By CHAT News Today

New era for Medicine Hat Judo Club

Aug 17, 2017 | 2:21 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — It’s an exciting time for the Medicine Hat Judo Club.

Over the summer, the club has recruited a number of junior coaches to assist their competitors, in hopes of gaining more national and international exposure.

“Over the last few years, we’ve had a very limited number of coaches,” said Donovan Hoggan, an instructor with the club. “This year, we’ve got 11 people in the coaching committee. We’ve got a lot more capacity to do a lot more, so I’m really looking forward to seeing where that goes.”

The idea is that more coaches allows for more one-on-one training with each athlete, which Hoggan says can really benefit their ability ahead of the competitive season. This becomes even more evident with their elite-level competitors, who have national and world championship appearances in their sights for the future.

“(My goal) is to ensure that everybody goes as far as they want to, to make sure everybody is setting goals and everybody is working towards those goals and no one gets lost in the shuffle,” says Hoggan.

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“In the past, when we’ve only had one or two instructors, it’s very easy to forget that each person is focused on that belt, or this person has trouble in this area and wants to do well at an upcoming tournament. We’ve had up to 17 kids at the mat at the time, and it’s tough to keep everything straight. Now that we have junior coaches and assigned coaches helping out the black belt instructors, we’ve a position that nobody’s going to get left behind.”

Stephen Young, one of the club’s elite-level fighters, says having a wide coaching pool has a tremendous benefit for the judokas.

“I only have my own skillset to draw from, or what I can learn from books or from YouTube, or go train with other people,” he said. “So if you have more people, there’s a wider pool of knowledge to draw from.”

Hoggan says the fighters are seeing the benefits of the hands-on approach, but he adds with more athletes heading to national and international events, the costs go up. Some athletes have been held back in the past due to the rise in expenses.

“We do everything we can do to keep the costs down, but there is a lot of travelling for people at the national and international level,” said Hoggan. “We’re going to do a lot of fundraising this year, looking for help in helping these athletes or to open the door for those athletes to go as far as they can.”

Hoggan says the club has organized bottle drivers, raffles and have met with service clubs in the city to help raise money for the athletes. He adds he’s telling people in the community about the hard work the students put in, and how far they can go if they have an opportunity.

“Nobody likes to see a kid held back because they don’t have the money,” he said. “Everybody wants to see kids do as well as they’re willing to do. They’re also doing what every older person wants to see teenagers do. Every adult wants to see teenagers show work ethic, and get some physical exercise and get off the video games. These guys are doing exactly that, and I think most people want to support that sort of thing.”

The club’s competitive season tends to pick up in the winter, with tournaments in Ontario and Quebec during the first and second weekend of November.