FORMER British Judo Champion and 1995 Youth Olympic silver medallist Dominic King, has recently decided to retire from top-level competition to pursue his coaching career.

FORMER British Judo Champion and 1995 Youth Olympic silver medallist Dominic King, has recently decided to retire from top-level competition to pursue his coaching career.

After a period of poor fortune in the shape of a bad knee injury and then a bout of ulcerative colitis that kept him out of competition for a total of three years, he realised that his best chance of competing at the Olympic Games had faded.

In 2004 while recovering from his cruciate ligament injury, King created his business Fighting Fit and has since taught judo in the area while juggling it around his training commitments and time with his family.

Although King has been teaching professionally for over four years, he now looks forward to concentrating 100 per cent on coaching, which will be a massive benefit to his students.

He presently teaches at grass-root level but his ultimate goal is to produce an Olympic champion within the next decade or two. He believes this to be a realistic goal because although he has never competed at the Olympic Games himself he has certainly competed against and occasionally beaten world-class fighters as well as beating world and Olympic champions in training.

Dominic adds: 'This is my chance to put something back into the sport. No martial artist in the area has seen the top level as closely

as I have and I know what it takes to get there.”

Despite his ambitions to produce some top judo players, King is not forgetting any of his less talented students. He appreciates that not everyone wants to be the best and that many only participate to improve confidence, fitness or simply have fun. His goal is that each and every student develops into better people as a result of

their time on the mat.

He teaches children at Corton Primary School on a Monday evenings (adult session starting soon) and children and adults at Winterton Primary School on a Friday evenings. He also teaches at several schools in the area but is looking for more schools to take him on board.

Other sessions include teaching take down skills to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu/MMA Fighters at Steve Cowan's Brazilian Top Team in Norwich (01493 667507) on a Thursday evening as well as offering personal safety courses for various companies. King is also available for private tuition.

For further details contact him on 01502 731330/07977432756 or email DominicKingA1@bigfoot.com or www.FightingFitJudo.co.uk