DJC Masterclass with Lele Nairne

Saturday the 15th saw DJC host Lele Nairne for a Masterclass for two of our classes at the Lifecentre.

Lele is a member of Bradley Stoke Judo Club and is a full time GBR squad member training at the centre of excellence at Walsall, DJC coaches know Lele very well, remembering her tearing up the area circuit when she was a junior!

Since then she has made the incredibly difficult transition into the International U23 circuit which culminated earlier this year with a memorable silver(GBR's best result at that competition) on top of this she has medalled at various international events including Euro Cups and has also won numerous national championships.

The idea for having Lele come to teach was two-fold, number 1 and most importantly was to inspire our junior players by seeing her in action learning some of her techniques and number 2 to try and raise some funds that Lele can put towards furthering her Judo career.

The first class was our younger players who were all very excited and watched intently asLele taught her unique brand of Judo which included a Ko-Uchi Gari and and some reversal techniques(things that leave us coaches a little open mouthed with amazement) she also included some randori where a number of them managed to throw her which made their day!

After a few photos and autographs we moved onto the older juniors and more experienced players. Lots of them had been discussing and talking about the upcoming class for a while with an element of excited expectation. They were not disappointed, Lele taught various techniques which she has used in competition including her sode tsuri komi goshi which all of players enjoyed, she also showed the version which involves a front flip, this was VERY popular and a number of our Pre-cadet girls had a bash at it (using a crash mat)

Lele then moved into Ne-Waza randori and virtually every player manage to get a turn with her. This was followed by standing randori, Lele had at least 15 randoris and everyone got to have a go, this was the highlight of the day for many of them.

All too quickly the 2 an half hours had passed

Many thanks to Lele's Dad Kevin who provided a taxi service and to Pete Douglas for putting us in touch with Lele

We will definitely be having Lele back again next year, I would advise everyone to try and attend for inspiration and to support a Western Area player