![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.ajajudo.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Keith-K-199x300.jpg\")
Dear Members of the A.J.A<\/p>\nDear Members of the A.J.A<\/p>\n
I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself as the new Chairman of the National A.J.A. Committee with a very brief history of my judo life.<\/p>\n
My interest in judo began in September 1964, when a judo coach came to my class at school asking if anyone would be interested in learning Judo.\u00a0 The following Saturday I went along to the class which was held at Loughborough College.\u00a0 Two years later I gained my Yellow belt 2 Orange tabs.\u00a0 This was when I took out my membership with the A.J.A.<\/p>\n
The East Midlands area was very strong at the time.\u00a0 At eighteen I also joined the Loughborough University Judo Club, we had a Japanese instructor who was only ever known as Foo.\u00a0 I travelled to many interesting venues with the university during my teen years.<\/p>\n
Judo became a big part of my life, but only as a hobby fitting round my working life.\u00a0 Never the less I trained every night I could and attended competitions at the weekends.<\/p>\n
I was there at the start of Loughborough Judo Club with Mr Keith Hudson. We trained together for the best part of nineteen years. I later went to coach along with Paul Bennett and his wife Jean at Market Bosworth Judo Club.\u00a0 We had a very successful club and held many competitions always in June and attracting over 300 competitors; some of the older judoka may remember these times.\u00a0 I later took over sole running of the club.<\/p>\n
I took up coaching in the 1980\u2019s coaching at several clubs around the East Midland Area.\u00a0 I also coached at a BJC Club in Shepshed for many years.<\/p>\n
I became a member of the A.J.A. East Midland Area Committee as club representative, I later became East Midlands Area Coach promoting my interest in the Judo Kata\u2019s.\u00a0 I have spent the last fifteen years as NEC Officer for the East Midland Area and before that attended many AGM\u2019s .<\/p>\n
In 2014 I was promoted to my present grade of Yodan (4th<\/sup> Dan) by Mr Roger Downs at the NEC.<\/p>\n Mr Downs sadly passed away in 2017 and I was approached at the beginning of 2018 asking if I would be interested in the position of Chairman of the A.J.A. I said I would be happy to accept the position if I was elected by the members.<\/p>\n I currently run Loughborough Judo Club after the founder Mr Keith Hudson retired due to ill health.\u00a0 I have a very good team surrounding me at Loughborough.<\/p>\n I look forward to being a part of the continued success of the A.J.A.<\/p>\n Yours in Judo Keith Kendall<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Members of the A.J.A I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself as the new Chairman of the National A.J.A. Committee with a very brief history of my judo life. My interest in judo began in September 1964, when a judo coach came to my class at school asking if anyone would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2571,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-14 10:04:09","action":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ajajudo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2568"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ajajudo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ajajudo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajajudo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajajudo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2568"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajajudo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2570,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajajudo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2568\/revisions\/2570"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajajudo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ajajudo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajajudo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ajajudo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}