JOY is a newly established project which aims to increase awareness of the importance of intergenerational judo for the physical, social, and psychological well-being of older and younger individuals, thereby contributing to their successful aging and holistic development, respectively. The project is coordinated by the Judo Club Rijeka from Croatia along with eight other organisation comprising academic and sports experts from Austria, Italy, Malta, Slovenia, Spain, Romania and Türkiye as partners.
To objectives of this project as follow;
- To collect evidence- and eminence-based knowledge from physical activity experts for intergenerational groups, and from intergenerational experiences of judo coaches.
- To develop a conceptual framework of judo coaching for intergenerational groups of practitioners, which will provide a sound theoretical basis for an inclusive society.
- To implement the distance and self-regulated international educational programme for judo coaches with information specifically related to intergenerational groups of practitioners and based on a solid theoretical background, which will ensure its broad applicability in and beyond Europe.
- To raise the awareness of educational and sports staff, and policy makers on the promotion of intergenerational sports practice, which could contribute to the enhancement of a European level of physical activity.
Target Groups:
- Judo coaches willing to deepen their knowledge on the benefits and risks of judo programme including novice and expert practitioners of different ages.
- Judo clubs willing to enlarge their judo offer by including intergenerational groups programmes under the supervision of well-prepared coaches.
- General population of youth and older novice and/or expert judoka willing to engage in intergenerational exchanges through judo in a safe and stimulating environment.
- Academic personnel willing to transfer the knowledge acquired through JOY to their students in sports sciences, thus contributing to a next generation of well-prepared coaches.
Toma JELUŠIĆ, Coach and Secretary of the Judo Association of PGZ and Judo club Rijeka expressed his thoughts further;
We would like for everyone to really see judo more then just a competitive sport and the power that it has. It is a sport which can be practiced from the age of 3 or 4, until you are practically able to walk. Offering the people to do something new, something that is useful, such as ukemi-waza and more, all which builds self-confidence. This is also something you lose overtime as you get older which can be a barrier that for example stops you wanting to do something. With judo we can break this barriers.
I would say that most of the clubs in Europe, or at least 70% of the kids judoka are age under 15. So why not involving them to invite, to teach, to show their family members and within their circle what judo can do. To have fun on the way whilst widening the judo society for more than just coming for training session. This is the general idea.
We structured a scientifically based module of coaching which is another thing that we want to develop, which has been developed and there is a module that is available now for the older participants. We hope to develop the same for coaches who are willing to embrace this kind of work. Although the timeline and the partners are fixed towards the European Commission, the program is available to all and we would love to have more countries involved.
Images: Carlos Ferreira /JudoJOY
Author: Szandra Szogedi