Both teams have been training for a week at Tokai University with Japanese people who are very well trained in judo technology and are being challenged a lot.
“We have a very strong training camp here and train with the best athletes at one of the strongest universities in Japan,” says men’s national coach Marko Spittka about the men’s training partners. “We are working our way forward and the boys are training really well.” This involves a large amount of training, improving technical skills and adapting to the level of the Japanese. Judo training twice a day, strength, running and technique are also on the program. “But judo is in the foreground.” In addition to preparing for the Grand Slam in Abu Dhabi, the focus is primarily on further development in judo.
The women are also with the top team at Tokai University. “We have very good conditions here, good Japanese on the mat and have two and a half hours of intensive randori every afternoon,” explains women’s national coach Claudiu Pusa. In the morning there are technical, tactical and strength training sessions.
On Saturday afternoon the women will move to Kamatsu in Tokyo and train there for another week.
Marko Spittka is pleased about the good cooperation with the women’s team. “And next week the juniors will come and we will get one or two of them into the men’s team.” He will also work with other Japanese university teams, especially for the heavyweights, and has already organized the best training conditions for them. “There is very good cooperation between all the coaches here and we try to create the best possible conditions so that the athletes can work well. We can be really very satisfied.”
At the end of the training camps in Japan, the two teams will fly together to Abu Dhabi and start at the Grand Slam there at the end of the month.
