Last week, we received many compliments off all participating organizations. Specially thanks to the Greece delegation of Special Olympics, who already made an agreement about continuing referee course during the SN event Beverwijk, April 2011.
Thank you, thank you, thank you
The Irish Judo Federation, who also wants a follow-up on the referee course. The Irish Judo Federation has great plans for the future of SN judo in their country. I want to specific thank Mr. James Mulroy and his collogues from the Black Eagle Judo Club for his support by translating the manuscript Training and Coaching Special Needs Judokas, from Dutch to English.
But also the Australian team which was guided by Mr. Shane Alvisio, member of the Board of Direction of the Australian Judo Federation.
He has been in Holland for the past 5 months and he is extremely enthu-siastic about our approach of SN judokas. Hopefully he can create a good environment and structure for SN judo in Australia.
.I won’t forget the other coaches, like Ken Thorne, Tomas Rundqvist, Toni Besoli, , Debbie Sands Rami Myllimäki from Finland who we have to congratulate with his 2nd appearance on the World Summer Games in Athens next year. I thank Ron Cleere for his kind statement during the referee course, in which he stands up for the expertise of the Dutch Judo Federation. Mr. Cleere declared he was coming already 15 years to the Netherlands and stated that he never had to complain. He actually said: “These men who their jobs, you can rely to see a nice competition tomorrow”
Saturday morning after the opening by the mayor of the county Peel en Maas, there was a lovely and warm hello from the judokas of Alcides. And yes, this is were we stand for. Empowerment for Special Needs Judokas. Who would have thought 15 years ago that a Dutch girl with Down Syndrome would welcome the guests in English, through the microphone? After the morning session, that was run smoothly by the organization, there was a lovely intermezzo from a dance group of children with Down Syndrome. They really did well and amused and amazed the audience. Great to see!
After this demonstration Cees Roest performed his skills. This time it was obvious for the audience that he really used a wheel chair to move himself around. You should easily been tricked by his performance on the tatami. After this performance, several experienced coaches were very emotional. This is judo which Jigoro Kano mend it should be.
During the afternoon session, it was clear that all the new student referees were very skillful. I believe their appearance, treatment, judgment and skills provide that nobody was injured the whole day.
But I also want to compliment the competition rulers, Tycho van der Werff and Annemie Simons, who worked very hard en very long to make the perfect poules. In one word: the whole event was awesome. And the coaches who didn’t attend have missed a great opportunity to learn, share and give knowledge with others.
