Worcester Judo Club have over recent times been through some very difficult circumstances losing their two most experienced coaches (father and son, Phil and Duncan Jones) tragically in two separate incidents.

This has also been very challenging for the club as the Jones family were key drivers in the Worcester Judo Club, since then Phil Jones junior has stepped up in to the lead coach role and mother Jenny has continued to assist behind the scenes.

The club has undergone a rebuild of its officials since their losses, both coaching and committee wise, this has seen a number of changes including local Continental Referee (Carol Leverton) taking the helm as Chairperson and other highly regarded coaches taking responsibility for coaching sessions, this includes Gareth Davies, Mark Langstone and Joseph Munford. Under Carol Laverton’s direction, the club has invested further into coach education with Mark Langstone who is in the final stages of his level 2 award currently and both Sebastian Bower and Alexander Bower successfully completing their Level 1 earlier this year.

During these multiple changes, Debbie Davies has worked tirelessly to document everything the club does and has to offer ready for the clubs CLUBMARK submission. Debbie is the Club’s Welfare Officer and therefore in a good position to ensure many of the fundamentals are properly positioned and working. The submission was of high quality and passed the examination at the first attempt – Well done Debbie and the club!

Keith Merrick (British Judo Development Officer) who has been working with the club on all of their initiatives said that “the club has done an amazing job to recover from it losses and he can see future positive opportunities on the horizon as the club has strong links with two satellite clubs which are VI and SN based, these are producing more judoka. Carol Leverton delivers the VI and SN satellite sessions within local colleges.”