Judo in Western Australia

Paul Rowe, one of our ex-club members, reports back on the state of Judo in Western Australia via email.  Judo is basically in it's infancy here. Although UWA have a lot of lot of skilled and well seasoned players, they don't seem to mix with the general Judo community. The UWA (University of Western Australia that is) also has strong links with Japan and Korea. They often have visiting players and teams and vice versa, but, they seem, once again, to keep it to themselves. I say this as they don't advertise the events on the Judo WA website. So, Carlo Knoester, a South African 5th Dan, is doing a good job of developing Judo. The result, is there are not a lot of senior grades in WA and those that are here have gained there grades else where. For instance, in the last Fremantle open comp, the highest grade, fighting, was a 1st kyu. However, we have been getting lessons from an Italian Judoka for the last few weeks. He was in the Olympic squad but got too damaged to pass selection. His Judo is brilliant and great for us old farts and the kids. But, there is light at the end of the tunnel. The youth and children's section of the Judo community are coming along very well. There is a very strong and quite skilled group of younger players who will blossom in the future. So all very encouraging while we old farts drag ourselves onto the mat. You should also realise a very important difference between NZ & Australia. Here and in other states we have state teams who train hard and travel interstate for comps. I think they also receive some final help once they reach that level. They also get the chance to train and use the Australia Sports Academy/Institute in Canberra. They get the chance to train with high level coaches, fitness gurus and diet gods and it's all free once they get the invite. Obviously, if these kids go on to international events and represent Australia they may receive further financial help. So, all-in-all, not too good now but good for the future. But, Judo seems to be better developed in the eastern states. I don't know anything about them, sorry. I do know the Oceania Ladies Champion, in a light weight division was trained in UWA and is a Kiwi!!!! Cheers,  Paul.