Judo Coach
Paul Everest: Head Judo Coach
Location: St Leonard’s on Sea, East Sussex. Near Eastbourne
Paul: “They’re all working really hard. If they can keep it up we’ve got a winning team.”
Having gone from being a judo player to coaching, Paul Everest set up his own local club. His foster brother James has learning disabilities and when he joined the family he started training in judo with Paul. His second foster brother Oliver did the same and both boys have always loved the sport. The experience with his brothers made Paul want to open up his own club to judo players with special needs. Since it started, the club has gone from 6 to 100 members. 24 of these have a learning disability.
Paul is head judo for the SOGB squad going to China and he says the team is impressive but there’s still a lot of hard work ahead of them. Each fight lasts 3 minutes and he describes each second of that as “full-on effort and concentration”. And if there are 4 or 5 other players in a judo player’s group, that’s 15 minutes of solid competition.
He says “They’ll be up against teams from 19 other countries and we don’t know all the levels they’re going to be at. So we’re going to have to work really hard at groundwork, arm and leg strength, stamina. For those who aren’t so strong at the throws they’re going to have to do a lot o pulling around before they get into a point-scoring position.”
The judo venue in Shanghai holds 3,000 spectators and the Chinese organisers are predicting it will be packed. Paul says: “It will take a lot. They really are going to have to concentrate because nerves will kick in big time. That’s where the coaching comes in, trying to get them to focus, train hard and get the right mental approach to over-ride the nerves and concentrate on the job in hand.”
But from the GB squad training sessions so far Paul has every confidence in his team. He says: “I’m very pleased with them. They’re all working really hard. If they can keep it up we’ve got a winning team.”
Paul has also done a lot of research work with an Israeli expert in autism who believes that judo is one of the best ways to help children with autism progress. He believes it can result in huge improvements to common problems faced in autism, such as focus and concentration, and the ability to adapt to change. As part of this research, judo players in Paul’s club took part in a study in association with the local primary care trust.
TO ARRANGE AN INTERVIEW WITH THE ATHLETES OR COACHES, PLEASE CONTACT THE SOGB NATIONAL OFFICE.
TELEPHONE: 020 7696 5569 OR EMAIL TO: pr@sogb.org.uk