2008

Achievements and Awards Report 2008

 

A Forum involving 20 NSW clubs and the NSW Board of Management was recently convened in conjunction with the 2008 JFA(NSW) Congress. I was one of two coaches who presented on strategies implemented to help their club become one of the most successful clubs in the State. This was a great acknowledgement to Budokan. The first quandary is how you define a “successful Judo club”. There is no right answer for this. Whatever factors you decide are important to make your club successful, drives your goals and therefore your planning to achieve those goals. Then you have to have committed people to perform the activities which contribute to the goals. What you focus on will depend on what your aim is.

 

As far as the JFA(NSW) is concerned, the important factors for a successful club are its contribution to the State’s revenue via membership registration and grading certificates, and its contribution in terms of volunteer support. Without these, NSW Judo would not be able to manage and run activities. That said, Kerrye and I have always believed that because Judo is a competition sport above all else, participation and achievement in competition is an extremely important measure to us and therefore to the club.

 

I told the Forum that the reason our club thrives is because the club’s coaches and administrators genuinely care about our athletes, the athletes care about each other and the parental support is always very strong. The emphasis on all the strategies we employ is participation, encouragement, feedback and acknowledgement at all levels. We care about the quality of the services we provide and because of this, the services generally match what our athletes want and need. Our members are supported in achieving their goals and improve at rates which motivate them to continue.  We are all here for the athletes; if we look after them, the sport will take care of itself. Our philosophy is that encouragement builds participation, participation builds depth and depth builds results. From a coaching and an organizational achievement perspective, highlights for Budokan during 2008 include:

 

  • Assistant Coaches

The high number of juniors participating in the Yonen/Shonen sessions and in particular the MONs sessions on Wednesday has again been well catered for through our dedicated coaching staff, the assistance of graded parents of the children and other older players. Thanks to Assistant Coaches (Dale Keogh and Guido Scholtz) and other coaching helpers: Julie-Ann Edwards, Steve Boyd, Jennifer Purcell, Kevin Schmitz, and Jake Young

  • Coaching Accreditation Scheme

Andras Koltai and Jennifer Purcell completed their NCAS Level 1 this year. This increases the number of NCAS accredited coaches in the club to 7. Both these athletes are assisting with coaching activities within the club. It is a credit to the club when competition athletes show an interest in putting something back to the sport.

  • Committee & Volunteers

A special thanks to our long-standing club Secretary since 2001, David Hastings, who will be standing down this year after many years of great service. We hope to see you back on the mat some day soon. Thanks to all club Committee members and all our volunteer parents and players who have contributed in so many ways this year; everything from the Budokan MONSters, club representatives at all State Competitions, the hall clean-out and rebuild, and the vast array of activities which make up the club administration machine, from travel and accommodation, to membership, merchandising and banking.

  • State/National Volunteers

John Da Silva maintains our contact with the Referees being a member of the NSW Commission. Kerrye is still the NSW Coordinator for the NCAS Scheme. The club’s volunteers also comprised a significant proportion of the core group who ran the 2008 National Championships in Sydney. Patrick Waite made a significant mark for Budokan by stepping up to the volunteer coordinator role. Included in the Nationals volunteers group were: The McDougall family, The Young family, Anna Da Silva, Karen Leake, The Sandri family, Julie-Ann Edwards, Jacqui Zellner and Melissa Rudgley.

  • Website, Newsletter and Media

Thanks to Guido and Trend Marking for their continued support and the upgrade this year of the new-look website, to Amy Schmitz for her initiative in maintaining the Junior Newsletter, and to Pranesh Nageshwar from the Hills Shire Times for keeping Budokan one of the most celebrated Hills clubs in the local media.

  • Club Participation

This year, we had visits from New Caledonia, Northern Territory, Zen Bu and Woy Woy as well as hosting the Junior Boys State Team Training on Saturdays for the 6 weeks prior to the Nationals.

  • Gradings

In Dec 2007, Andras Koltai, was the only Judoka of the 8 applicants who attempted a Black Belt grading by Batsugan (competition line up of Brown belts) to obtain his Sho Dan (1st degree Black Belt). We continue to run sufficient gradings to allow athletes to be graded when they are ready with minimum delay. We convened two courses in Nage-No-Kata with 9 athletes attending. Jarrad Cooper, Max Hale, and Jake Young were graded to senior Brown Belt and Shaun McDougall to senior Blue Belt. Thanks to Dale and John Da Silva for assisting. JFA(NSW) approval has been provided to grade Kevin Da Silva under the new national grading criteria to Senior Brown Belt when he turns 16.

