West Brom youngsters throw themselves into judo

Around 50 teenage prodigies the Baggies, across the under 13, 14, 15 and 16 age brackets, have been receiving tips from coaches at the British Judo Association, held at British Judo’s National Training Centre in Walsall.

Their advice to the young players has included how to maintain balance while offsetting the balance of opponents, as well as how to fall safely and get back to their feet quickly.

Judo as a sport has a number of physical transferable skills that benefit other athletes. The Baggies players, in particular, were introduced to a series of drills and exercises designed to improve the mobility and balance of the squads while learning to break their falls.

Judo can teach athletes how to maintain balance while executing throws under pressure from an opposing fighter. With football players often needing to maintain balance during tackles, jumping for a header or while running with the ball, learning how to control their centre of gravity and body movements can help them resist being knocked off the ball and stronger when challenging an opponent for the ball.

Learning to fall safely is a key part of the martial art, and the aspiring Baggies footballers have benefitted from learning how to reduce the risk of injury when they are tackled by absorbing the impact and distributing it safely across their body.

Nigel Donohue, performance director at the British Judo Association, said: “Judo has the ability to help various other sports where an element of contact is involved, and it’s great to see football clubs such as West Brom recognising the value in exploring this further.

“There remains a high level of contact in football - whether that is going up for headers, shoulder barges or tackles, and a player either staying or falling off balance can often play a key role in the cause or prevention of a goal.

“Using judo to develop better core strength and agility can have a huge bearing on a team’s on-pitch results – particularly for goalkeepers who can also use judo techniques to help them recover faster from diving saves. We were really impressed with the engagement from West Brom’s players and coaches who recognised how they could take away techniques we had introduced and implement them into their daily training.

“This is something we are looking to develop further with West Brom and other football clubs in the near future – as well as learnings that we as judo practitioners can take from other sports such as football.”

Dan Bryson, academy coach at West Bromwich Albion, added: “Football is often a game that hinges on fine margins, so it’s great to be able to explore how parts of other sports – such as judo – can help to give our players the edge on the football field.

“Our youngsters came away from the session with some little nuggets of advice that they can add into their own game when trying to maintain their own balance when challenging for and running with the ball – which can hopefully translate into some positive results for the team.

“We trialled these sessions last year with British Judo and they were really successful, so we’re really pleased to continue this collaboration to help our players be the best version of themselves.”