A Short History of SN-Judo
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A Short History of Special Needs Judo Version 2021-01.01 This is a short history of Special Needs Judo as we know it. Just as it is said below, training once started in many different places independent from each other. We know that there have been competitions in other organizations, like INAS-FID. We know that there have been meetings and conferences that tried to create competitions. Many more people have been involved in many ways. During our big annual camps, we always had big seminars when we discussed the development of our sport. A lot of coaches from different countries attended and this history is just as much ours as theirs, and we need to pay tribute to all the people not mentioned in this document for their effort. We needed an organization that understood judokas that needed a little more time and support. That helped coaches with education about SN-judo and how to train and coach their judoka. This organization was built by a lot of friends that arranged camps and competitions together by themselves, because there was no other organization that focused on SN-judo. This is the story about how International SN Judo was built to what it is today. 1960-1970 • Judo for people with disabilities started almost simultaneously in many different countries during the sixties. It was often on club-level, one or two teachers started training in their own club or in special needs schools in their neighborhood. There was no organization yet on any level. Any initiative to increase sports participation for handicapped people was often frowned upon, and financial support was almost impossible to obtain. • In 1963 Sensei Loek van Hal starts teaching Judo to handicapped children in The Hague (Netherlands) • In 1965 in the Netherlands, SGK is founded. SGK was Foundation for Handicapped Children and pursued sports for children with a disability. SGK exists to this day and is very influential in The Netherlands. (Not to be confused with NSGK, much larger and equally influential) 1970-1990 • In Sweden, SN-Judo started with IK Sodra in 1970. Training at a school for blind children. Judo for handicapped people started to grow and others than visual impaired can now train. • Ben van der Eng, a PE teacher from Amsterdam, starts teaching Judo to handicapped children. • They help other clubs with implementing Judo for these children, and even help to raise new clubs. 1990-1995 • Ben starts a Special Needs Committee (The "G-Committee") in JBN and acts as the first chairman. • In 1992 First international, annual tournament in Amstelveen. Not many records are left of this effort. • Tycho joins the team, recruited by Ben van der Eng. • Tomas Rundqvist connects with the SN committee in Svenska Judo. Trainings were at the time only ne-waza, for safety. Tomas introduces tachi-waza. Exchanges with Finland were made, and Judo camps organized. • International cooperation on an informal basis. Tomas Rundqvist, Marita Kokkonen, Roy Court and Ben van der Eng organised ad-hoc tournaments and training camps, with Judo4All as its working title. o Classification is done by handicap: Down vs. Down, autist vs. autist, etc. o Tomas makes contact with Ben van der Eng in The Netherlands, and visits NL to see the lessons and methods. • Ben, Tycho and Tomas develop the Functional Classification System (FCS), with five levels. o The FCS is based on Judo ability, and emphatically not on disability. o To determine level, Judo exercises are done, judoka are observed, and a level is assigned. • Due to fewer SN-judoka in Germany at the time and their need to maintain a workable pool size, Germany used three levels. • Ben and Tycho develop referee training and rules for JBN (Dutch Judo Federation) • JBN initiates a SN referee committee, including special training and a badge for SN referees. • The new branch of Judo is coined G-Judo, as most sports organizations have a G-team with SN athletes. (G="Gehandicapten", the Dutch word for Handicapped. The term was eventually adopted internationally) • Informal competitions are started, also international. 1996 • First talks with Special Olympics International take place in Amsterdam with the intention of making Judo a SO sport. Game-based divisioning (FCS) was demonstrated as well as a small tournament. 1998 • First edition of the great Beverwijk Tournament, NL. • A pilot SO tournament was organised. 2000 • Under the guidance of Ben van der Eng with help from Tomas, Marita, Roy and Tycho, Special Olympics International agree on the inclusion of Judo in the Special Olympics. An official, local SO tournament was organised in Groningen (NL) 2000-2010 • Official SN (Judo4All) tournaments take place with training, competition, seminars, and discussions: ! 2000 in Cardiff - United Kingdom ! 2001 in Osnabrück - Germany ! 2002 in Clacton-on-Sea – England ! 2003 in Beverwijk – Holland ! 2004 in Koper - Slovenia ! 2005 in Stockholm - Sweden ! 2006 in Ravenna – Italy ! 2007 in Pajulahti – Finland ! 2008 in Beverwijk - Holland ! 