NEWS
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Letter from the Chair – March 2026
I hope you are all training hard and doing well. Good luck to everyone grading this month; please share your belt upgrades on social media so we can all celebrate your success.
On that note, a huge congratulations to Sensei Matthew Chivers on his promotion to Shodan and to Lee Cappello on his promotion to Brown Belt. Well done to both of them and the instructors who supported their journey.
Regarding our ongoing growth and governance projects, we are focusing on using our data to make more informed decisions. To support this, Clark Siri has developed an app called Clubby, which has already been rolled out to approximately 30 clubs. Clubby is an attendance and payment tracking application which is part of our initiative to streamline the on-boarding process. The app is also linked the TJJF website which allows updates to the licenses and events automatically.
We’ve tested the app club by club, region by region but now we are aiming for a widespread adoption this year, so please contact Gareth for details on how to get set up. The feedback (see below) so far has been great and the team have many updates planned in already.
"Using the Clubby app has hugely streamlined my instructor pre and post session admin, allowing easy tracking of attendance, payments and licence status to ensure I can allocate more time to the teaching I enjoy." "It also spreads the workload, allowing other instructors to have easy access to all of the information they need, in case I am unable to make a session or am otherwise occupied with instructor duties." "Thank you Clark for all of the effort you have put into developing this professional standard app, the club owes you a pint!" Looking ahead, our next major events are the Junior Randoris on April 25th in Wolverhampton and the Adult Randori Nationals from May 2–3 at the University of Birmingham. Following last year’s social success, we have again booked Felson’s for the evening's entertainments, featuring pool, darts, and shuffleboard. I’ve been practising so I’m willing to take on all comers.
I am personally looking forward to these Nationals in Birmingham. It is always a pleasure to catch up with everyone and witness the ever-improving skill levels of our students. The weekend is going to be great so I can’t wait.
Before I go, I want to give a special mention to Sensei Dave Walker who is walking over 150km to raise money for a charity that stands for women and girls globally who are held back by having to walk 5km or more for water every day. His original target was £150 but he’s actually smashed that and raise nearly £1,300 so far. Even after all these years, he’s still inspiring me!
If you have any spare change or you want to see his progress, click here
See you soon
Eric Law
TJJF Chair
On that note, a huge congratulations to Sensei Matthew Chivers on his promotion to Shodan and to Lee Cappello on his promotion to Brown Belt. Well done to both of them and the instructors who supported their journey.
Regarding our ongoing growth and governance projects, we are focusing on using our data to make more informed decisions. To support this, Clark Siri has developed an app called Clubby, which has already been rolled out to approximately 30 clubs. Clubby is an attendance and payment tracking application which is part of our initiative to streamline the on-boarding process. The app is also linked the TJJF website which allows updates to the licenses and events automatically.
We’ve tested the app club by club, region by region but now we are aiming for a widespread adoption this year, so please contact Gareth for details on how to get set up. The feedback (see below) so far has been great and the team have many updates planned in already.
"Using the Clubby app has hugely streamlined my instructor pre and post session admin, allowing easy tracking of attendance, payments and licence status to ensure I can allocate more time to the teaching I enjoy." "It also spreads the workload, allowing other instructors to have easy access to all of the information they need, in case I am unable to make a session or am otherwise occupied with instructor duties." "Thank you Clark for all of the effort you have put into developing this professional standard app, the club owes you a pint!" Looking ahead, our next major events are the Junior Randoris on April 25th in Wolverhampton and the Adult Randori Nationals from May 2–3 at the University of Birmingham. Following last year’s social success, we have again booked Felson’s for the evening's entertainments, featuring pool, darts, and shuffleboard. I’ve been practising so I’m willing to take on all comers.
I am personally looking forward to these Nationals in Birmingham. It is always a pleasure to catch up with everyone and witness the ever-improving skill levels of our students. The weekend is going to be great so I can’t wait.
Before I go, I want to give a special mention to Sensei Dave Walker who is walking over 150km to raise money for a charity that stands for women and girls globally who are held back by having to walk 5km or more for water every day. His original target was £150 but he’s actually smashed that and raise nearly £1,300 so far. Even after all these years, he’s still inspiring me!
If you have any spare change or you want to see his progress, click here
See you soon
Eric Law
TJJF Chair
