Retford Judo Club

Retford Judo Club Retford Judo Club was started by Mr Woodward, November 24th 1957. Training on Wednesdays at: St. Saviours Community Centre, Lidget Lane. Retford DN22 6QW.

Jnr sessions 18:30 to 19:30, snr sessions 19:45 to 21:00
Info at [email protected]

After a couple of false starts the juniors completed a brisk warmup consisting of some jogging, side stepping, press-ups...
17/09/2026

After a couple of false starts the juniors completed a brisk warmup consisting of some jogging, side stepping, press-ups, sit-ups, stretching and their breakfalls before a stop for a quick drink. The first part of this week’s session took the form of Tach-Waza randori (standing techniques). Each round lasted about four minutes so after five rounds they were really warmed up. Also to get them thinking they were not allowed to take a hold over the shoulder or around the neck/across the shoulders, pushing them to use more original grips. Another swift water stop before the second part which focused on Osaekomi-Waza randori, employing all the pinning and escaping techniques they know. The juniors completed their session with a game of stuck in the mud.
The senior group was very much reduced, work and illness/injury the main culprit. After warming up the session was going to take the form of a round robin of randori but five minutes in a blood injury curtailed the session. Hopefully all will be well next week.
A really good junior session with everyone working to their maximum and producing some good judo.
We look forward to seeing everyone next week.

The junior session started as always with a warmup including some stretching and their breakfalls. Following on from las...
11/09/2026

The junior session started as always with a warmup including some stretching and their breakfalls. Following on from last weeks Tai Otoshi the technical part started with Yoko Shiho Gatame. After some demonstrations the juniors were paired up and moved off to practice. The coaches moved around correcting techniques where necessary. After a quick break they then worked on combining Tai Otoshi into Yoko Shiho Gatame which saw some success in terms of a speedy transition. The session finished off with some rounds of Ne-Waza randori.
After the seniors had completed their warmup they took the opportunity to put Seb through his 4th Kyu grading. After working through the syllabus Seb successfully completed grading and was, accordingly, promoted to 4th Kyu. Moving on they then focused on escapes from Kesa Gatame looking at ways that would work in a competitive situation. The session was brought to a close with some Ne-Waza randori.
Congratulations to Seb on his promotion and well done to both groups on another successful evening of judo. We look forward to seeing everyone again next week.

Back to school, back to judo. A warmup of running, press-ups, sit-ups and stretching prepared the juniors for their sess...
03/09/2026

Back to school, back to judo. A warmup of running, press-ups, sit-ups and stretching prepared the juniors for their session. We returned to Tai-Otoshi a throw that the juniors had worked on much earlier. After short explanation and demonstration they were paired up with a similar sized Uki and moved off to begin practice. With the earlier practices the juniors quickly began to produce some good techniques. A swift water stop and a return to the mat with a different partner, this caused some differences between pairs but is good practice in terms of competition. Another water stop and another change of partners. As the juniors began to gain confidence there was some natural movement appearing, which was good to see. A final water stop and back onto the the mat with their original Uki for individual demonstrations. These were not perfect but they were very good, each pair using most of the elements discussed at the beginning of the session. A game of dodgeball finished their session.
The senior group continued their session where they left of last week with Hari-Goshi. Using movement and gripping to get their Uki to do most of the work of getting into the correct position to throw. As the session went on this became more successful. Second half of the session concentrated on turning over into Yoko-Shiho-Gatame and a strong technique to make an escape. A quick discussion about working with Hane-Goshi next week was agreed before bowing off the mat.
It was good to see most of our junior players back on the mat and they gave 100% in their training.
We look forward to seeing everyone again next week.
Anyone in Retford and the surrounding area who would like to give judo a try are welcome to come along any Wednesday evening from 18:30 for juniors and 19:45 for seniors. We train at St. Saviours Community Centre on Lidget Lane. DN22 6QW. We look forward to meeting you.