2009 in Hillerod - Denmark ! 2010 in Baarlo - Holland Always with seminars, discussions on rules and how to continue our work. Due to the high costs of the Olympics in London, further tournaments were cancelled after 2010 and Beverwijk became the annual meeting for the SN Judo community. Special Olympics • First demo of SN Judo at the SO World Summer Games in Dublin. Divisioning method is FCS. ! SN Judo was officially accepted by SOI in this year and since then Judo is on the SO schedule: ! 2003 Special Olympics World Games in Dublin - Ireland ! 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games Shanghai (China) ! 2008 Special Olympics Euro/Asian Games, Tasjkent (Uzbekistan) Seminar & training ! 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games Athens Greece ! 2011 Special Olympics Cyprus Seminar ! 2013 International seminar Athens Greece ! 2013 Gothenburg SNJ Open ! 2014 Special Olympics European Games Antwerpen (Belgium) with the first demo of Kata. ! 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games Los Angeles (USA) ! 2016 Special Olympics Europe Open Games St. Petersburg (Russia) ! 2019 Special Olympics World Summer Games Abu Dhabi (UAE) From 2004-2007, Roy Court was Technical Delegate. From 2007-2019, Tomas was Technical Delegate and Tycho was Divisioning leader. Since 2019, James Mulroy is SO's Head Referee. Starting 2021, James is the Technical Delegate and Cecilia Evenblij Sports Advisor Judo. EJU • In 2005 talks with EJU to make SN Judo an official branch of EJU. Unfortunately, due to a change in the EJU board and policy changes inside EJU this failed. 2000– Present • Most countries apply the FCS, including Special Olympics International. 2009 • Special Needs Judo Foundation is founded in the Netherlands. 2012 • JBN and Ben develop “Judo In De Zorg” (Judo for caregivers), a Dutch government- supported curriculum that educates Judo trainers in how to teach Judo to people with special needs. 2014 • SNJF develops inclusive kata tournaments for SN Judoka. • First SN-kata championships in Beverwijk. 2015 • First international inclusive kata tournament in Sweden with participation of SN-judoka. • Ben van der Eng passes away. • JBN organizes a national inclusive kata championship 2016 - IFON • In 2016 IFON is founded. An organization ran by parents of SN judoka, focused on judoka with a mental disability. o Classification is by IQ. Every judoka with an IQ under 75 is entitled to compete. o Second level of classification is based on weight. 2017 - SNJU • In 2017 SNJU is founded, an international organization featuring training, organization of tournaments, support, education, and advice based on inclusion through FCS. o Founding members (Alphabetical): ! Bob Lefevere (IT and Communications director) ! Cecilia Evenblij (Public relations) ! James Mulroy (Secretary-general) ! Tomas Rundqvist (President) ! Tycho van der Werff (Technical Director) ! Also, SNJU organizes annual tournaments: o 2017 SNJU Camp and Competition in Loutraki - Greece o 2019 SNJU European Special Needs Judo Open Lindesberg (Sweden) o 2019 EJU Conference in Porec (Croatia) o 2020 EJU Conference (Cancelled) o 2020 European Open Special Needs tournament in Ireland (Cancelled, COVID) ! In many countries, G-Judo is renamed to A-Judo (Adapted) as it is felt that this is a more suitable name. Internationally, the term SN-Judo remains. 2018 ! 20th edition of the great international Beverwijk tournament 2019 ! First appearance of SN judoka during the EJU European Kata Championships in Gran Canaria o Sanne Simons and Thomas Schepen both have Down’s Syndrome. However, their Judo and kata skills are far above average. They showed 3 series of the nage-nō-kata. o Cees Roest and Janienke Roelfsema. Cees (tori) is paraplegic after a severe car accident. Janienke has no disability. Together they developed a kneeling version of the nage-nō-kata that uses the same principles of kuzushi, tsukuri and kake as the regular nage-nō-kata. ! The European Union launches a major investigation into the benefits of Judo for autistic people, the AutJudo Project. o SNJU plays a major role in this research, all member countries are involved. ! The EJU has its first inclusive Judo Festival in Poreç, Croatia, with great success. 2020 • Official EJU Kata championships for SN Judoka! o Only the best of the best, so no special classes. o Normal judging which results in lower bandwidth of scores. The reason for this is that we do not want the judges to re-learn their skills. So, they just judge the judoka as if they are not handicapped. Of course, this will result in lower scores, but because all the SN-judoka will have lower scores and therefore will all occupy the same score-bandwidth, it will still be fair. o Of course, the Covid-19 pandemic postponed all this. No decisions have been made for the future yet (as of April 2021) and the EC and WC have been postponed for 2021. 2021 • Tomas (IK Sodra) and Tycho are awarded the EJU Inclusion Award for their work in SN Judo • EJU establishes a SN Education Committee with Tomas and Tycho as commissioners.