  • Athlete Sponsorships, Scholarships/Selections
    • At the annual dinner and awards night of NSW Judo's Black Belt Register (BBR), Andras Koltai was awarded the NSW Best new Black Belt of the year.  The annual dinner was attended by 10 Budokanis to share the moment.
    • This year, the National Judo body selected Jake Young to the National Talent Identification and Development (NTID) Squad as one of 20 15-19 year old athletes from around Australia. Budokan will now sponsor Jake’s club training. Nik Zellner and Kevin Da Silva were selected as reserve athletes.
    • Budokan continued its tradition to financially support its NSW representatives to the Nationals and to the athletes who attended AIS camps in Canberra under the NTID scheme.
  • Revenue and Relationships
    • Tennant Clubs.Our healthy relationships with two martial arts clubs who utilize the Budokan Dojo, Makotokan Aikido Club and Machado Brazilian Ju Jitsu Club, continue to be mutually beneficial.
    • Hall Hire.A unique opportunity was afforded Budokan when ACP Publications who sponsored the “Good Food Affare” at Castle Hill Showground on 22-23 November, approached us for the use of the hall. For 8 days access, provision of on-site storage and labour resources to assist, we got the hall painted and a net revenue equivalent to over a year’s rent boost (after giving Aikido and BJJ two months rent-free, and the Showground a donation).
  • Competitions
    • 2008 Nationals, Sydney.  This is the first time in many years that the National Championships were run in Sydney. We took advantage of this and had 18 athletes compete in 23 divisions compared to 15 athletes competing in 16 divisions last year. Our athletes won 4 gold, 1 silver, and 8 bronze medals representing about 1/5 of NSW’s total medal tally and 1/5 of NSW’s gold medal tally, and this was despite Shaun McDougall having to withdraw injured from Juniors and Junior Men’s divisions and Jennifer Purcell from Seniors. For comparison, in 2007we won 4 Gold medals, 1 Silver Medal, and 4 x 5th places. The depth of results is improving each year. This means that in 7 Nationals in which Budokan has been represented since 2002, 116 of our athletes have competed in 146 divisions and achieved 91 medals: 38 Gold, 15 Silver, and 38 Bronze medals, plus 20 x 5th, 14x 7th, and 4 x 9thplacings. Details for 2008 were:
  • Senior Nationals: 1stplace to Andras Koltai, the first senior gold medal since 2005; 3rdplaces to Jake Young and Nikola Pejic; unplaced to Nik Zellner and Jovan Pejic.
  • Junior U/20yrs Men and Women Nationals: 3rdplaces to Jake Young, Kevin Da Silva and Nik Zellner, with Mickael Gieules unplaced.
  • Junior Boys/Girls U/16 Nationals: 1stplace Kevin Da Silva; 3rdplace Nathan Katz, 5thplace Hamish McDougall and Naomi de Bruine, and 7thplacings to Vanessa Hall and Jessica Klajman.
  • Junior Boys/Girls U/13 Nationals: 1st Place to Karen Da Silva and Naomi de Bruine, 2ndplace to Josh Katz, and 3rdplacings to Cameron Leishman and Aidan Sandri.
  • For the first time, with our newly acquired HD Digital Video Camera, we produced a DVD for every athlete who participated at the Nationals and had a movie night at the club. Thanks to Andras for the production and to the de Bruine and Schmitz families for videoing the matches.

  • 2008 Oceania Championships.Nik Zellner won a Bronze medal at this event in the Junior Men U/73 division.

