Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Hudson Judo Promotional Tournament Report

Sorry this is coming so late, it's midterm season at Columbia.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Today the Hudson Promotional Tournament at Tech Judo, to advance to nikyu through Batsugun. Two decisive victories in a row against other sankyu’s was all I needed, which on paper didn’t seem that difficult. The fact that my time in grade (2.5 years) is over twice as long as the “recommended” time in grade for this promotion for non-competitors honestly made me feel like I was sandbagging a bit. I've also technically been judo-ing for 13 years... I’ll get back to how wrong I was later.

After my shift running dorm security I took a subway down to Port Authority where, of course, I ended up getting lost. I run around MTA every day, but somehow I couldn’t handle New Jersey Transit? Luckily the bus to North Bergen was a full 20 minutes late, so a full sprint up a few flights of stairs put me a train in time to get there an hour early. Earlier in life I remember tournaments running extremely inefficiently, as in parents yelling at the tournament directors, heavy weights ending up in kid divisions, and score boards malfunctioning. Billy Martin and company ran a very smooth tournament, and if that is the standard for Hudson tournaments now I’m extremely impressed.

Once I confirmed my attendance and looked around, I felt a sweeping sense of “other-ness.” There were big groups of people from other clubs there, shooting the breeze and warming up before the tournament. There was interclub mingling going on that I wasn’t part of because I didn’t know anybody. Eventually I found my courage and re-introduced myself to some guys from Oishi Judo—they were nice, and remembered me more for being that kid from Madagascar more than anything. Even with some social capital, I was still awkwardly doing stretches and plyometric exercises by myself to warm up. After way too long of doing that, Billy Martin roared and everyone lined up. He gave a nice speech about positive Judo, which I appreciated.

Being at the bottom of Judo totem pole, sankyu and 66 kg, my matches were one of the first. I think I was 3rd lightest at the tournament, which is pretty good! I thought I had let myself go. Anyway, my first match was against a fellow from one of those trendy MMA schools that does a little bit of everything. He had a Brazilian flag on his arm and his judogi was oddly textured, so I deduced that he was a primarily a BJJ player. We bowed and he took a low defensive stance, which I knew I was going to end up using sumi gaeshi to deal with. Initially I got a wazari through de ashi barai and ended up in his guard which, honestly, I didn’t feel like trying to pass. My goal was to save energy this first fight, so I fended off a couple of juji gatame attempts and stood back up. I don’t know if my arms are incredibly weak or I just suck, but my arms were already tired. We got a very generous amount of time in newaza for the one exchange, which made me happy inside even though I didn’t actively participate in it. Anyway, win by sumi gaeshi.

Next up was a gentleman who grew up doing sambo and wrestling in addition to Judo. How do I get stuck will all of these ground competent people? Was Billy Martin playing a trick on me? In this match, I got outgripped and wasn’t able to land him on his back. I probably could have been a lot more physical because it (would have been) my last match, but I wasn’t thinking properly at the moment. I realized that I just wasn’t used to the adrenaline—my focus was so bad that I couldn’t even complete a koshi jime (clock choke) because I couldn’t remember where I was supposed to put my other arm. We ended up drawing, but because I had to win two in a row it counted as a loss for me.

I bowed off and got some encouraging words from the audience, that I fought well and looked better than my 2nd opponent out there. My first opponent even asked me to show him the technique I threw him with! People were very friendly here. After relaxing for about a minute, I realized just how tired my arms were, how bad my cardio is, and that I wouldn’t be able to do two more matches if I didn’t do something about. I tried to do so yoga on the open mat, but that didn’t really help. Oh well. Before I knew it, we cycled back to me and I hopped up for another match.

This time, it was a taller brown belt from Oishi (I think). This entire match was a blur, but I think I ended it with tai otoshi after about a minute. It was extremely embarrassing being as tired as I was, but the tournament doesn’t wait for you to catch your breath. The next guy was literally the lightest guy in the division, who I tossed around for 4 minutes and got ¾ of a point (I think). He was pretty good at spinning out of normal angles, so I decided to try yoko tomoe nage. With a minute left, and ¾ of a point lead. Stupid stupid stupid. He dodged it and pinned me with kesa gatame. I was literally gassed and only managed to work my way out with about 3 seconds left on the osaekomi clock, so I lost. Dammit.

from judoinfo.com
Although I didn’t get thrown and threw all my opponents repeatedly, I still wasn’t able to win two matches in a row. I was a little bit frustrated, but I think in this situation it was a case of my opponents (and new friends) being much better prepared than I was for the tournament. Better cardio and safer throw choices would have been my friend, which I’ll keep in mind for my next tournament in a few weeks. Unfortunately, none of the guys I faced advanced either! I guess we’ll do this again in spring. I definitely need to work on my mind set for competitions. I also got a video camera, so I’ll be able to put up videos of my other tournaments.

Thanks for stopping by! You’re alright.
-Ben

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Batsugun tomorrow! First Judo tournament in two years.

Hey loyal readership,

It's the night before the Hudson Judo Promotional Tournament and I'm feeling a bit of anxiety. On some level, I thought that I had mentally outgrown caring about rank- after all, I've been wearing my brown belt so long that the caked on dirt and blood makes it look black anyway. That said, even if I did care about rank I'm (theoretically) only moving from sankyu to nikyu, so what's the big deal?

I think that part of me, after taking such a "long" break (percentage of lifetime-wise) from Judo, is afraid that I've wasted my potential in regards to becoming a great judoka. Yes, I know that Judo is primarily a form of education that uses physical activity as a way to express it's philosophy, BUT, at least for me (and what seems like a large portion of the modern Judo world), success in shiai has always been a strong desire, if not a driving factor in the practice of Judo. Realistically though, I have a lot of catching up to do. I have very little doubt in my mind that at least a couple of those extremely talented players from my youth is now doing greater things than I am now. That's exactly what they are now: great. Note, that "great" is distinct from "talented" or "prodigious"- rather, through diligent practice they have realized their potential. That's scary to me.

Regardless, (like my ability to do taiotoshi) the dream of one day being in the Olympics or a World Championship has never left me. In spite of how scared the thought of going against people more experienced, bigger (open weight), and taller than I am, I think the best course of action is to just try my best and see where it takes me. I'll write about my experience tomorrow!

Thanks for stopping by! You're alright.
-Ben