The second EJU Judo Festival is now underway in the Mediterranean city of Antalya. All in all, almost 500 judo fans are participating in Antalya. Like last year there are plenty of facilities on offer at the Maritim Pine Beach Resort for all range of ages and interests.
JUDO KIDS CAMP
Children are invited to improve their judo skills together with other youngsters. They learn a variety of judo games, also basic techniques but most importantly they all have fun together with their families. Yuri Krischuk from Russia explained why he is participating at the children’s day: “Young children have the opportunity to train with their parents to develop their judo skills. So there is a better understanding between children and their parents.”
JUDO ANIMATION DAY
What is judo? That question is answered in 30 minutes every day. Children from families on holiday and young judoka train together and have fun on the mat whilst they learn judo’s core principals of respect and friendship. Every day famous judo players like Aleksei Budolin EST or Georgii Zantaraia UKR or Majlinda Kelmendi KOS deliver the judo spirit message.
OLYMPIC TRAINING CAMP
This year 339 athletes from 41 countries join the Olympic Training Camp, the OTC. Athletes like Olympic champion from 2012 Arsen Galstyan and Tagir Khaibulaev RUS, Olympic champion from 2004 Ilias Iliadis GRE along with world champion Majlinda Kelmendi are training here in preparation for the Olympic Games in Rio 2016.
VETERANS TRAINING CAMP
Also veterans have the possibility to train on the mat. One of the EJU experts also on the mat is Dutchman Ben Skijkers: “One of the topics is how to move easily and correctly to have no fear of falling and to keep the fun on the tatami.”
JUDO EXPERTS MEETING
All in all, 15 judo experts will come together in Antalya to develop the EJU projects such as JUDO@SCHOOL and IMPROVE YOUR CLUB. Added to the existing experts like Neil Adams, Ezio Gamba and Jane Bridge, the EJU team have two new members: Tsunoda Go and Hosokawa Shinji from Japan.
KATA SEMINAR
The Japanese Mukai Mikihiro from the Kodokan will share his kata knowledge to all those who are involved in the Judo Festival.
REFEREEING MEETING
Referees and Coaches come together and analyse tricky contest situations. Both sides listen to the arguments. The aim is to understand the actions of referees better. Also training sessions on the mat offer coaches and athletes the opportunity to ask referees what is right and what they should avoid. “We get many questions from them [players]. In the end it is nice to see that both sides understand each others acts. We feel that there are less questions and a greater understanding of the reasons why referees took this action or that…“, explained Franky de Moor from the EJU refereeing commission.
RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM
This year twelve new posters will be presented from the authors. The main goal is to develop judo at school. The winner of last year’s poster exhibition, Luis Monteiro, who won the fifth poster exhibition of Judo Research will be amongst the authors.
