Judo has never just been about the people on the mat, it has always been about the families and the wider communities. Here is a wonderful example from Patchway Judo in Bristol, where they decided to do a ‘Bring your Parent to Judo’ night.

There are a few reasons why this feels like a good idea.

1. It gets parents involved in judo and creates shared experiences for families
2. It’s fun and fun means more of your cohort will continue to do judo – so it’s great for retention
3. It may also get some parents onto the mat as members
4. And even if they don’t start doing judo hopefully by feeling a little more included they will begin to help out and become an active part of the judo community.

So all round it’s a Win Win.

For anyone thinking about doing a Bring your Parent to Judo night here is a short guide with key learnings, that got the Patchway Event off the ground.

Firstly the club promoted the event on Spond which Patchway use for club sessions and to share news and 18 parents signed up with 21 participating on the night. Spond is a free app that is specifically designed for sports clubs and their events. There are a number of other apps like Spond such as TeamSnap, Jersey Watch and the like. Have a google and see which will work for you. If you have used these apps please let us know so that we can collate some joined up thinking to share.

The club devised the session to include as many of the club members as possible and in the warm up used their ‘minis’ session which also meant their Kanji award junior coaches got involved. We hear Eloise, Daisy, Mercedes and Sam did a great job at putting the parents through their paces including bunny hops, frog jumps, shrimping and cartwheels.

In the session, the whole class learnt O Goshi and here again, Patchway was clever and everyone had to pair with their parent/offspring, so a nice bit of family bonding could occur.

And finally, all parents were awarded the Koka Kids ‘Kesa gatame’ certificate which, while maybe a little thing, still gave them something to go home with and chat with the rest of the household about. We thought this was a really nice touch

The feedback has been really positive and some of the comments are shared below.

Nice one Patchway Judo!

“It was great me and Nathan enjoyed it thank you”

“It was a great intro for us oldies. Thanks for letting us play”

“Thanks Team Patchway… a great night and a certificate as well ”

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