On Sunday 12th July Westcroft Judo held our first invitational festival and development competition, the event well attended with fifty five competitors from seven clubs. Over the years our team have gained valuable experience running our in house randori league and by attending hundreds of events across the UK and Europe. We were able to apply this experience to our own invitational event.
The matches were organised into three age groups U8, U10 & U12 for Sho, Red & Yellow belt grades, with staggered registration times, each group received a coach led warm up, followed by an explanation of the new development rules and Judo etiquette. Each group was then divided into pools by closet weight, Groups with many fighters of a similar weight allowed us to run an experimental new pool sheet named the waterfall. The waterfall pool sheet has been designed for a pool of eight fighters, where the winners progress to face winners and the other athletes drop into the repecharge to face each other, this brings the matches closer in ability and proved a great success producing excellent matches that were fair.
Each age group ran on time, we received lots of positive feedback for our organisational skills. We are really pleased to have delivered a very successful first invitational which offered high quality child/competitor friendly environment along with free parking, spectating and beverages for the parents and coaches. The medals were very well received along with a small gift for each competitor and a refreshing ice pop to finish each session.
Thanks to all our coaches/volunteers and invited clubs/competitors for making this such a memorable day.
