Alex is a judoka by JC Prisma out of Amsterdam but lives in Hoofddorp a town which is half hour driving from Amsterdam.
He became a member after one of the School-Sport-Stimulating-Projects judo at the Tyltyl school in Amsterdam in 1996.
He is Intellectual Disabled and has a motor restriction as well, when he started Alex was dependable of his wheelchair.
Nowadays he can walk freely over the tatami, slowly but he seems to manage. Outside the tatami he is still dependable off a walker especially outside.
In the beginning Alex was always guided by a personal manager.
He knew about the coaching agreements and guide him in that way.
One of the things Alex showed in the beginning was his dependence on other people. He was unable to speak for himself or did not speaks his own opinion out.
A classical example is that , at a tournament, it was Alex turn but his personal manager had just left for a moment.
Three referees, full of good intentions and after due deliberation carried Alex to the tatami. After the match, to the referees’ surprise, Alex walked hand in hand with his PM off the tatami.
Now Alex is 22 years old, has the brown belt (1st Kyu) and weighs 50 kilos and speaks for himself, you still have to pay attention what he's saying but that is an enormous progression. Also in skills he make an enormous progression in the early days he was only capa-ble of sitting down in the 5th category during the competition.
Nowadays he is a skilful ne-waza specialist who won many tournaments in his class.
