We meet every Friday at
Totnes
Pavilions
Borough
Park Road
Totnes
TQ9 5XW
Junior class: Ages 5yrs to 12yrs 6:30pm
- 7:30pm (Beginners welcome)
Youth class Ages 12yrs to 16yrs 7:45pm -
8:45pm (Beginners welcome)
Seniors Ages 16 yrs to any 7:45pm - 9:00pm
(Beginners welcome)
History
of Judo in Totnes
Dave Follows and Sam Asplin first founded Totnes Judo Club in
1986. The dojo was at the Mansion in Fore Street.Nigel Ohlsen
took over the club in 1987 and gave the club its name Ronindo
Judo Kai (the name means the way of the masterless samurai
warrior Judo Club). In 1988 Nigel had to move away, so Jackie
Horswill whose children were doing judo at the time stepped in to
take over the coaching. Jackie kept the club going, and the
memberships began to increase.
In 1991 Simon Ward joined the club
and started to help with the coaching. In 1995 Simon took over
the main coaching at Totnes and in 1997 we moved the dojo to the
newly built Totnes Pavilions sports centre. Jackie moved away and Ray Brown took over the
running of the junior class. The club continued to do well for a
while until in early 2004 when the club had a bit of a
crisis the numbers crashed and Simon left.
Ray was now the only qualified coach and was faced with the task
of rebuilding the club, he worked really hard to do this but
despite his and the committee`s efforts the club continued to
struggle and closure was looking likely. In August 2005 Ray took
the brave step of leaving his well-paid job and took up
teaching Judo full time. This meant that he could devote all of
his time to building up the failing club. Aided and abetted by
his Aikido coach and mentor Danny DaCosta, Ray began relentlessly
putting on demonstrations and running courses in South Devon
schools and sports centres. Not only was Ronindo Judo Club saved
by the drive, but also Ronindo Budo Kai, was
born. It was then that Ronindo became part of Ronindo Budo
Kai. It was decided as Ronindo is such a well established club
and a recognised name in the judo circuit that Ray`s Aikido and
Judo clubs will be known as Ronindo Budo Kai.
For a number of years now Ray has been studying Aikido &
Shinjido with Danny DaCosta and he became a British Aikido Board
Instructor in August 2005, the club therefore has taken on a more
martial aspect and Ray promotes learning techniques from the
Martial Arts roots of Judo. The club has attracted students
who are Dan grades from other martial art disciplines such as
Aikido, Karate, Kick Boxing & BJJ, who bring with them their
skills to share.
We are a friendly club and all are
welcome, whether you are new to the sport, experienced or want to
return after time out, whether you wish to train for recreation
or competition, you will be made very welcome.
The evolution of
our Logo
Our first logo was to say the least, a bit odd, this was based
on (at the time) the club mascot Koko a toy Monkey This
lasted for some time but eventually most agreed it should be
replaced.
The replacement logo was designed and drawn by Sarah Brown.
Sarah is Rays daughter and has a degree in art.
The drawing was based on an old photo of Ray when he was much
younger and
was active in the competition circuit
The
kanji was brushed by gentleman from Japan who`s name was Hitoshi,
unfortunately we lost contact with him so cannot thank him
for his help. This logo was sufficient for the club for
some time but on the formation of parent Judo & Aikido
association, we needed a new logo.
This new organisation was
called Shinji Budo Kai in honour of Ray`s Aikido coach &
mentor Danny DaCosta`s new martial concepts. The name meant
"Danny`s Martial Way" We still wanted to incorporate
the original design ideas but to bring in the Aikido
aspect. Sarah was asked to come up with a new
design. Incorporating the new colours yellow black
& navy,this was the final draught and was used for about
three years. Unfortunately Ronindo was such a strong well
recognised name in the Western Area Judo fraternity that this new
name caused confusion about who was who, so it was decided to
change the umbrella organisation name to RONIN DO BUDO KAI, this
obviously needed a new logo.
Ray
wanted to really show both the Aikido and Judo aspect of his
organisation in the new logo and noticed how the images in the
book Aikido and the dynamic sphere still gave the impression
of of his throw in the original logo he had asked his
daughter to design based on his photo. So he asked her to come up
with a logo based on this Aikido picture, incorporating all the
aspects he wanted, they colours the name the flowing style he was
trying to develop. This is our current logo
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