Warren Schofield and Dave Duffy travelled to the BJA National Training Centre in Walsall for two judo packed days at the start on November.

Over the weeked, we enjoyed a fantastic time at British Judo HQ for the annual National Technical Conference, which this year provided coaching masterclasses with Shinji Hosokawa (8th Dan). Sensi is an Olympic gold and bronze medalist, world champion, as well as the coach of three times consecutive Olympic gold medalist Tadahiro Nomura. Safe to say his credentials are extensive.

His four sessions catered to all shapes and sizes, and were enjoyed by over 80 judoka who all learned something new from such a highly respected and well renowned Japanese judoka.

We also listened to interesting lectures on the Mon and Kyu grade syllabus as well as the recently announced changing Dan grade syllabus. There was a huge amount to digest, implement and feed back to our players over the coming weeks and months but lots of exciting ideas were presented that we can look forward to witnessing come to fruition.

On the Saturday we concluded the day with the BJA AGM, a rare opportunity to hear directly from the top of British Judo with lots of updates presented from the last year and what is potentially planned in the next year.

Overall, a brilliant way to spend a weekend and meet old friends (and foes), with much to bring back to our club.