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Peter Barnett 5thDan
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My father said: "if you learn to look after yourself you can stay out later, take up judo."
I arrived at the Solihull Judo Club as a fresh faced novice and this was the first time I met the coach Peter Barnett. Peter took me from fighter novice to the following:
* B.J.A. Black Belt 4th Dan
* Light-Heavyweight in the British Judo Team for 4 years
* Member of the Training Squad for the Moscow Olympics
* British Light-Heavyweight Champion 1980
* British Masters Heavyweight Champion 1991
* British Masters Heavyweight Silver medal 1992
As a coach, Peter and his style as a teacher enabled me to attain the following:
* B.J.A. Club Coach Award 1992
* Area Examiner
* Midland Area Women's Team Coach 1980-89 (The Team won 2 National Golds and a Bronze in this period)
All this was done under the watchful eye and the quality coaching of Peter. In all I have been coached by Peter for 29 years - from youth to middle age. Peter could always motivate me to greater effort, even in later years when I knew his techniques to motivate me, he would wink at me, smile and still `wind me up' and get me going.
Of the many fond memories of Peter, two I will always remember.
The first, was how he could handle unpleasant people with style and good grace without ever losing his cool (I now lecture challenging youngsters at a College and I use Peter's techniques).
The second, was his amazing skill with bat and ball, stick and ball, or any sport with a ball. His skill in sports was such he would infuriate the youngsters when he would score with consummate ease at any sport we played after the Judo session. I can see him now, fist in the air after scoring the winning goal at hockey, mercilessly ribbing the youngsters (our games were always `young-uns' versus the `old-uns').
Peter Barnett my coach, teacher and latterly friend.