Just like millions of people around the globe, Steve Evans is looking forward to this year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo which get under way in July.

And Evans is particularly looking forward to the judo, a sport he has been involved with for close on 40 years.

These days the 50-year-old is head coach at Cirencester Judo Club, a position he took on in 2015.

Evans is a big judo fan – he first took up the sport as a 13-year-old – and he sees the Olympics very much as a chance to enhance the profile of the sport he loves.

“Very much so,” he said. “It will be an absolutely marvellous event, hopefully it will give the sport a boost.”

Not that Cirencester Judo Club are doing too badly.

Quite the opposite in fact because in recent times they have grown their membership to more than 50 which is more than five times the number they had not so long ago.

Evans joined the club in 2013 having moved to this part of the world from Amersham in Buckinghamshire – he lives with his family just outside Stroud – in 2009.

“We used to visit the area to see friends,” explained Evans, who works in IT, “and we liked it so much we decided to move here.”

Evans learned his judo in Amersham and these days is a third dan, which for those who don’t know is decent.

And judo as a sport – it emerged out of jujitsu – is decent as well.

“It’s a martial art that can be practised at full strength and full speed,” explained Evans, “and as long as you learn to fall properly you won’t get hurt.”

Learning to fall properly is the first thing that someone new to the sport is taught.

“A judo player uses his or her arm to break their fall and dissipate the impact,” continued Evans. “It’s the most important technique in judo, without it you can’t continue.”

Happily, it’s a technique that most wannabe judo players learn and once they’ve mastered that technique it can open up a whole new world.

“Judo is not a team sport even though you train cooperatively with your partners,” said Evans. “The core value of judo is for the mutual benefit of everybody there but when you compete it’s 1 v 1, it’s adversarial.”

And while that presents challenges, of course, judo is not considered to be a dangerous sport.

“Judo takes the brutality out of jujitsu,” said Evans. “We don’t punch, and we don’t kick. The literal translation of judo is ‘the gentle way’.

“Our aim is always to land people on their back, not their face or head.”

Cirencester Judo Club, who have four coaches, were founded way back in 1974, and their members compete as individuals all over the country.

But while winning is important that is most certainly not the club’s only motivator.

“As a club, our philosophy is family-orientated, we are not an elite club,” Evans said.

And as well as catering for players of all abilities, it also caters for people of all ages.

“If you can walk then you can do judo,” explained Evans. “And once you get to the ripe old age of 30 or 35 you have the option of competing in master’s events. The age bands take you up to as old as you like.

“I’ve seen YouTube footage of people in their 70s and 80s still training, although in a modified way.

“Judo becomes necessarily less intense as you get older. The sport is all about standing throws and working on the ground including armlocks and strangles. As you get older you will tend to prefer working on the ground and training co-operatively.”

Cirencester Judo Club train twice a week – on Wednesdays and Fridays - at Cotswold Leisure.