Every year, the International Judo Federation and the whole judo community celebrate World Judo Day on 28th October. This day represents a lot for all the judo fans around the world as it is the birthday of the founder of judo, Jigoro Kano Shihan. The theme in 2024 is WELLBEING.

Wellbeing is a complex combination of a person’s physical, mental, emotional and social health factors. In other words, it's a holistic combination of factors. Wellbeing is strongly linked to happiness and life satisfaction. Therefore, wellbeing could be described as how you feel about yourself and your life.

In the lead-up to World Judo Day, we will describe how you can activate your judo community at a local, regional and international level. In this fourth article, we are focusing on this precise holistic dimension of wellbeing. It's all about how you can integrate judo into daily life.

The idea of holistic health encourages individuals to recognise the whole person: physical, mental, emotional, social, intellectual, and spiritual.

Judo for Life Workshops

Develop workshops that teach how judo principles such as balance, discipline and respect, can be applied to everyday life to enhance overall wellbeing. These workshops can target various groups, including students, professionals or veterans.

Wellbeing Challenges

Introduce challenges that promote holistic wellbeing, such as ‘judo and mindfulness,’ where participants combine their judo practice with daily mindfulness exercises; or ‘healthy habits,’ where judoka commit to making small, positive lifestyle changes over the course of a month.

Collaborations with Schools and Workplaces

Partner with schools and workplaces to bring judo-based wellbeing programmes to a broader audience. These could include after-school judo programmes focused on fitness and wellbeing, or workplace wellness days that incorporate judo techniques for relaxation and stress management.

These are just a few examples of what can be done to promote holistic wellbeing on World Judo Day and of course it is possible to combine several activities including activities related to physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. You are totally free to invent programmes according to your needs and the needs of your judoka. Don't forget to let us know how you see the promotion of holistic wellbeing for judo people and what you will do on World Judo Day, by sending us your feedback to [email protected]

Until 28th October, be well and be holistically well!

See also