It is not every day you see a president by the side of the mat at a judo event. It is even more unusual to see them on the mat. The President of the National Judo Federation of Belgium, Mr. Sébastien BONTE, joined the EJU Get Together workshop as he pursues to be part of this exceptional movement.
It is a great experience. It is the first time I come to Venray for this event. I normally attend at other events for adaptive judo as I, myself, started to work with adaptive judo 10 years ago. At my own judo club, I have five adaptive judoka. It is a great pleasure watching them on the mat and they bring us a lot I think, here on the mat and at the club.
It was great to have so many coaches looking at all judoka and to see their levels to put them into the right categories, which is not always so easy. Kerry Tansey is doing a great job at using certain exercises to identify the differences and to ensure everyone is divided into the right level of classification.
Adaptive judo is a present for judo. It is another way to do judo, it truly gives the chance for everyone to do judo. It provides an opportunity to individuals with different abilities to practice sport but to already existing judoka, they can teach a lot. I did many tournaments with my adaptive team and when you stay with them you see the real life of an adaptive judoka… it is beautiful. I can certainly say we are interested to host this event in the future, hopefully next year.
Author: Szandra Szogedi