The Chief Instructor of Nippon Judo Schools is Johan Boshoff. We are also fortunate in the club to have Graeme and Deb Downing, as well as Nigel Bassett, Vinay Reddy and Gary Rouse as qualified coaches. This is truly a formidable coaching panel.
The Club
Nippon Judo Schools is a judo club in New Zealand, opening it’s doors officially in January 2001. The home base of the club is currently in Torbay, on the Auckland North Shore, about 20 minutes drive north of the Auckland city centre. And we have opened a second central training venue in Silverdale.
Judo is taught (primarily) in primary schools, and the school classes serve as basic training venues for new students.
From here, more advanced students graduate to the advanced classes. There are currently two advanced classes, one in Torbay on the North Shore, and the other in Silverdale on the Hibiscus Coast.
The main objective of the club is to promote the sport of judo. In doing so, it offers opportunities to competitive as well as the more social orientated students.
Competitive students get to test their skills in organized events from club level up to national and international events. Non-competitive players improve their skills and knowledge in the safety of the school environment or the technical class, without having to battle it out in the competition arena.
With such a short history, the club has already produced some medal winners at club, local, regional, national and international events. Look for the results in the section on News / Results
The Head Coach
Johan started with judo as a 7-year old in South Africa, and has been involved in the sport ever since then. He got his black belt (1st Dan) in December 1974, and currently holds the rank of 6th Dan. He started his coaching career in 1981 on a part-time basis, and has been coaching full-time since 1992.
During his competitive years, Johan won many provincial, regional and national titles, but was denied international participation due to the isolated status of South Africa during those years. South Africa was allowed back into the international sporting arena in the early 1990’s, but Johan has already retired by then to take up coaching on a full-time basis.
Johan has completed B.A., B.Comm. and M.B.A. university degrees. He was a human resources manager and later a commercial banker before he decided to start teaching judo on a full-time basis. He then founded the Hajime Judo Academy in Johannesburg, S.A, in 1992. In 1998, he accepted a job as national coach of the Seychelles. After winning more international medals in two years with his players than the country has won in the previous ten years, Johan then moved on and re-located to New Zealand. He is now a New Zealand citizen and very happy in his adopted country.
Johan acknowledges the important part that a coach plays as a role model in the life of an athlete. His coach and mentor, Kokkie Uys, played that role with distinction. Kokkie was a coach who displayed a passion for life and for judo. He was a coach, mentor, friend and second father to Johan.
As a coach, Johan teaches with the same passion that he experienced from Kokkie Uys. Although methods have changed over the years, basic principals and ethics in sport, which Kokkie Uys stood for, are unchanged. The respect that he earned as a coach and as a friend, is the cornerstone of Johan’s approach to teaching Judo.
Apart from participating in, and coaching judo, Johan has also contributed to Judo on an administrative level. He has been chairman of a provincial union, as well as vice-president and technical director of the national federation. Refereeing is also a passion for the coach, and he is a qualified International “A” grade referee.
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