JudoNotes

Oishi Judo will be closed on Labor Day, Monday September 7.

Oishi Judo had a good turnout for the Hudson Promotionals on Saturday. Arthur, Zaid, Karim, Mike P, and Jon Faulkner competed, as did one fellow from the day class whose name I'll have to get. No batsugans but a few nice throws. I made a playlist on YouTube where you can see all the matches I managed to get on video. Here are the highlights, complete with slo-mo replays:

P.S. The throwers are Zaid, Jon, Jon again, Karim, and Ken.

1. Congratulations to Yotam on his promotion to ikkyu.
2. Congratulations to Romeo on taking third at the Nationals on April 18.

UPDATE: Yotam informs me that Arthur and Alberto also got promoted to ikkyu. Congratulations!

(I'm catching up on a backlog of news I've been meaning to post…)

Yotam posted video of his four matches at the Liberty Bell on April 5:

There will be no children's class on Sat. March 7. The adult class will be held 12:30-2pm.

Yotam took third at the Tech Judo "Super Bowl" tournament yesterday. I wasn't going to be there, but I changed my plans so I was able to attend. I took the bus out there with Yotam and my buds Rich and Seth from Five Points.

When it was all over I helped stack the mats, as I did last time I was there. I must be nuts because I actually enjoy that, though I imagine it gets less fun around the hundredth time. Maybe it just felt good to do something physical (not to mention helpful) after watching other people fight all day. I tend to carry heavy things on my left, so I made a mental note to try carrying the mats on my right side next time, not only for strength but coordination. Someday I may have to study the nage-no-kata, and I'll be glad I sort of practiced kata-guruma on both sides, even if my uke was a big rubber rectangle.

This was the first time I've been out to Tech Judo that I didn't have a ride back. When we got to the bus stop for the return trip, we realized we had over an hour wait for the next bus. As luck would have it, referee Lillian Tom walked by and noticed us standing there. She took us to a bus stop where we caught the 166/165 line, which runs much more frequently. Thanks, Lillian! Not only did this get us back to the city much quicker, the walk to the bus stop was like a mini-workout, though you'd hardly know it to see Yotam bounding up the hills.

On a side note, I've updated my directions to Tech Judo with more bits of information that I always forget, like the gate number and the zone number.

On another side note, I heard Tech Judo will have another tournament in four weeks, on March 1. Looking forward to it.

Here are Yotam's matches. Unfortunately I missed the first few seconds of his third match, when he scored a waza-ari.

Oishi Judo will be closed on Monday, January 19th.

[UPDATE: Note that only the afternoon Seniors class will be held on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.]

Oishi Judo will be closed Christmas and New Year's Days.

Only the afternoon Seniors class will be held on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.

Oishi Judo will be closed Thanksgiving Day. Friday and Saturday classes will be as usual.

I heard from Paul that Germain Difo got his shodan yesterday. Germain's in grad school at Georgetown.

I remember when Germain was a newbie. I remember two practices in particular — one when Sensei made him escape from yoko-shiho-gatame over and over and over, and another practice when Sensei tossed him all over the dojo during randori before promoting him to sankyu at the end of the night.

Congratulations on a well-deserved promotion!