The Club Rewards Scheme rewards clubs who have grown their membership by offering them a choice of a range of different rewards. 

Fighting Fitness Judo (formerly Pyrford Judo Club) in Woking have seen a significant increase in their membership over the last six months. 

We caught up with Sam Lowe from Fighting Fitness Judo to find out what they have done to increase the number of members at their club. 

“We took over Pyrford Judo Club in January which had been run for 30 years by Graham Hoptroff”, explains Sam. 

The Woking-based club then set about investing in its marketing resources and activities: “We rebranded the club [renaming it Fighting Fitness Judo], built a new website, set up a Facebook page and did a lot of work with the local newspapers to help promote the club”. 

The club also purchased a new van which helped them to make more school visits. Sam, who is originally from Woking, delivered a number of assemblies around the borough to promote the sport and her club to young people. Through this Sam managed to attract a number of pupils to join the club. 

“Woking is where I grew up, where I started my judo and where I was based for much of my judo career, so it is quite a nice for me to now be running my own judo club in my home town”, said Sam. 

Fighting Fitness’s work in schools has been supported by Sportivate Funding from Active Surrey. The money from this grant has also helped in establish a satellite club based at Woking High School. 

“We have a good relationship with the Matt Glazier [Woking Borough Council Sports Development Officer] who has helped put us in touch with young people in the area, especially for the Surrey Youth Games.  He did a really good job to help us recruit kids who were complete beginners, to try judo at our club. We had a really good uptake from those kids that came along and many of them have continued doing judo since the Surrey Youth Games”. 

Fighting Fitness Judo grew its membership by 20 over the last six months. They are going to put their Club Rewards Scheme reward towards training a level 2 coach to help meet the increased demand they have created in the Woking area. 

Fighting Fitness Judo meet on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday evenings and Saturday mornings at Goldwater Lodge, Woking GU21 3RW and The Arbor Centre, Pyrford GU22 8ST.  For more information visit their website at http://www.fightingfitnessjudo.com/.