finding your feet

At Micklefield Judo Club, we’re fortunate to have an incredible team of coaches and volunteers who give their time entirely free of charge. To maintain the highest standards, we regularly attend British Judo Association coach revalidation sessions. These ensure our coaching remains up to date with best practice and aligned with national standards.

In September 2024, our club chairman, Paul Horseman, and I attended one of these sessions where we were introduced to groundbreaking research from the University of Hertfordshire and Anglia Ruskin University on preventing falls in older adults. The moment we heard about the Finding Your Feet programme, we knew we wanted to bring it to our community. Within weeks, we began assembling a team of club volunteers to make it a reality.

Our biggest challenge? Finding participants and securing funding so that they could take part completely free of charge.

That’s when Specsavers High Wycombe and Smiffy’s Café stepped in. Thanks to the support of Trisha at Specsavers and Nicky at Smiffy’s, we were able to launch the programme with no cost to attendees. After the initial six-week course, every single participant asked us to continue running it, a clear sign of the difference it’s making. We now run a session every last Saturday of the month from 9am until 11am at the Hazlemere Youth Centre, Rose Avenue, Hazlemere, High Wycombe, HP15 7UB and have plans in place to run regular 6 week introduction to Finding Your Feet courses every year.

There's clear evidence of a relationship between the fear of falling and falls incidence. Reducing a fear of falling leads to a reduced number of falls. If you would like to reduce your fear of falling and increase your confidence in your mobility, then this programme could be for you. Why not get in contact at micklefieldjudoclub@gmail.com to find out more and register your interest. Numbers are limited.