob mentioned their greatest achievement in competitors is having consistent representation year after 12 months at the World Championship degree throughout all three senior age teams: under-17, under-21, and senior.
“The pinnacle of feat has been having two Olympic representatives in Athens, adopted by our first two home-grown Olympic representatives in Rio 2016 after which once more in Tokyo 2020,” Rob stated. The club had been also very proud to have gained two bronze medals on the 2022 Commonwealth Games, adding to their rising international profile.
“We have one athlete at present on monitor for qualification to Paris 2024 and are also pleased with our diversity,” Rob stated. “We had two athletes winning a gold medal and silver medal at the Virtus Asia-Oceania Games, the first time that Budokan has been represented at a world multi-sport competition in the Oceania-Asia area for elite athletes with an mental impairment.
“Budokan Judo Club’s membership ranges from 4 to 81 years from recreation gamers, to involved parents to Olympians and everything in between.”