"We are proud and honoured" said Florin Daniel Lascau, World Champion, IJF Sport Director and Director of the Academy, before adding, "This is an historical moment for the Academy and the IJF, to be featured in the Kodokan magazine.”
Together with Envic Galea, Chair of the IJF Academy and Dr Tibor Kozsla, Education Director of the institution, Florin Daniel Lascau has been working tirelessly to develop the educational programme that was created within the International Judo Federation, to educate instructors and coaches, to help former judoka continue their path as judo coaches and to utilise fundamental and progressive scientific and academic knowledge through a modern, flexible online platform.
The IJF Academy is an essential tool for judoka globally, to spread the values, principles, knowledge and subsequently the development of judo. The courses are designed for judoka and persons working in the judo community who are responsible for teaching, training, performing and managing judo, within the affiliated national federations.
Mr. Marius Vizer, IJF President said, "Judo is an educational sport, striving for excellence. In judo we always dedicate time and attention to educating; this is one of our main activities, a priority. Established in 2013, the IJF Academy has made excellent progress and is achieving inspiring results. Many of our members are using the courses of the Academy, some countries even organising their own national courses or teaming up with other countries for regional courses. With its customisable curriculum and state-of-the-art online theory courses, available in more and more languages, the Academy has become a real instrument of great benefit for the IJF as well as for the national federations and our sport in general."
Mr. Uemura Haruki, President of the Kodokan and member of the Executive Committee of the IJF said, "One of the most important missions of the Kodokan is to drive the promotion and development of judo and pass judo on to future generations properly. The purpose of the IJF Academy is to educate judo teachers, which is aligned with a core purpose of the Kodokan. Therefore, we have been working together with IJF Academy since its inception and featuring the work of the Academy in our magazine is a good opportunity to introduce the programme to our audience and to show that we are unified in our goals."
Mr. Uemura also said, "We are all students of Kano Jigoro Shihan and as members of the same judo family we continue this cooperation, within the academic arm of our sport. According to the principle of Jita-Kyoei (Mutual welfare and benefit), this is logical and we will keep working together anywhere in the world."
The Kodokan publishes a monthly magazine named JUDO, as part of its promotion of judo activities. JUDO is a time-honoured publication, in circulation since 1898, when Kano Jigoro Shihan published KOKUSHI, the predecessor of JUDO.
More information about the IJF Academy can be found here: https://academy.ijf.org/ More information about the Kodokan magazine can be found here: http://kodokanjudoinstitute.org/en/activity/magazine/