Successful gradings for Sonkei Judo

There was a big step recently for some of the junior members of Sonkei judo in Ballycastle as they achieved their orange belt standard.

Taking part in both a technical exam and some contest action, the Sonkei judo juniors showed excellent abilities to progress further up the belt ranks.

Mark Donald, club coach said: “We’ve had members with us since the start of the club in October 2013 so this wasn’t a quick process to get to this level.”

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“Along with Mark Harris our assistant coach, we have seen these kids come from learning simple skills to competition combinations.

“Luckily both Mark and myself have a great pedigree in judo that we can pass on to the kids. Both of us were trained by Alan Ashcroft at our sister club Causeway judo and we have close links with him still to keep our techniques fresh from his experience.”

“The class is going from strength to strength and we’re currently at capacity which is great with two sessions every Monday.”

Judo is a martial art with a philosophy rooted in respect and self discipline. In fact Sonkei is the Japanese word for respect. The beauty of judo is you train with all ages and sizes and learn life skills along the way.

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With a few fun days and competitions lined up over the coming months and weeks the future is bright for the Ballycastle club.

First up for the club will be a visit to their counterparts at Dromore Judo club who have invited the Ballycastle club to their fun day on the 10th May. This fun day will allow memebrs to get some Randori with and some practice for the competition on 31st May.

Sonkei Judo offers training on a Monday night to juniors and seniors in the McAllister Hall and is open to males and females. You can find out more about Sonkei judo Ballycastle on Facebook.