SNJU have reformed (update)

Two of our board members have resigned from SNJU but our enthusiasm and drive to make things better for our audience did not diminish a bit. Nevertheless, we feel it is time to re-build the SNJU and make some changes. Let us make a simple list:

  • SNJU is not a member organisation anymore. We feel that it is unnecessary and indeed counterproductive to make an organisation in-between the country federations and the EJU and IJF. Instead, SNJU will form ad-hoc relationships with other organisations that need our help or advice but we do not require such an organisation to become a member in turn. However we will keep acting as spokespersons for the ideals we represent, using our extensive network in the judo world.
  • SNJU will therefore become a service organisation, providing the SN Judo community with advice, documentation and whatever may be needed to give proper support.
  • SNJU will not ask any financial remuneration for its services, except when we need to use third parties to accomplish what is asked of us, for example to hire a venue, or book a flight. This means our documents, trainings, videos, seminars itself are free. We do however take the liberty to ask for a -voluntary- donation.
  • One thing remains the same: We stand firm behind all judoka of good will who go for safety and fair play, according to the ideals of Kano Shihan.

Any payment request from moodlecloud.com or SNJU Paypal is invalid and you DO NOT HAVE TO PAY

SNJU Board Members receive TWO awards


This weekend during the EJU European Judo Championships, the EJU Social Inclusion Award was granted to our Technical Director Tycho van der Werff (the 2019 award) and IK Sodra, the judo club of SNJU President Tomas Rundqvist (the 2020 award). SNJU is proud to have this important prize awarded to two of our board members, and it will certainly encourage us to keep up our work in the progression of Special Needs Judo.

Christmas Greetings 2020

Please enjoy Christmas Greetings from Italian members and friends

 

The board of the SNJU would like to wish all our members, friends, sponsors, volunteers, officials, coaches and our amazing athletes a Very Special and Safe Christmas and New Year

2020 was an extremely challenging year for everyone. A year that saw many of our tournaments, seminars, courses and trainings being cancelled or postponed.

We foresee these challenging times continuing in the first half of 2021 but rest assure we are still working hard in the background preparing for events, projects and trainings once some normality has returned to the world.

The SNJU continues to be a progressive force in the development of worldwide SN/Adaptive judo. 2020 saw our membership grow again with many new countries and federations becoming members. We truly believe together we can do more!

2020 started off well for the SNJU as we launched our European Erasmus Project “Autjudo” with our research partners from Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Ireland, Sweden and Switzerland. This project will explore the benefits of judo for people with autism and other disabilities. The project will run for three years and will produce an International Adapted Judo Best Practice Handbook as well as scientific findings and papers relating to the benefits of judo for people with autism.

Competition Opportunities: Tournaments opportunities were nonexistence for most of the year. Many of our planned major tournaments were postponed or cancelled including the World SN Judo Games & BENG in the Netherlands, The Swiss SN Open and Erasmus Conference in Uster, Switzerland and the European SN Games in Ireland.

The Swiss SN Open and Conference has been rescheduled for June 2021 and the European SN Games have been also rescheduled for October 2021. Further details will follow in the New Year.

Development courses: Our online courses were incredibly busy throughout 2020 as many took to online learning during their imposed spare time. Our Adaptive Coaching Course was by far the busiest with a large number of coaches from all over the world signing up to learn a bit more about adaptive judo. This of course is a very positive development because as the popularity and demand for adaptive judo grows worldwide so does the need for knowledgeable and enthusiastic coaches.

We approach 2021 with the same enthusiasm and drive as planned for in 2020 and aim to keep moving forward.

For now we would like to wish the whole judo world and very Happy Christmas and look forward to seeing as many of you as possible in 2021.

 

The SNJU Team

Tomas, James, Tycho, Cilia, Bob

SNJU cooperates with EU in the ERASMUS+ Project


The SNJU board of directors in conjunction with the University of Barcelona are proud to be the driving force in a European Erasmus + project application to study the benefits of the adapted sport of Judo for people with autism.
The study will last for three years and will see six European countries (Ireland, Sweden, Netherlands, Spain, Italy and Switzerland) working closely together in research, data collecting, seminars, international training & events and much more.
We are very excited to prove what we already know, that participating in judo is hugely beneficial for people with autism and indeed many other disabilities.
The first meeting of the whole group will take place in Barcelona on Friday 1st February 2019.

Enrollment for the Ben van der Eng Memorial is open!

Dear Judo friends,

It is a great pleasure to be able to invite you for the great Special Needs Judo tournament in Beverwijk.

The 21st Ben van der Eng Memorial Tournament takes place on April 12, 13 and 14, 2019. Due to the large amount of participants and the fact that we do want divisioning, and we do want to show some educational stuff, in 2018 it was already necessary to include the Friday afternoon in our schedule. In 2019, the Friday afternoon is an integral part of the organisation.

Hence, the tournament will be (tentatively) scheduled as follows:

  • Friday april 12 (afternoon): Divisioning and workshops
  • Saturday april 13 (ochtend): Special Needs World Judo Games
  • Saturday april 13 (afternoon): SNWJG Kata
  • Saturday april 13 (evening): Party in Castle Assumburg
  • Sunday april 14: BENG XXI

Another change is a dedicated website for the tournament: http://bengmemorial.com

All information on the tournament can be found at THIS LINK.

Subscription forms can be downloaded HERE.

SNJU Romanian SN Judo Festival, Cluj Napoca, September 2018

The colourful tatami at Cluj Napoca. Click the image for more pictures.

The SNJU were very proud to support last weekend’s second SN Judo Festival in Romania in conjunction with the Down Syndrome Association. This year the event was held in the picturesque city of Culj and was expertly hosted by Antoaneta Vanea and her team from Down Syndrome Association Cluj.
The festival started with the arrival of the international teams on Friday and was followed by entertaining and busy Saturday. Saturday started early with breakfast in the impressive Univers T hotel which was followed by a coach trip to the even more impressive salt mines of Turda.
On Saturday afternoon we delivered our Rules and Regulations seminar to a large group of referees and coaches which was very well received and is a really important part of our education programme which ensures the full safety and enjoyment for all our athletes at these events.
Saturday evening was dinner and party time with music, dancing and delicious food & cake. A great time was had by all.
Sunday morning started with divisioning, with all the athletes, coaches and officials on the mat having a good time while the important job of creating even pools began. We also conducted additional referee development training with the help of the coaches from Sweden.
First block of competition started at 11 and saw the younger competitors take to the mat. The enthusiasm, joy and effort from everyone was amazing. After the medal presentation a short break for lunch before the start of the afternoon block and the older athletes time to shine. Some fantastic and heart-warming judo was on display and we congratulate everyone who took part.
Monday morning a guided tour of the city of Cluj was arranged before the international teams were driven back to the airport to start their trip home.
We would like to thanks and congratulate all the amazing athletes for their strength, ability and character, Alexandru Zelko for organising the event, Antoeneta and her team for hosting the event and the referees and official for a job well done.

The SNJU Team