In April British Judo will be launching its new Sho award for judoka up to the age of 8. We spoke to British Judo Technical Manager Joyce Heron to find out more about the new awards ahead of their launch.

Can you tell us about the new awards?

The new award scheme is called the Sho and is for 5 to 7 year olds. These awards have a bigger focus on fundamental skill and movement development as opposed to just the technical aspects of judo.

How do the Sho awards differ from Mon and Kyu Grades?

The Mon scheme is based mostly on the technical aspects of judo, such as judo techniques, standing techniques, ground work techniques etc. and how they combine with one another.

In contrast the new Sho awards focus on fundamental movement skills and game play for 5 to 7 year olds. By this I mean movements and actions which we associate with jumping, hopping, skipping and partner drills.

Who can deliver the new Sho awards?   

Any British Judo Association registered coach from Level 1 upwards can deliver and issue the new Sho awards.

Why have these new awards been introduced?

Fundamental movement skills are critical at those ages [5, 6 and 7] and have been linked to continued long term participation in sport as a whole including judo. People that can move better are more likely to continue to be active throughout their lives. An active lifestyle obviously has positive health implications as well and helps tackle obesity.

A lot feedback we’ve received from coaches and clubs has also highlighted a need to be able to offer something to that [5 to 7 year old] age group as well. The Sho awards allow clubs and coaches to reward and acknowledge the development of young people without officially grading them in a formal 8+ year old grading scheme.

How have the Sho awards been developed?

Unofficially, we’ve been working on these awards for a few years now as part of a ‘widening the market’ project we had been working on which looked at fundamental skills and gymnastic skills. Over the last year we’ve brought that into a package for 5-7 year olds we are now about to launch. 

When will the Sho be available?

They will be available in April. People can find out more information and get involved in the scheme by visiting www.judokids.org.uk.

What is the goal for introducing these awards?

Ultimately, we want young children who can move well enough to be able to participate in judo. As they move through the sport we hope that this will enable them to participate in judo at a higher level as well.

By encouraging children to pick up these fundamental movement skills at a young age, there is an expectation that these will aide injury prevention as well in the long term as well.

At its core it’s about making confident movers and giving young children more confidence to practice judo.

What if someone between 5-7 is already on the grading scheme?

If for example someone is 7 years of age and they are already a 2^nd Mon, they can simply transfer their award to the Sho award.

They can continue with the Mon grading scheme or they can choose to transfer over to the Sho. It depends on the coach. Some coaches we’ve spoken to want all of their players to be on the same scheme whilst others are quiet happy to transfer newcomers onto that scheme and leave the others where they are. In 3 years time once the Sho awards have had time to settle in and people get used to them, we would expect everyone under the age of 7 to be on the Sho award scheme.

How much do the Sho awards cost?

We want the Sho grades to be as accessible as possible. For £20.00 a year a coach will be able to grade a pupil a maximum of 3 times. The onus is then on the coach/club to decide what (if any) additional charge they want to charge the judoka at their club.

We’ve tried to make this flexible as we recognize that different clubs in different areas will offer different rates.