Author: Bob Lefevere

The International Tipperary Judo Friendship Inclusion Games 2022 was held on Saturday 12th November in Tipperary, Ireland. Participants from all over Ireland, the UK, Italy, Poland, Brazil and Switzerland descended on the Historical Town of Nenagh, Co. Tipperary to take part in what was the only fully autism-friendly, inclusive judo event of its kind in the world. This was also the first major competitive opportunity for some of our Autjudo adapted judo programme students.
Several elements were added to make it as autism friendly as possible, some of these additions included colour coding control tables at fields of play, express check-in procedures, no public address announcements, visual schedulers on large screens and non-judo related challenge games off the field of play to occupy athletes while they were waiting their turn to shine. Highly trained adaptive judo referees from Italy, Switzerland, Northern Ireland, Brazil and Ireland were specially selected to ensure the full enjoyment and safety of all those taking part.

The event was attended by over 240 competitors and hundreds of parents & supporters. The Mayor of Nenagh, Cllr. Hughie McGrath made a guest appearance and the Chairman of the Northern Ireland Judo Federation was the guest medal presenter.

Autjudo Adapted Judo Coaching Workshop

As part of this Autjudo inclusion weekend the host partner Judo Assist Ireland presented a well-attended free adaptive judo coaching seminar. Included in this seminar was a judo games development workshop, a Unified kata training module including a speech on the benefits of unified/adapted kata for people with autism and a VI awareness coaching module.
This seminar was enjoyed by a great cross-section of participants including athletes, coaches, referees, officials and parents. It was delivered by Autjudo international experts in adaptive coaching, James Mulroy (IRL), Cilia Evenblij (Swiss) and Sean Davitt (IRL)

We thank the EU Erasmus programme for being a major funding partner for this weekend of International Inclusion, Sporting Spirit and Friendship.

The first of our Autjudo Transnational Conferences got underway in Nenagh, Co Tipperary Ireland on the weekend of the 16^th/17^th October 2021.

This event was well attended by 92 people from a large cross section of interested parties from across Ireland and Europe. These included ASD students, parents, program volunteers, sports coaches, representatives from various national Judo federations (Judo Ireland, Irish Judo Association & Northern Ireland Judo Federation), representatives from a number of ASD specialist organisations ( Cottage Autism Network, Collective Sensory Group, Autism Friendly Town Committee), and other disability support groups, ASD teachers, school principals, and occupational therapists.

We were also honoured to have the education & coaching director from Special Olympics International present with her team and of course we were delighted to welcome our European Partners from Sweden, Spain, Italy and Switzerland.

Please click here for a link to the full conference report.