Wolverhampton Judo Club have been training since July following social distancing guidelines which has involved the club purchasing punch bags, uchi-komi bands, dummies and utilising other sports equipment in order for its members to train.

The club has taken advantage of the BJA Club Grant to be able to purchase additional dummies and uchi-komi bands and is now offering additional classes to new members who want to learn the sport by offering free session (supported by the grant) to parents and children from the same household that want to train together. The idea is that parents and their children can learn throws and hold downs together as partners, or an elder brother or sister with the younger member of the family.

The successful application of the BJA Club Grant has enabled the club to offer taster sessions to families and support them by paying for a recreational licence. Coach Kevin O’Reilly is hoping that by offering taster sessions to families, it will encourage them to continue with the sport when things return to normal with the parents joining the senior sessions and the children continuing with the junior sessions.

The club has been lucky that they have a permanent mat area and a building which is solely for judo. Coaches Kevin and Adam Lockley have been running the sessions, which has made them think of new ways for their members to train, some of which they will continue with when the sport gets back to normal.

The club is now running six 45min sessions per week and is looking to increase more sessions in the new year when they will be advertising the sessions in a local magazine.

Kevin commented: “I applied for the grant via the online application form and found it to be very simple and easy to complete after being made aware of it by the BJA. The Grant Application Guide was very useful and made completing the application a simple process.”