September has been a busy month for the Invermere Judo Club with ongoing registration, practices Mondays and Wednesdays, provincial training camps, and courses. We will continue our registration for members for another couple of weeks as parents settle back into the school routine. If you are interested in judo, registration is during practices on Monday from 5:45 to 6:30 p.m. for six to eight year olds, and Monday and Wednesday from 6:30 to 8 p.m. for recreational judo.

On the weekend of September 20th, three members — Emma Norquay, Marcia Paget and MacKenzie DuBois — travelled with the Fernie and Creston Judo Clubs to Prince George for their first provincial training camp. There they met the provincial coaches, many other judokas with similar goals and learned new techniques.

The following weekend on September 27th, Tomaz Stich passed his Dojo Assistant Coaching certification in Fernie. Congratulations Tomaz!

There are two upcoming events in October. First, we will have members who will travel to Abbotsford to compete in the BC Judo Championships and second, the Invermere Judo Club will host a Kata Clinic where members from all over B.C. are invited to participate.  Kata is an exercise consisting of a sequence of the specific movements of judo, used in training and designed to show skill in technique. It breaks down the movements and allows one to focus on the principles. Please contact us if you have any questions. See you on the tatami!

This week’s column was written by Karen Sharp, Hermann Mauthner’s daughter, who is a 2nd degree Black Belt. To learn more about the Invermere Judo Club, visit invermerejudo.com or email invermerejudo@gmail.com.