St. Albans Judo Club

31/08/2026

Last week we took a break from our normal activities and gave our Kids Coaches the week off. Instead we held our annual Summer training sessions, running from 10am-3:30pm for 3 days, we enjoyed a mix of Fitness, Games, Technical Training, Randori & some Judo adjacent mental challenges. (Along with ice pops & gingerbread men 🤣)

Assisting Sensei Jad for the week, we welcomed club alumni, Kristian & Ryan Hill who did a brilliant job leading the Technical sessions, targeting basic techniques for all ages in attendance, and stepping up the level for our more experienced members. They were joined by another alumni, George Rowson, who gave some insights on how certain techniques can safely be adapted for the youngest competitors. With Kristian & George mixing in for the Randori our members got the chance to try out their skills with players who regularly compete internationally, which everyone thoroughly enjoyed.

Additional session support came from Club Coaches Chloe & Stratty, with Adam O & Freya, visiting back from university, all ably assisted by young helpers, Arthur L, Lindsay, Jake & Dan O.

Thank you everyone for an absolutely fantastic week! 😃

17/08/2026

Something for the Seniors, being held at our Dojo...
Saturday 10th Oct, an afternoon training session for Veterans (o30s)
Sunday 11th Oct, a Ne-waza (groundwork only) competition for o16s.
More details in the attached post.

🥋 A WEEKEND OF VETERAN/SENIOR JUDO 🥋

Led by Herts & Beds Area, held at St Albans Judo Club!

🔴 Saturday 10th October – Veteran training Afternoon
Led by Ricky Cleevely 5th Dan
⏰ 12pm–4pm, including a break
💷 £10
👊 All grades welcome – come along, train, learn and enjoy an afternoon on the mat.

🔵 Sunday 11th October – Senior Newaza Competition
🏆 Age 16+
⏰ Booking in from 9am
💷 £15
🥋 All grades welcome

The competition will follow a merge of BJC and EJU rules, to create a great competitive experience.

📋 Full competition timings will follow shortly, including exact weigh-in times and the full contest rules, so keep an eye out for the separate competition information.

📅 Entries close Friday 2nd October at 10pm.

🔗 Entries are now OPEN!
The same booking link can be used for both the Veteran Training Afternoon and the Senior Newaza Competition:
https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/Au1ze4Hax9?origin=lprLink

Organised by the same team behind the Shizentai Rumble – great judo, great people and a great atmosphere.

Come to train. Stay to compete. Enjoy the weekend. 🥋🔥

29/07/2026

This past weekend saw Sensei Jad, along with Samuel, Marcin, Bill & Jacob (& Daniel) head up to Warwickshire in order to deliver 13 judo tasters to a range of ages at the Festival of Sport.
From the initial ad-hoc enquiries on Friday afternoon thru the formal sessions of Saturday & Sunday we worked with almost 200 children & introduced them to some judo basics. With each group we covered a few fun animal moves, Ukemi, a Throw & a Hold, and even had time to play a quick game.
It was tiring, exceptionally hot (full sun all weekend)l & continuous hard work - Yet it was an AMAZING weekend, and we were absolutely delighted to have been asked to lead the sessions.

19/07/2026

Well done to the small squad of club members who took part in the Shizentai Kata competition today, a great opportunity to demonstrate the hard work everyone's been doing.

🥇 Stratty & Alex - Senior Nage-no-kata
🥇John & Richard - Senior Itsutsu-no-kata
🥇Finn & Emily - Junior Nage-no-kata
🥉Emily & Finn - Junior Katame-no-kata

Also, well done to club member Patrick & his partner who were competing under Shizentai, who took Gold in the Junior Katame-no-kata

As always we've come away with more to work on as we prepare for the next event, but excellent efforts from everyone with improvements shining through for all pairs. 👍

14/07/2026

On Sunday a large squad headed to Hatfield for the Shizentai Rumble.
Always an excellently run event & this year was no different, huge thanks to Shizentai Judo Club, and all the officials & supporters who helped make the event a great success.

We finished up with 41 competitors on the day, from the tiniest of our 5 year old dragons, through to a couple of our "slightly" older adults 😃

Everyone fought hard, and showed excellent determination and spirit. For several people this was their very first event, or their first in a new age band - really pleased to see how well people are progressing at all ages. 👍

(Participation)🏅 - Caelan & Anna - Excellent performances, but in larger groups meant unfortunately no placing today for these.
(Bronze) 🥉 - Elsie, Wan Yu, Emma, Marni, Maya, Asher, William S, Zachary, Finn, Sebastian, Jonathan, Thomas, Alexander, Tomas, Alfred, Barrack, Reuben, William B, Eryk, Lawrence, Vitorio, Lena, Isla D, Jaidan
(Sliver) 🥈 - Melina, Valerie, Meadow, Bethany, Elisa, Max, Grayson, Daniel, Adam, Theo
(Gold) 🥇- Emily, Danae, Lorcan, Darius, Elijah

Many thanks as always to my admin team for logging everything, to Steve J for his coaching support through out the morning, and to all the kids & parents for supporting everyone so well, 👏
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A couple of our primaries appear to have escaped the photo call, and we completely missed getting a photo of our over 16s! (Sorry guys!)

12/07/2026

Best of luck to everyone entered for the Shizentai Judo Club Rumble today. Looking forward to an exciting day of judo. Very proud of you all for giving it a go. 👍🍀

01/07/2026

Last Saturday we held our Summer Grading, with almost 80 people being assessed. It was an excellent day with some great demonstrations of judo across all the ages groups, and evidence of a lot of hard work from everyone. Smiling faces, and new belts & tabs all-round.👏
As always my thanks to the background team that make these events flow so well, and ensure everyone gets the best experience. You are all amazing!
On refreshments & general support we had Liz, Jess & Dione, on the Admin desk we had Elinore & Nikki, and busy on the mat were my amazing coaching team of Steve J, John, Bill, Stratty, Richard, Kim, Ian P, Marcin, Freya & Muhammed.🎉

31/05/2026

After a fantastic day with our Dragons at the U8s event yesterday, we're back at Bishops Stortford today with a small group of Yellow & Orange belt Tigers & Wolves for the Green and Under competition.
Good luck everyone 🍀

30/05/2026

Good luck today to a squad of U8s taking part in the Judo Festival at Bishops Stortford. The chaos of the warmup is done, on to the Randori pools. 👍🎉👍