Brett remains our most successful player. From the time he won his first medal in 1997, he was obviously a player with a future in front of him. A stunning performance at the 1999 National Championships qualified him for the British cadet squad. He was a member of the squad continuously through to the end of 2007.
During that time he won three 3 British and a Commonwealth title, achieved a World ranking, and beat some highly rated players (with World and Olympic pedigrees).
By the end of 2007 a succession of personally disappointing results, a series of niggling injuries and no funding, forced him to almost walk away completely from the sport.
However. once a judo player. always a judo player!
Brett returned to competitive action at the Senior Trials at the end of 2008, albeit almost a cameo appearance at the heavier Weight group of -66kg.
Since then he has rediscovered his love for judo – following a three month spell at the Jason Morris Judo Centre in Albany, New York he returned to the UK, and has trained in Wales with Neil Adams and closer to home, as well as coaching at a number of Hampshire clubs.
He returned to competition with a gold medal winning performance at the 2009 Plymouth Senior Open and since then has won the 2009 Hampshire Open and achieved a credible 9th place at the 2010 Belgium Open. He followed this up with a bronze medal at the English Open in 2010.
A hernia stopped him competing during the rest of the year, and bizarrely the BJA denied him a wild card entry to the Senior Trials that year.
Whilst still active at the club, and not ruling out a return to Judo, Brett has recently started to make a name for himself in the MMA world.
[…] posts in the octagon. Rightly taking advantage of Rousey’s rise to fame. Hopefully Court Lane’s Brett Caswell will continue to progress his MMA career to this level and the BJA can do the same. Judo […]