BJA Club of the Year 2006 - 2007

Wednesfield Park Compund, Duke St, Wednesfield, Wolverhampton. WV11 1TH

Wolverhampton Judo Club is one of the most successful and respected Judo clubs in Great Britain having produced several world class players particularly in the 70‘s, 80‘s and early 90‘s under the guidance of Mac Abbotts and Dave Brooks. Today, Mac and Dave are still involved with the Club as Chairman and Treasurer and now have ex-players Coaching and looking after the future development of the club. The Junior Members are thriving and achieving many successes in competitions under the coaching of Billy Kelly with success at European and National level.

Following the 2004 Olympics, the BJA was totally restructured and Mac was appointed to the position of High Performance Coach based at the Walsall Campus of the Wolverhampton University which means that he was not able to spend a great deal of time at the club as his new duties took up the majority of his time. Despite this, the club was still in the safe hands of Dave Brooks, Billy Kelly and

Kevin O’Reilly, with additional support from other coaches, Mark Hazeldine-Potts, Michael Payton and Laura Kelly. The good news is that Mac is back since the BJA , in their wisdom, decided that full time

Coaches were not now required with the result that Mac and Diane Bell were dumped with two years of their contracts still to run. On the bright side, British Judo’s loss is our club’s gain.

To encourage the Senior section, Dave, Kevin and Mark have re-commenced training sessions on Wednesday evenings which is encouraging the Veteran category to take part  whilst Billy, Michael and Laura look after the competitive players.

The club has now moved to the new premises in Wednesfield Park Compund, Duke St, Wednesfield as our traditional home at Heathtown Baths has now closed for redevelopment. We are now working on a programme to extend and improve the new premises  but those improvements are quite extensive and will take some considerable time to complete once funding has been secured. In the meantime we

hope all will enjoy the new premises which is at last all our own and we do not have to share with others.

We are always happy to welcome new members whether they are boys, girls, men, women, young, not so young and anywhere in between so please bring your kids, your Parents, or maybe even your Grandparents and see what judo is all about.

We particularly welcome players with special needs. Your first session is free so what have you got to lose? You certainly have a lot to gain. Judo is a sport for all levels of ability and you can go as far as your skill and dedication will allow. So, if you think you would like to give it a try, please feel free to come along at any time; we will be glad to see you. Just click on the appropriate link for the session times and location map.

The Coaches & Committee