The evenings junior session started and finished as a very close affair! Two coaches two pairs of players. After warming...
27/08/2026

The evenings junior session started and finished as a very close affair! Two coaches two pairs of players. After warming up we worked solely on Tai-Otoshi initially concentrating on hand/arm placement and foot placement moving on to how to pull and drive with the arms and upper body rotation. After this they moved on to Uchi-Komi doing multiple drills to pull all the different elements together. They finished off their session with some randori which included a couple of senior players to force some adaptability in the juniors game.
In the senior session there was a request to to concentrate on Hari-Goshi so that is what we did. Starting with looking at preferred grips, moving the hips to the right place and the leg sweep ensuring that it swept high up the thigh and not just at the knee (which is a different technique). Progression to some movement and how to get Uke to step into the throw so reducing Tori’s efforts to have to turn in.
All in all a very productive session for those players in attendance. Hopefully now that the school holidays have come to an end we will see more players back on the mat next week.
Anyone in the Retford area who might be interested in giving judo a try you are welcome to come along, any Wednesday evening to St Saviours Community Centre Lidget Lane DN22, or message for information.

After the rain a much cooler evening for judo. The juniors started off with the half ton up which got pulses moving and ...
20/08/2026

After the rain a much cooler evening for judo. The juniors started off with the half ton up which got pulses moving and this was followed by ‘grab the tag’ a strip of belt tucked at the back of each player and then trying to grab their opposite numbers tag. Finally their breakfalls finished the junior warmup. The new BJA competition rules do not allow players of 6th Mon and below to make an attack where the arm passes over the shoulder and down/across the back. They can, however, do these techniques if their opponent attacks first with their arm around the waist. So the evening was to work with this and try to make an effective counter. This exercise was quite difficult but everyone gave 100% effort to make it work. After a water stop there was rounds of Newaza randori to get the juniors focused on fighting. They then moved on to rounds of Tachiwaza randori before finally finishing with a couple of games of dodgeball.
Once the seniors had warmed up they spent the first part of their session on the 5th Kyu grading syllabus, some good techniques but a little more work required. After this they worked on a combination of Ouchi/Kouchi Gari with De Ashi Bari once they got the timing things started to come together.
Two great sessions, lots of hard work and plenty to be proud of. We look forward to seeing everyone again next week.

An incredibly ‘warm’ evening again and I think that impacted on the number of players on the junior mat, that and the sc...
13/08/2026

An incredibly ‘warm’ evening again and I think that impacted on the number of players on the junior mat, that and the school holidays and maybe the athletics on TV oh! and also maybe the eclipse. So our 5 intrepid players began their evening with the half ton up, which seems to be a favourite warmup routine. This was followed by their breakfalls and then a water stop. Once back on the mat there was a demonstration of Tsuri-Goshi (lifting hip throw) with one slight difference, the gripping arm went over the left shoulder instead of the right. With only five on the mat the practice involved a number of changes so that everyone got to practice and despite not having seen the technique before there was some early successes. The session came to an agreed stop to go outside to watch the eclipse. Paper with holes and a kitchen colander were used to produce a safe image to watch the event. Finally we went back inside to finish the session with a game of crab football.
Unfortunately no senior session this week but hopefully things will pick up next week.
Well done to those juniors who turned up to train really proud of you.
We look forward to seeing everyone next week.

30/07/2026

Another very warm evening and school holidays impacted slightly on numbers but a warmup and breakfalls got the juniors ready for their session. To start off we had a lone judoka attempting her 1st Mon, so no pressure then!! But Frankie methodically worked her way through the syllabus and at the end was successful in gaining her grade. Well done Frankie. For the remainder of the session games of crab football, sumo and stuck in the mud were played before a final bash with some randori.
After warming up and breakfalls the seniors concentrated on Uchi-Mata this evening. Firstly practicing from a static position, mainly to concentrate on foot placing and best grips before progressing onto movement. The seniors finished their session with some randori on the ground.
Just to remind all players and parents that there will be no judo club next Wednesday (5th August) but we will be back the following week and hope to see as many players as possible.

