JudoNotes

The dojo will be closed all day Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, and New Year's Day. The schedule will otherwise be as usual.

Everyone played nicely at the dojo tournament on Saturday. Hisato got the most wins, and John Faulkner got an award for Throw of the Day. Below is a highlights video, which you can also view with a direct YouTube link. I'll post a couple of individual matches later. Also photos when I have a chance to go through them.

Yonah posted a nice piece about Ronda Rousey, who took silver at the 2007 Kano Cup in Tokyo, despite an injury from an earlier match. Ronda's blog has video of her finals match, as well as matches from other tournaments.

From a link on Ronda's blog I see that her mom, former world champion AnnMaria De Mars, also has an interesting judo blog.

On Sunday I discovered that all books at Kinokuniya are 50% off until the end of the year. Kinokuniya is a really nice Japanese bookstore at 10 West 49th, just west of 5th Ave. They have books in Japanese and English, including a martial arts section with a subsection dedicated to judo.

I stumbled in because I was in the neighborhood and remembered I'd been meaning to check the place out. Lucky me! I picked up three Masterclass books and a kata book.

The store is moving to 1073 6th Ave., between 40th and 41st, after 25 years at the old location. I heard a clerk say this was because of insane rents, and that the new location is already open (presumably without the 50% discount). Based on my experience on Sunday, and the glowing comments here, I look forward to checking the new place out.

Sensei will be having an informal dojo tournament during the regular adults' class time (1:00) on Saturday, December 15.

Besides being generally fun, dojo tournaments are a good gentle introduction for people who have never been to a tournament.

Hope to see you all there.