바로가기 메뉴
본문 바로가기
주메뉴 바로가기

Subscribe

Subscribe to our quarterly email newsletter 「ICM News」 to receive recent news about ICM, diverse writings by experts and youth, and relevant information.

Title [Martial Arts Globe] Feature / Brazil's Power of Youth, Forca Jovem Judo

  • View
    1093
  • Date
    12-11-2018
  • Attach
Forca Jovem child with a winning trophy

 

The "Força Jovem(Power of Youth) Judô" Team was created fifteen years ago by the late Professor João Luiz Ferreira de Miranda. The goal of the project was to rescue the youth of the region from going to a criminal path and to teach them to have posture, discipline, faith, courage and character. Since Professor João Luiz Ferreira de Miranda had been practicing judo since he was a teenager, he knew sport is effective in providing people with goals and an activity that stimulates personal and team effort. This is why Professor João started the team.

 

 

 

-Helena Grillo Miranda

 

 

 

The "Força Jovem(Power of Youth) Judô" Team was created fifteen years ago by the late Professor João Luiz Ferreira de Miranda. The goal of the project was to rescue the youth of the region from going to a criminal path and to teach them to have posture, discipline, faith, courage and character. Professor João, was a municipal guard, for a time worked at the department inside schools. He had been practicing judo for some time and saw that the children in public schools often did not have a father figure, and they left school and took a path to crime. Since he had been practicing judo since he was a teenager, he knew sport is effective in providing people with goals and an activity that stimulates personal and team effort. This is why Professor João started the team.

 

The place where the team trains is among the favelas of the Barreira do Vasco, Manguinhos, Mangueira and Tuiuti. Athletes who train with us, live in at least one of these communities. They face a lot of difficulties, but they do not pry in the face of obstacles. They are warriors and laborers who study and avoid becoming involved in crime.

 

The team competed for the Liga de Judô do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (LIJUERJ), a league that coordinates judo championships in the State of Rio de Janeiro, from regional and state championships to select for the Brazilian championships. And was able to play at the Brazilian championship in the state of Brasilia in 2015 and the world championship in the state of Fortaleza in 2014.

 

The Young Judo Force also made some special appearances at the judo stand during the Arnold Classic 2015 event and also visited and trained in the Special Operations Battalion, BOPE in 2014. . BOPE is a battalion that makes special operations in communities and combats drug and arms trafficking. Today the team is coordinated by Professor Isabel Silva, who led the athletes in the last stage of the State Championship on September 16, 2018. We have more than 40 trophies and among them are trophies that display Força Jovem Judô as the best team in the city of Rio de Janeiro and the state of Rio de Janeiro.

 

Among the contestants was brown belt Karine Silva who won a gold medal. She started judo as a teenager, is now nineteen and is an example of overcoming. She used to be a daughter who had a bad behavior, did not want to stay at home and was rebellious. But through judo she learnt discipline and today she helps teach classes for children entering judo. Unlike some of Karine's cousins who left school because of pregnancy, Karine focused on studies and sports and was a positive example within her own family.

 

Another that teaches judo for children from four to fourteen is teacher and black belt Helena Grillo Miranda, twenty one, she is daughter of the late teacher João Luiz Ferreira de Miranda and did not give up after her father's death. She is a journalism student and works on a national audience radio, Super Tupi Radio. She has fulfilled her dream of becoming a writer and has published a book called "The girl and the dictatorship" in 2018. But it was not always like this; because she was once a very agitated child and had difficulty in the initial grades of school. What changed her was judo. Judo taught her to have focus and determination. “I started judo because of my father's encouragement, but I ended up enjoying the sport which helped me in many achievements. If I'm a teacher today, it's because someone was my teacher. Teaching is a way to repay all the support I received one day. I started to write my book before my father died, but I only finished it after he died. The book tells about a teenager who is a daughter of a journalist who disappears during the military dictatorship in Brazil and she ends up going to live with a military man, who is the godfather of her deceased mother.

 

  ※ This writing does not reflect the opinon of UNESCO ICM and UNESCO ICM is not directly linked to this writing.