Castle Hill’s Budokan Judo Club, which has produced Olympians and Commonwealth Games medallists, honoured their excellent athletes, coaches, and volunteers at its latest 21st Awards Night.
Having been started by the highly-experienced judokas Rob and Kerrye Katz 25 years in the past with just 10 members and two classes a week, the Budokan Judo Club now has greater than 200 members and runs 9 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 completely different clubs all around the globe after we had been competing,” Rob defined. “Our goal was to build a membership with a unique tradition: one which focussed on a grass-roots entity as a community-based family-oriented judo membership whereas also paving the way in which for top efficiency and worldwide competitiveness.
“Our imaginative and prescient has at all times been to be recognised in 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 side of the sport, in taking over challenges and placing in one of the best efforts in all actions, lessons that help in all elements of life.’
Olympians Nathan And Josh Katz Budokan Judo Club’s Crowning Glory Rob said that they succeeded in building depth in each age group. Thanks to a robust mentoring ethic by senior athletes, this has resulted in vital performance achievements, he stated.
Rob mentioned their largest achievement in competition is having consistent illustration year after year at the World Championship stage across all three senior age teams: under-17, under-21, and senior.
“The pinnacle of feat 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 said. The club have been also very proud to have won two bronze medals on the 2022 Commonwealth Games, including to their rising international profile.
“We have one athlete currently on observe for qualification to Paris 2024 and are also pleased with our range,” Rob mentioned. “We had two athletes profitable a gold medal and silver medal on the Virtus Asia-Oceania Games, the first time that Budokan has been represented at a global multi-sport competitors within the Oceania-Asia area for elite athletes with an intellectual impairment.
“Budokan Judo Club’s membership ranges from 4 to 81 years from recreation players, to fascinated mother and father to Olympians and every little thing in between.”