November 2016 saw Tekio Gemu Judo club (or TG Judo club) become the 30th current BJA club to hold Clubmark status as awarded by Sport England.

Since opening on January 11th 2016, the club has managed to attain over 40 regular members as well as establish a school to dojo link with St Michaels School in Rowley Regis, Birmingham.

Head coach Neal Luke, who is a former student of British Head Coach and Olympic medallist Dennis Stewart, opened the club with the help of Coach Adam Hannah. Adam is also a UKCC level 2 and BJA second Dan.

This ties in with the acquisition of TG Judo Club’s new venue which is now a permanent dojo based in a large studio on Halesowen Street in the Rowley Regis area of the West Midlands and opens fully on January 5th 2017. This is almost exactly one year after they originally opened at St Michael’s School.

Founder and Head Coach Neal had the following to say:

“I came into Judo at 16 years old, which was a lot later than my training partners. I knew it would be hard to make it to top level competitive Judo coming in at that age but always took a great interest in coaching.

I paid as much attention to coaching methods and the drills used as I did to actual contests. After 17 years I felt it was long overdue for me to open my own club but never expected it to be this successful.

I consider myself very lucky to have the amazing Juniors and adults that have walked through the door and no doubt I’ll have some amazing athletes come out of them‘.

Neal also attributed a great deal of the clubs success to Coach Adam Hannah, the BJA Midland area, club Chairman Paul Taylor, his former coach Dennis Stewart, BJA regional Deliver Officer Keith Merrick and the students and parents that make the effort to attend class.

For information on the club you can visit their website at www.TekioGemu.co.uk or their Facebook group which is www.FaceBook.com/Groups/TGJudo

The BJA would like to wish TG Judo club all the success they can achieve in the future.