Staying connected and supporting members to stay active – even when a global pandemic hit – were 2 key considerations when the team at JudoScotland came up with the Fighting Fit programme.
The home-based fitness programme was designed to develop physical fitness linked specifically to judo and provided a way for judoka at all levels to get involved, whether they were serious about competition or at the early stages of their judo experience.
Determined to support their members to improve their fitness, even although clubs couldn’t operate as normal, JudoScotland created a fitness programme tailored to the physical demands of their sport. The programme, which includes a competition element, was designed to help judoka across Scotland work on their strength, speed, agility, flexibility and endurance.
Creating the Programme
Tony Penfold, Head of Business Delivery at JudoScotland shared the thinking behind the programme; “We know how important it is to keep physically active not just for the fitness benefits but also to support our mental health."
"We developed the Fighting Fit programme to help to fill the gap left by the lack of club training and competitions and to help provide a structure so that participants could focus on their fitness.”
The idea was to make it easy for clubs and individuals to get involved by keeping the structure simple and Fighting Fit is made up of 8 events (participants must complete all 8 to submit a score) across 3 age bands. It was launched in November and will continue into the new year and is available to all JudoScotland members. To create the programme, JudoScotland worked in partnership with the network of judo clubs and other partners, including judo kit manufacturers Fighting Films who provided a range of prizes as part of the programme.
The programme includes a range of resources to keep participants engaged and motivated, from video clips with National High-Performance Coach Euan Burton to help work towards perfecting techniques to a series of supporting videos on JudoScotland’s YouTube channel to assist coaches and members - which includes an introduction from Olympic medallist Sally Conway.
Tony told us that they are delighted with the success of the programme; “It was encouraging to see so many members get involved and we are confident that the programme has helped the judo community stay connected. We understand that participants were missing the thrill of competition and we wanted to help to provide an alternative.
“Our approach is based on Professor Kano’s judo principle of “Jita Kyoei” translated as “mutual welfare and benefit”, which is totally in keeping with the JudoScotland approach. By taking on the Fighting Fit challenge our members are supporting themselves and each other to become healthier, fitter and better judoka.”
Find Out More
- Access the Judo Scotland Videos.
- Find more information on the Fighting Fit programme here.
