The present site was created with the help of friends whom I would like to thank wholeheartedly for their kindness and support. I still have great expectations of their intelligence and creative thinking because without their support and cooperation it is not possible to translate into life the ideas the present site is designed to serve

My name is Vazha Balkhamishvili, I was born in Tbilisi on 11 July 1958. Married - wife Nana, son Dato and daughter Nino.

It can be said that I have been in sport all my life. I learned to swim before I went to school. Together with the first grade at school I started attending the section of Georgian Acrobatics. In September 1967 my friend, who was older than me and already an accomplished “sambo” wrestler (sambo – art of self-defense), enrolled me in the sambo section at “Dinamo” sports center. Mr. Bidzina Maziashvili, emeritus coach of the USSR, became my permanent coach and mentor. In 1972 our outstanding wrestler Shota Gogishvili emerged victorious from the Munich Olympic Games winning the first gold medal in judo for the USSR and Georgia. This event marked the beginning of judo boom and I devoted all my life to this remarkable sport, judo.

In 1975 I finished school and the same year entered the Georgian Institute of Physical Culture and Sports (now an Academia) which in 1979 I graduated cum laude or “with red diploma” as it used to be called then.In 1977 I completed normative requirements needed to become a “master of sport” while in 1997 I became the emeritus coach of Georgia in judo.

I owe deepest gratitude to the 2 most renowned specialists in this field: to Mr. Guram Ratishvili, PhD, Professor of Biology, and Mr. Gayoz Kakichashvili, PhD in Pedagogic Sciences, who played great part in my becoming the coach. And I cannot but mention the greatest influence on forming my personality and professionalism of the outstanding educator Mr. Guram Papitashvili and my tutor at the Institute, Professor Durmishhan Chitashvili, as well as to Mr. Anzor Martkoplishvili, Secretary General of the Judo Federation.

While I was still a student Mr. Guram Ratishvili entrusted me with training groups of students with a view to improving their skills. And it was him who involved me in scientific work. From the first days of my activities as a coach I was included into “scientific and consultancy group”. It was he who selected the topic for my scientific thesis dealing with studying starting situations while grip have been working on this issue ever since and it has added to my professional self-improvement as a coach.

Mr. Gayoz Kakichashvili, this great personality, one of the best specialists in sambo and judo, gave me, and not only me, sound basics of judo technique and tactics on which I later founded my teaching methods.

In 1981 a sports school was opened under the umbrella of the Institute of Physical Training where Guram Ratishvili, Gayoz Kakichashvili and I founded judo section. About 300 children from all over Tbilisi trained there. I can say that several generations of judo wrestlers passed through our hands.

Among my pupils are: Zaza Dabrundashvili, World Champion among Juniors and European Champion in group competition, Jondo Dabrundashvili and Koba Gureshidze, 3rd prizewinners in European Champion, Gela Baratashvili, European champion in sambo. Young sportsmen David Javakhishvili, Saba Gavashelishvili, David Asumbani, Lasha Tvildiani, David Simonishvili are many- time champions and prizewinners, champions of the USSR and prizewinners: Zakharia Sherezadishvili, Temuri Tabatadze, Tamazi Tsopurashvili, Mamuka Makharadze, Giorgi Alexidze, Gigla Alibegashvili, Amuri Abuashvili, Bakur Turkadze, Shalva Mrevlishvili, Julha Matikashvili

I am an author of a program for teaching judo. Together with a working group including Vladimer Nutsubidze and Mamuka Khabareli we worked out a system for assessing qualification of coach as well as giving belts in judo. In this system we tried to find a Georgian equivalent to Japanese terms. Methodological video films “Basic Methodology for Teaching Judo” and “Program for Teaching Judo” were made.

I have been a coach of the Georgian National Judo Team since 1984. During 1988 – 1990 I was invited to work as a coach of the team of the Soviet Union. I also worked a number of years in German and Austrian judo clubs.

Recently I have received interesting proposals from clubs of a number of countries, and in particular from the United States of America, but my unfaltering principle idea is that the years still left for me in the sports must be spent in service of my country, Georgia.