  • MastersGames.
    • 2008 World Masters.  Dale Keogh won a Gold Medal in her age and weight class and a Gold medal in the Open Category of her weight class in Belgium 24-29 June
    • 2008 Pacific Masters Games.Dale also won Silver Medals in the Katame-No-Kata, Ju-No-Kata and Randori-No-Kata events at the Pacific Masters.
    • All Grades/Masters.It was nice to see Brian Medbury make a comeback to Masters this year with a silver in the All Grades Masters.
  • NSW Teams Competition:With 6 teams represented, the club achieved 1st place in 3 divisions, 2nd place in one division, and 3rdin one division. Wins in the Junior Boys (U/16yrs weighted) Team, the Junior Girls (U/16yrs weighted) Team, and the Women's Masters (Over 40yrs Open Weight) Team, and 2nd place in the Men’s B (Open Weight Orange and Green Belt) Team, and 3rdplace for our second U/16 Boys Team, with the Men’s A (Open Weight Open Grade) Team just missing out by 5 points in making the final pool. This was a fair effort considering we had 2 Green belts and 2 60kg Men in this team.
  • Teams League “Fight Night” Competition.  After the 2007 AGM, this event which launched our purple and green Team Budokan judogis culminated in the finals on 30thNovember at Olympic Park, where Budokan defeated both Kugatsu and the Uni of NSW Judo Clubs to win the first State Teams League Competition. Team Budokan was: Karen Da Silva, Jake Young, Shaun McDougall, Andrea Koltai, Nikola Pejic, Andras Koltai, Patrick Waite, Jovan Pejic and Guido Scholtz. Sadly, the JFA(NSW) did not run the event this year.
  • Budokan MONSters Competition.  On the 31st August, we hosted our seventh annual MONSter competition since 2002. Budokan is one of only 2 clubs in NSW who have maintained the tradition of hosting the State-wide event on behalf of JFA(NSW). Using an electronic scoring and timing system for the first time, participation was up by nearly 40% on 2007 with 48 entries compared to last year’s 36. This represents the second highest number attending since 2002. 10 clubs participated with 21 divisions and 76 matches being contested. Budokan’s 23 MONSters did particularly well by winning 10 divisions, coming second in 10 divisions and third in 3 divisions as well as winning three of the special awards as voted by the participating clubs’ coaches: Remi Morato won the Best Ne-Waza (ground technique) and Zac Almario and Tahlia Brennan the best spirit awards.
  • Other Competitions.
  • ACT Open:15 Budokan athletes competed in 18 divisions plus the Kindai Cup selection achieving 3 gold medals, 6 silver, 4 bronze, and 4 x 5thplaces.
  • NSW Open:15 athletes competed in 18 divisions with 7 Gold, 2 Silver, 4 Bronze, and 3 x 5thplaces.
  • QLD Open:10 athletes competed in 14 divisions with 5 Gold, 3 Silver, and 5 Bronze medals and Nathan Katz winning the Best Junior Boy award.
  • VIC Open:3 athletes won 2 Gold and 4 Bronze medals.
  • Intervarsity:Jennifer Purcell won the U/57kg Senior Women's Category at the Intervarsity Championships.

Interstate participation and results this year were unsurpassed. We had athletes compete in all the NSW State Team Selection events, all interstate Open events, various Masters Events, All Grades and Kyu Grades events, the State Teams event, and nearly all MONSter events and most of the RSL events which we virtually ran.

Congratulations to all the athletes and many thanks to all our wonderful supporters who continually stick together to form a united Budokan wall of support at all competitions where we have representation.

 

The Future

Aims for 2009:

  • Resources for Core Business Activities.Identifying and accessing people with any special skills or interests the club development activities such as:
  • Sponsorship – Rob to put a new pack together;
  • Member Information Kits;
  • Merchandising – embroidery on Judogis was discussed 12 months ago;
  • JFA/Training Fees Management – records and follow-up of members (assistance for Donna);
  • Member Services - Judogi sales and records, inventory & assets, DVD/Video/Book library, Video Camera, First Aid Kit);
  • Competition Volunteer Support (Coordinate volunteers and training);
  • Facilities Maintenance/Improvement (whirly birds, water leaks, kitchen upgrade, etc);
  • Promotion and PR (media – Rob; website – assist Guido; newsletters);  
  • Travel/Accommodation Management (For Nationals, QLD Open etc)
  • Social Event Management and Support (Awards Night, Xmas function, other events).
    • New Opportunities.
  • Technical Development and Coaching:
    • Greater use of HD Camera at Training (Snr & Jnr Club Coaches) and at Competitions (TBA support team);
    • Seniors – opportunities to X-train with BJJ (Rob);
    • Seniors – training at SUJC and/or UNSW periodically for extra randori (Rob)
  • Membership development – High Schools Judo (Dale)
  • Venue Development:
    • Use the revenue for Kitchen/other maintenance (TBA support team)
    • 2m extension of mat area (Rob)
  • Competition/Visits Development/organisation
    • (Nationals in ACT) – Travel pools, cheaper costs, greater participation (??);
    • QLD Open in April - Pre-Nationals (??)
    • Promotion/Revenue – U/13s State event at Budokan (??)
    • Club NZ Trip – postponed from 2008 (Rob/Kerrye/Don)
  • Revenue Development
    • Sponsorship from Local Businesses – What can we get; what can we give them back (??)
    • Fee Structure – unchanged in 3 years (??)
    • Merchandising – New lines of merchandise; advertising and promotion (??)
  • Education Development  – Sessions for training volunteers and players in Comp Management (Draws, etc) (??)

 

 

Rob Katz                                             Kerrye Katz                                                   24thNovember 2008

Coaching Coordinator                        Coaching Coordinator

President, Budokan Judo Club Inc.    Budokan Judo Club Inc.