“For me judo is education, respect for oneself and for others combined with physical activity.” Stefano Righi has been teaching these values for a lifetime to generations of Carpi residents at the Judo Club Carpi. The history of the Carpi sports association began way back in October 1970, when maestro Alcide Malagoli decided to open the business he had carried out in Modena in the Pio family’s city. “It was then that I approached myself as an athlete – recalls Righi, born in 1953 – I was 16 years old and practiced athletics in La Patria, but together with my friend Ivan Goldoni we had enrolled in Modena, driven by the desire to learn a new discipline and then again a little mysterious. Shortly after Maestro Malagoli opened in Carpi and we were the first two to sign up. We were on the first floor of an apartment in Viale Trento Trieste, after 2 years with the help of some entrepreneurs we moved to the then Kennedy gym of viale Peruzzi, the current ‘Nazareno’, dividing the spaces with fencing. We remained there until 2000 when, thanks to the Municipality, we found the current headquarters inside the Dorando Pietri, next to the bowling alley in via Nuova Ponente. One space of 300 meters which we have renovated in recent years. In 1990 the members of the Club decided to leave the scene and so Doctor Marco Vellani and I took over the management of the gym”. There are around seventy students of the Judo Club Carpi, forty children and teenagers and thirty adults, followed by the instructor Righi, who is both teacher and manager as well as vice president, by the two coaches Andrea Vellani and Gianluca Govi and by two aspiring coaches , Dario Fullin (who from this year is also the president) and Massimo Tabarrani. “In 53 years of activity – recalls Righi – we only stopped for a couple of years during Covid, we didn’t feel like putting our kids and their families at risk. For a long time, before the pandemic, we also held courses for the disabled. Why judo? Until 20 years ago the shyest kids who struggled to open up to their classmates were sent to us. Now, however, many parents who see their hyperactive children choose our discipline. I think that, However you look at it, children must be given rules. Education, respect for oneself and others must be combined with fun and moments of freedom. Our activity has many competitive moments, with regional and national competitions in Rome, but I’m not interested in having champions, rather in seeing kids who follow a certain path. Even the child who loses a race can become a good athlete, although he will never become a champion because in the end we are all the same on the tatami.”
The path for those new to judo follows the conquest of the various belts (white, yellow, orange, green, blue and brown) up to the black one, which then continues with the various “dan”. In competitive practice there are four techniques, standing, ground fighting, choking and joint locks. “For the little ones there are basic techniques which obviously do not involve loads – concludes Righi – from 12 years onwards there is a controlled fight. Every year in December we host a ‘criterium’ with over 300 children. Anyone who wants to get closer to the Judo can come from September 18th and do a two-week free trial.”
Davide Setti
2023-09-12 14:47:56
#Judo #training #ground #life #century
