Hamilton Judo Club Inclusion has been honoured with JudoScotland’s Club of the Year Award. This prestigious award is part of the JudoScotland Community Awards, a national initiative that recognises the hard work and commitment of judo volunteers across Scotland.
The club originated in 2019 to provide tailored ASN and disability sessions for their members alongside the mainstream sessions held at Hamilton Judo Club.
Hamilton Judo Club Inclusion have since provided sessions to over 6o individuals each week to benefit from both the mental and physical benefits of judo. Their dedicated coaches’ encourage participants to the Junior and Senior sessions whilst parents and carers are welcomed into a breakout area next door.
The club has provided more than judo for its members, they have created a community for parents and carers to connect and share their experiences. Often helped with some tea and home baking, the club has built a community of support and understanding for everyone who walks through the door.
Working in partnership with JudoScotland’s Judo Girls Rise initiative they created weekly Female-only sessions to help provide a safe and nurturing environment where women and girls can develop their judo skills whether they are complete novices or seasoned judoka. As the classes have continued to grow Hamilton Judo Club Inclusion have encouraged two of their female volunteers onto the coaching pathway and they have both recently achieved their Level 1 coaching qualification, creating more opportunities for participation within the club.
In 2024 the club created their Inclusion Development Programme, which runs twice a week at Whitehill Neighbourhood Centre, targeting individuals in the community who most often find barriers to sports participation. The programme runs in partnership with South Lanarkshire Leisure and Culture, Active Schools and South Lanarkshire Disability Sport
John D’Ambrosio, Head of Coaching and Development at Hamilton Judo Club Inclusion spoke about their plans going forward and how they want to continue to support members of their community:
“We’re always looking to add different parts to the club. We’re doing a lot of work in the social care space, we’re working with schools, and we’re hoping to do some safe falling workshops. Pushing into 2026, we’ll continue what we’re doing and hopefully do a bit more. We’re always looking to see who might need us, who could benefit from judo so we’ll wait and see, hopefully we can add in a few more things.”
Hamilton Judo Club Inclusion won a trio of awards during the 2025 JudoScotland Community Awards with coach Antony Martin winning Disability Coach of the Year and Simone Hamill winning Volunteer of the Year. Reflecting on the club’s success John said:
“I think it’s a fantastic achievement for us. I believe our volunteers and our young coaches are some of the best. They give up their time to come here, and they just enjoy what they do and they give a lot back. I think they deserve everything.
“These awards show the value that we’ve put into the club. The way we run the club and the family environment we’ve created. This award validates what we do so it means we’re going down the right way of doing things. For us it’s a great way to showcase all the volunteers and coaches who have put the hard work in over the years to give something back to them to be seen by the edge of Scotland.
Hamilton Judo Club Inclusion were presented their award by JudoScotland Disability Development Officer Stephen Somerville earlier this month.