A slightly cooler evening but as always the juniors went off at breakneck speed in the misguided understanding that the ...
23/07/2026

A slightly cooler evening but as always the juniors went off at breakneck speed in the misguided understanding that the warmup will be over more quickly! But eventually after completing their breakfalls the warmup finished and a water stop followed. As promised this week was grading week so they were split into their various grades and moved off to start. Each player worked their way through the syllabus technique by technique successfully completing this section well. They struggled a little with the terminology aspect but knew enough to complete the whole grading successfully. So many congratulations to Quentin on promotion to 2nd Sho and George to 4th Sho. Anesushe, Filip, Noah and Verity on promotion to 1st Mon. James, Jessica and Thomas on promotion to 2nd Mon. Evan on promotion to 3rd Mon and finally Tumas and Matis on promotion to 5th Mon.
It’s great to see the juniors succeeding in the club and hopefully this will encourage greater determination in them to continue training and increase their confidence and knowledge of a fantastic sport.
Looking forward to seeing everyone next week with their new grades on show.

Today (Sunday19th July) two intrepid juniors, Matis and Anesushe, travelled to Nottingham for the Under15 Mini-Mon Open....
20/07/2026

Today (Sunday19th July) two intrepid juniors, Matis and Anesushe, travelled to Nottingham for the Under15 Mini-Mon Open.
Matis was first up and his first fight went the distance ending in a draw. It was a fiercely contested match with both players attacking and defending well. New rules prevented many techniques from being used hence the draw.
Matis’ second fight started well but again the new rules forced a number of Shidos to both fighters. Towards the end of the fight Matis scored a good Yuko but shortly after an excellent Ko-Soto-Gake so perceived by the referees to be a Tani-Otoshi (banned) and Matis was disqualified. His third fight was a rematch of his first fight, which went the way of the first to end in a draw but after some deliberation Matis was awarded the win on shido count back and earning him a silver medal.
Anesushe was second up and eager to start his first competition. He fought well both attacking and defending both standing and on the ground but his opponent had slightly more experience and unfortunately for Anesushe scored an Ippon to end the fight. His second fight was ended very quickly with a loss and on this occasion his opponent was much more experienced, a 4th Mon (yellow belt) judoka. Anesushe was asked if he would enter an extra group which he eagerly accepted again in both fights he fought well both on the ground and standing but today was not his day and he finished with two bronze medals which is an outstanding achievement.
Many congratulations to both players on their efforts which were first class despite the hindrance of the rule changes.

Unbelievably, another hot evening for training and another bunch of insanely mad juniors. After warming up and completin...
16/07/2026

Unbelievably, another hot evening for training and another bunch of insanely mad juniors. After warming up and completing their breakfalls the juniors were asked what they wanted to do for the session. Options included a relatively easy session of going through their grading requirements, play games or chat but NO they wanted randori! They were then split into 3 groups and each group had a higher graded player to fight. Fate they had completed all their fights there was a water stop then each group swapped their higher grade player and the process began again. Once again once the fighting had finished there was another water stop before a final change. To give the higher graded players some extra contests, Matis was then paired, firstly, against Henry and then Tumas which the younger players and parents enjoyed. The finished their evening with a game of dodgeball.
No senior session this evening unfortunately training lost out to football but hopefully the seniors will be back next week.
A hard evening for the juniors but no complaints from them they just got stuck in and worked hard and gave maximum effort every time.
We look forward to seeing everyone back next week.
Good luck to all players who are attending Nottingham this coming weekend.

Address

St Saviours Community Centre. Lidget Lane
East Retford
DN226QW

Opening Hours

6:30pm - 7:30pm
7:45pm - 9pm

Telephone

+447375676097

Website

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