Kuzushi Judo Club, Toormina hosted a mass Australian Judo Union Grading recently with great results.
Unlike other martial arts, judo players on the Coffs Coast have two grading systems, requiring two separate belts.
Each junior receives a club Purple Belt with free gradings every two months where they can acquire tabs over a period of two years.
They are also enrolled in the Australian Judo Union Grading System which can take them from a white to black belt (minimum age 16). This can take many years to attain as gradings are extremely hard and only occur once a year.
The results from this year's grading are;
From Coffs Harbour Judo Club (PCYC): orange belts - Stephen O'Neill, Jonas and Marius Naftel, Alex Simmonds and Nelson Burrell; blue belt - Clive Simmonds: brown belt - Ty DeSalis.
From Woopi Warriors Judo Club (Woolgoolga): Jeremy Verdadero, Charles and India Lee and from Kuzushi Judo Club (Toormina): yellow belts - Ben and Emily Chisholm, Jesse and Kyle Barnier, Isaac and Jarrah Vanderpoel, Zac, Daimon and Joshua Mara, Jacob Dib and Nathan Stary-Wynn; orange belts - Sharon Chisholm, Kate Brooke, Freya Laidlaw and Logan Calnan; green belt - Obi Laidlaw; blue belt -Tom Mitchell.
Highlighting the level of difficulty, Ty DeSalis is the first Judoka on the Coffs Coast to reach brown belt in the past seven years.