About Me

Hello Internet,

For starters, my name is Ben and I'm a full-time student at Columbia University in NYC. My martial arts journey began in 1999 with Shotokan Karate, which I was drawn to because the local dojo's commercial ran during Dragon Ball Z. This was before martial arts commercials stressed self-defense and conflict resolution- rather, it was a full 45 seconds of destruction that perfectly fit the mood of fictional characters grunting and shooting blasts of plasma at each other. Obviously the classes weren't like that all the time, but I enjoyed them anyway. I progressed relatively quickly, amassing a bunch of electric tape stripes on my orange belt before calling it quits because my tiny brain couldn't grasp the point of the individual Kata.

Eventually, my oldest brother introduced me to Judo which was "totally bad-ass." The anecdote I remember was that on the first day, him and two of his big friends tried to spar  Sensei Yamashita which, as most stories like this go, ended up being a humbling experience for them. My first day I was blown away by the fact that I wasn't paired with someone of my size and that there wasn't classic rock blasting in the background- he was very much a traditionalist. Over the years the Judo fundamentals were ingrained in my head, while my immature attitudes towards MA left me. I became very dedicated to the art and was successful in tournaments, until... 

I believe it was one of the Tech Judo Invitational, my second match. I was a yonkyu and pretty proud of my accomplishments thus far, and my opponent was lower ranked. He came out fast and pushed me, but instead of doing a morote like I was taught, I opted for a tomoe-nage because I thought it would be more impressive. I had probably done that throw twice in my life, so I didn't even think about what to do with his right arm. He ended up posting it and I went 100% with the motion anyway, snapping both bones in his forearm. From a technical standpoint it was his fault so I won the match, but I felt like a monster. The two people after me were crying in fear at the bow and I was not in love with that feeling. I took a 3 year hiatus to play soccer for my high school until I found the courage to jump back into the game. I currently teach the Columbia University Judo Club and practice at Waseda Judo on Long Island.

This blog is basically an outlet for my musings on Judo and other grappling arts, along with whatever else I feel like. 

Thanks for stopping by, you're alright!
-Ben