FOREWORD

Judo is an educational sport by excellence. In Judo, we always dedicate time and attention to educating and this is one of our main activities.

Within the International Judo Federation, we created the IJF Academy, with the aim of educating coaches, help former judokas continue their path in our sport as coaches. The Academy is an important tool that helps us spread the knowledge and values of judo all over the world, including countries with less tradition and experience in our sport, but with a great potential and desire to develop judo.

Started four years ago, the IJF Academy had an excellent progress and very good results. One third of our members are using the courses of the Academy, some countries even organizing their own national courses or teaming up with other countries for regional courses. The current number of graduates is close to 400 and it continues increasing.

With its customized curriculum and state-of-the-art on-line theory courses, available in more and more languages, the Academy has become a real instrument, a benefit for the IJF as well as for the National Federations and our sport in general. For the financial support of these courses we partnered up with Olympic Solidarity and the National Olympic Committees, securing a maximum and optimal participation of all the students.

I would like to urge all the IJF Member National Federations to continue or start using the IJF Academy in order to educate a healthy and high-level generation of coaches, that will contribute later to the development of our sport from grass-roots to elite level, at a standard and generally accepted, correct level. The IJF Academy is one of the most successful IJF projects that contributes continuously to the consolidation of the international Judo Family.

Marius L. Vizer IJF President