Comberton judo Club have been awarded £5456 from Sport England to increase coaches and officials as well as make the club more sustainable.

Comberton Judo club has successfully applied for £5456 to qualify six new level 2 coaches which will allow them to increase the number of classes they deliver within the community. Each one of the new coaches will also have a safeguarding children course and first aid course as well as the mandatory CRB check.

The money will also allow the club to purchase new crashmats and qualify some of the younger members as both sports leaders and table officials. The clubs is also purchasing scales and a height measure.

Head coach Bob Challis said “This money will help make the club more sustainable, more coaches means we can provide more classes and providing table official courses, sports leader awards means younger players can stay in judo even if they don’t want to compete, this more holistic approach is better for the club and the individual members. We have young people involved as assistant coaches, committee type roles, performance analysis, officials as well as those that just want to compete, we try to provide something for everyone. We now have our first two full-time athletes.”

The EJU Judo Knowledge Commissioner added: “Scales are important because it is a weight category sport and we want to monitor weight, as much to make sure children aren’t dieting as to make sure they’re in the correct weight group for them, for me the height measure is very important, knowing when a child’s peak height velocity is allows us to accurately identify when they should do certain types of train such as strength, power and speed. Almost all of the coaches at Comberton JC have a sports related degree or are studying one, therefore there is great knowledge in applying the principles of training”

More information on Comberton Judo Club can be found at www.combertonjudo.org