JudoNotes

There's an article about Oishi Judo in the August 1 issue of Chopsticks NY. I love the title: "Oishi Judo – The Anti Fight Club."

There are some nice observations in the article, like this:

[I]f you take this kind of approach to viewing two judo-ka (judo practitioners) interacting, you will see how it is more like a dance – two partners treading the mat together, reading each other’s balance until one of them finds the right moment to strike.

I'm reminded of a moment one night when Sensei was playing a white belt who was nervous and tense. To help him relax, Sensei told him to think of randori not like fighting, but like tennis — just two people literally playing. I've always liked that. In judo, like in tennis, you're trying to manipulate the other person and throw them off balance with footwork and feints. Tennis is competitive intimacy at a distance. Judo takes away the distance.

I've tried to use the tennis analogy to explain judo to non-judoka, without much success. I guess it's something you can't explain by telling. You have to play the person and show by example, like Sensei did.

The Chopsticks article mentions a video on the Oishi web site. I assume it's this one, which is one of my favorites.

Thanks to Alex Hon, who posted this on Facebook.

The next Hudson Athletic Fund workout is tomorrow, Friday, July 16. This month they're having it at ITC in Long Island City. Looks pretty accessible by subway. Info and signup form is here (PDF). Wish I could make it.

Mike "Scientist" Heller took these great photos the other night. I wish I could have been there!

Many thanks to Paul Virtue for these videos of Saturday's kata tests.

Alan Best:

John Faulkner:

Karim Wahib:

Congratulations to Alan Best and John Faulkner for passing their shodan tests!

Reminder: Oishi Judo will be closed on Monday, May 31st for Memorial Day.

I don't have time to sort out my YouTube issues right now so I created an account on blip.tv and uploaded the videos there:

Sorry if the video in the above playlist is in a random order — blip.tv is kind of quirky. You can get a more logical order (and bigger video) if you follow this link to my channel.

Congratulations to Alan and Kevin!

I finally got around to reviewing and trimming the videos from the Hudson Promotionals on the 15th. Unfortunately I can't upload them to YouTube yet as I'm having trouble logging in. Hopefully I'll get it straightened out in a day or so.

I realized I never posted the results. There were four Oishi competitors:

• Kevin won his first two matches — which were in fact his first two tournament matches ever — and thus advances from sankyu to nikyu.
• Alan Best made batsugan and thus has only to pass his kata and knowledge test to advance to shodan.
• Karim and Alex had some good matches.

Matt Crane, Paul Virtue, and Dan W were there for moral support. Apologies if I'm forgetting anyone.

As usual there was one thing I missed through carelessness: I looked away from the camera at the wrong moment and one of Alan's throws for ippon takes place off-screen. But I think I did at least get all the Oishi matches this time. Between the senior and masters divisions, Alex had eight matches and I got all eight.

The Hudson Judo Yudanshakai has been holding monthly fund-raising workouts at locations that change month-to-month. The last two were at Tech Judo and I enjoyed working out on the large mat and meeting some new players. Everyone was friendly and helpful.

I'm going to try to make the next one, which is on Friday, May 21 at Brooklyn Polytech, near the A/C/F/M/R/2/3 subway lines. Here's some info from the registration form:

THIS IS A MINI CLINIC AND MAXIMUM WORKOUT FOR JUDOKA 13YRS. AND OLDER OF ALL LEVELS THAT BRINGS TOGETHER MANY OF THE BEST PLAYERS AND COACHES IN THE AREA TO SHARE KNOWLEDGE AND HAVE NEWAZA AND RANDORI GUARANTEED TO CHALLENGE EVERYONE. NOTE: ALL PROCEEDS FROM THIS EVENT WILL GO TO THE HUDSON JUDO YUDANSHAKAI COMPETITORS FUND FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE OF SPONSORING AREA JUDOKA.

WORKOUT DIRECTORS: CLYDE WORTHEN and BILLY MARTIN

LOCATION:	POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY 6 METRO TECH CENTER BROOKLYN, NY
FACILTY:	WORKOUT AREA 2 OLYMPIC SIZE COMPETITION AREAS ALL TATAMI MATS
FEE:	20.00 PREREGISTERED; 30.00 DAY OF WORKOUT
ELIGIBILITY:	MUST PRESENT VALID USJF, USA JUDO, OR USJA CARD WORKOUT OUTLINE ON BACK OF PAGE

I made a YouTube playlist of all the matches I got on video at Saturday's dojo tournament. Unfortunately I got there late and missed Dan and Rudy's match.

I really should learn to use my own camera. This shot of the lineup is a little blurry, but you can see what a good turnout we had.