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On Saturday 4 December 2010, The Arsenal PL4S and Capital London Judo Club held their first Judo Festival, hosted at Cardinal Pole Catholic School. The aim of the festival was to introduce new judoka to competition and have a fun enjoyable day with their parents and other judoka. 

The festival was lead by Gabor Szanyi Nagy, coach for Capital London Judo Club and a BJA London Development Officer, assisted by officials Craig Ringer, London Area's Officials Development Manager and Helen Davies, London Area's Referees Development Manager and BJA International Referee. The judoka had an opportunity to meet some Great Britain and London Area senior squad members, Lee Shinkin and Tom Davis, who joined in all the fun and activities with the judoka and ensured everyone had a fun time. There was a demonstration of throws, holds, strangles and armlocks.  After the demonstration, the children participated in their own Judo tournament and a good day was had by all. 

Coach Gabor Szanyi Nagy, said of the event, "I think everyone involved enjoyed the day, including the parents and based on the feedback everyone is looking forward to the next tournament. I would like to mention all the help and co-ordination from Helen Davies and Craig Ringer who ensured the event was a successful and a big thank you to Shaun Purcell, who allowed us to use the school and everyone else who helped and contributed to the event."

Ross McKinley, the Sport Co-ordinator from Arsenal helped in the background to organise the PL4S and CLJC Judo Festival, and ensured all participants were given an Arsenal medal, certificate and other Arsenal goodies. All judoka received a medal for the competition, with a Judo trophy for the winners of each group.

New TOCS Pilot Launched in London

The new TOCS (Technical Officials for Clubs and Schools) programme pilot launched in November at three schools across London, including Ernest Bevin College, The Royal Docks Community School and Bromley College.

The TOCS award has been created to encourage a generation of young technical officials into the sport and is designed for young people to get involved in officiating at the entry level of time keeper/scorer.

Anyone between the ages of 10-18 years can qualify as a TOC, with those 14 years and over also gaining the full timekeepers qualification. Those aged between 10 -14 years who pass the course will hold a TOC award and on turning 14, these TOCS’ will be invited to join the general judo pool of Technical Officials. All the TOCS will be assigned mentors who will be present at the events they are invited to officiate a, so there is a support system in place for them.

This is a great opportunity for the London Area enabling them to be able to start to build their young officials database and to give the opportunity to deploy the TOCS at local events. One of the main aims of the London pilot is to support at least two of the TOCS’ to officiate at the London Youth Games on June 18 th 2011. London Area Development Manager Karen French has played a big part in getting the course deliveries into the schools and said, “The TOCS are able to support their school club and Coach with running much needed competition. This hopefully will give them the opportunity to step onto the correct Officiating pathway outside of the school and in their local Judo Community and Area”.

All three of the London school pilots took place in a Dojo, allowing the participants to gain a practical experience of how the time keeper’s role works and what the competition set up looks like. The sessions involved hands on theory in the morning allowing the participants to be able to practice the refereeing signals and basic “on the clock” skills. The afternoon was set up like a mock competition with the participants getting plenty of opportunities to have a go on the clocks and to fight in the contests. Each course was set up around local competition dates, ensuring that the TOCS have competitive opportunities available to them to practice their skills after the course.

Technical Official Craig Ringer, who co-delivered the courses said, “it was great seeing 12 to 18 year olds working together as a team which is what being a technical official is all about.” Craig will also be mentoring the TOCS’ as they go on to time-keep in competitions.

The first competitions took place on the 18 th Novembon Saturday 20 th November; this will be the first opportunity for the TOCS to practice their new skills in a protected environment.

On the 18th November, The Royal Docks Community School played host to West Ham United’s Premier League 4 Sport judo competition and saw around 50 young people from local schools compete. Those that completed the course were all invited to have a go on the clocks at the event, in between competing themselves. Two scoreboards ran on the day- one as the real contest scoreboard and one as a ‘shadow’ scoreboard. This enabled as many of the budding young time keepers to practiseer at The Royal Docks Community School and Ernest Bevin College  their new skills as possible and they were all supported through the event by experienced Technical Official Craig Ringer. The competition was a great success and served to whet the appetite of the next generation of young officials in the sport.

On the 20th November it was Ernest Bevin’s turn to hold a competition at their purpose built dojo facility. Five young officials who participated in the course put their names forward to run the clocks on the two mats during the competition. Craig Ringer was again present to mentor the young officials through the day and it was a very positive experience for all those involved. The budding young time keepers went home happy, but very tired after their first day of competition, many of them realising that the job is not as easy as it looks and it was commented that it was surprising how much concentration is needed when running the clocks.

Bromley College will be organising a low level competition before the Christmas break so the potential TOCS will get the chance to practise the skills from the course.

Commenting on the success of the pilot, Jess Fack, Children and Young People Volunteer Officer said, “It was great to see the young officials really taking to the challenge of running the clocks. The London Area has embraced the programme and I am looking forward to seeing the TOCS being invited to further competitions across the city.”

A number of those who have showed great promise in the courses and first competitions will be invited to officiate at the London Youth Games Feeder Event early on in the New Year.