It’s an exciting time for JudoScotland as we launch our new strategic plan for 2023 – 2027, Judo for All. Our plan reflects the ambitious direction of the organisation and has been developed following an in-depth consultation with our members and stakeholders to encapsulate our collective aims.
The new plan presents a range of fantastic opportunities for the future putting inclusivity at the core of the sport.
JudoScotland CEO Judith McCleary said “We are hugely grateful for all the input we have had and for the support and trust provided by sportscotland who have committed significant funding to help us deliver our Strategic Plan. Our JudoScotland staff team has been working behind the scenes to create Operational Plans that will bring our ‘Judo for All’ strategy to life.
We are committed to offering bespoke club support and you will find an increased number of direct club communications from our team as we offer help & guidance on a range of things including player, coach and volunteer recruitment & retention.
We recognise the need to modernise and as such, we will shortly begin the recruitment of a Digital Communications Officer as we progress our digitalisation services to be more efficient as an organisation and most importantly, to make things simple for our clubs and members.
Over this next period, we will be sharing guidance for clubs on how to implement technical & tactical, behavioural and physical development tools from the JudoScotland Player Development Framework. All of this is with one aim – to support everybody involved in a judoka’s development, whether that be recreational or competitive.
Within our Talent Development programme, you will start to see more physical and behavioural benchmarks being implemented as players are supported to prepare themselves for the Performance programme and as we strive for Scottish athlete success.
We are delighted to have received investment support from sportscotland for a part-time Disability post. We know there is great work already happening across many of our clubs and we want to expand on this and ensure we have appropriate pathway support in place to enable participants with a disability to maximise their potential and make judo their chosen sport for life.
We will also be reviewing our gradings and membership offerings, both of which are big projects but with the aim of ensuring high quality and valuable packages. We will be seeking your feedback so please do take the time to share your views when asked!
We will continue to offer a calendar of events that will include a range of competitions and up-skilling events for our workforce. We have working groups established for a number of our competitions, focussed on providing the best possible experiences for our members.
We couldn’t deliver or achieve our aims without our volunteers, and we will endeavour to provide training and guidance that will contribute to an even better and more diverse workforce to meet the needs of our membership. Within this next year, you will see us launch our Young Leaders programme with our long-term ambition to enable every club in Scotland to have a young leader. This is part of our work to ensure youth voices are heard and positively influencing our direction as a sport. We will be striving to increase our female representation within the sport too; an area where we know we have work to do, but where there are great opportunities.
By 2027, we aim to grow a more diverse membership comprising of over 10,000 individuals. Having an increased membership will enable greater opportunities in the development of the sport including but not limited to bigger pools of judoka to support competitions, national gradings and player development. There is huge potential for the sport and all our goals are aligned to JudoScotland’s vision to be a Scottish Governing Body renowned for excellence, enabling people of all ages and abilities to realise their potential.
Whilst I have only shared a few areas within our Operational Plans, I hope it gives you a flavour of what is ahead. We have a fantastic team of staff and volunteers who are ready and excited for the next chapter as we focus on Judo for All.”
Forbes Dunlop, CEO at sportscotland commented “Judo For All is a clear strategy that will enable people of all ages and abilities to realise their potential within judo. The values of Judo have the inherent ability to not only create better athletes but a better society. I look forward to seeing JudoScotland put this plan into action to deliver a truly inclusive sport.”
The success of the strategy will require collaboration, not only from our key partners sportscotland and British Judo, but the whole Scottish Judo community including the dedicated volunteers, coaches and clubs who make our sport happen.