Lone Star Classic Judo Tournament

Well, 

It’s almost time to leave for the Judo tourney tomorrow. I am really excited.

Last year I played horribly. This year…oh….this year. It will be great.

The girl I played last time only had to much skill. This year I have grown exponentially. I hope it goes so much better, and I win that first place.

Wish me luck! I will definitely try to have videos this time!!!!!

-T3k

New Tournament

Ok, so I know I have neglected my blog again. But I have new content!

It’s been one hell of a past few weeks. I have been to Judo off and on, due to work and personal related issues. I am finally back. . but I have a tournament in less than a week!

I will be competing at the Texas Lone Star tournament Saturday, January 22nd. I can’t wait! And I am competing with a different group this time, which will be a good experience :)

Yesterday , Tuesday, is generally for endurance drills. We got a double dose of that. As well as all the competitors were separated and forced to get thrown onto the mats for 5 minutes, grip fight for 5 minutes, ground work for 5 minutes (rules are if the chest lifts off the person while switching positions, you start over,) and a few other random stuffs. Man. Getting thrown by a brown belt ..straight without crash pads for 5 minutes…was gruesome. 

Thursday will be easier, and I can’t wait. I want to get reps in on a few last minute stuff before I leave on Friday, early. Best part, I will have an audience this time!!!!!!And they will help tape, probably!

Much To Say Since Last Post

     I feel bad, but I’ve missed the last 3 practices in Judo. I haven’t done that in a long time. The first of the three I missed was due to my shins and knees hurting pretty badly. I could barely even walk up stairs. The prior practice to that, I had done a lot of Harai Goshis which caused my legs, mainly my left one, so pretty much flip out knee and below. I let that settle and by the week after, I realized I needed a good break. I had been wearing myself thin all over tournaments and that is the last thing I wanted to do.

     That same week I get word from a friend that, whom I extended my offer of being their room mate if their fourth couldn’t afford it, I could go check out the house they were thinking about buying. It’s close to campus, and a good bike riding distance from work. It’s almost perfect. It’s also right across from the gym where my native Dojo is. I met with them and it’s a really really great fixup project, almost like a blank canvas. I would have my own room like the others and rent would be hella cheap. I took their offer. Unfortunately, taking their offer would make me miss one, if not both, tournaments scheduled this month due to lack of expenses. This un-nerved me, but then I realized it wouldnt be the end and I have priorities.

    I also know that in previous posts I meantioned loading videos to my blog. Unfortunately this isn’t going to happen guys. Reason being is that apparently the person who took them couldnt be trusted, used it as blackmail over something completely and utterly retarded, and then deleted them. But that’s ok, it wont be my last tourney and hopefully anyone who reads this might attend or see me play at my next scheduled event.

     I will be resuming practice next week, full force. I am also thinking about taking up Karate to fill in the gaps next semester for down time. It would help me keep in shape too.

That is pretty much it for this blog post. Practice resumes, as usual. See ya’ll around.

-J3n

     So if I am going to make any of the tournaments for November, it will be the Dallas Invitationals November 20th. It’s much bigger than the Houston Open. I hope to get ranked there somehow ^_^

My First Gold Medal Pt.1

As usual, the ride up to Texas was awesome. I road with some new people this time around, and they are pretty cool guys. They have a lot of knowledge of different arts that I am not accustomed to, which made for interesting conversations. A majority of the trip there I kept on thinking about how I would do, what I would do and where this tournament could take me.

The confidence that I had gained in prior practices to this was still in me, but I was wondering what would happen to it once I got up to the mat. I tried to think of the most positive ways I could use it to benefit me. Either way, I know it could be of some sort of use. .

We arrived at A&M around 710pm. We weren’t allowed to sign in until 8..so we waited pretty much. At 8 we headed to the back to weigh in. First off, pre hardcore working out since my injury, I had weighed 116. Now I am back to 121, having gained it all in muscle :( Therefore, I was placed back into the 57kg weight class. I learned from an awesome fellow Judoka that we were the only ones registered in our weight classes so we would probably be combined, being that she was 116 anyways.

Once weighed in, and meeting up with the team from ULL, we immediately started discussing food and settled on Chilis. We ate some amazing food, has a few great laughs and headed in to check into our rooms and rest for the night.

That night I couldn’t sleep at all.  I was restless, and took 2 hours for me to doze off. I kept closing my eyes and seeing scenarios playing over and over so that I’d know how to react appropriately. I knew that something great was going to happen the next day and I was totally prepared for it. I just didn’t know what.

I Made It Through Today

Around 2pm today I got this urge to fall asleep for no reason. It made me realize that today was the second to last practice before my tourney on Saturday. I will be traveling to College Station’s Texas A&M to compete in the Go Shibata annual tournament. Along with this, I was reminded of the sudden understanding and confidence that came out of no where during the weekend. For no reason, at all, I was just sitting and felt up lifted. I was ready, and I wanted to do it right then and there. Thankfully the feeling has stayed with me until today. I kept myself going before practice. . got home, ate an orange and drank some water before I headed out.

  I get there and I expect a typical Tuesday practice, which consists of speed drills of throws, uchikomis, grip frighting and newaza. The speed drills are 5 minutes a piece, consisting of 30 second segments of 1st and 2nd favorite forward throw uchikomis and also crash pad throws. favorite rear throw to crash pad. .as well as other random segments of leg throw downs, squats, crunches, pipes (yes, the good ole army pipes) across the mat and 1 minute of grip fighting. This is back to back, we take a 30 second break, and then switch partners. Well this week was different. This is my 3rd week at the new dojo, named Shinkai, and my first endurance Tuesday I puked twice having not been active for a few months. Last Tuesday I only puked once and immediately set a goal to not puke at all. Today. . I didn’t puke at all. As a matter of fact I had more energy than I have ever had.

  I think the pace of practice was a bit different as well, being that a fellow judoka brought music for us to listen to. . and man. Everything changed. I was up beat, on my toes. . got so many goooood throws in. I had energy when no one else did.. .instead of switching out partners in turns.. I just kept doing what I was doing for double rounds.. .. not switching out. I realized half way through..at my max fatigue. . something I never felt about judo before. A little glimpse of what it feels like to know the true meaning of, “ju.”

  It’s different than the philosophy. . because if you’re smart .. then you can peg the philosophy right then and there. I already knew the philosophy pretty well. But today . . I felt it in action. I threw and swept with the least amount of effort possible, and it was amazing. My Sensei then instructed us that we had to do grip fighting. He asked who was competing this weekend. . and I raised my hand. I was the only one. He said, ok, no one else? Well , Jenn, I want you to go against (names him and 4 people, all of which are the highest ranks in the class being all black belts.) I was like O_O And knew I had my work cut out for me. But I did it. I lasted through every minute with ever single one of them. The sensei , btw, is probably like 6’5 and a big guy XD Yet he kept pushing me. Told me to suck it up.

  I have extreme confidence now after today for next weekend. I’ve never felt better in my life. I’d keep going right now if I could. But we will see! I will have one more blog post after this and then a vlog/blog combo for you Friday night. I am so anxious I am stirring in my seat :) Can’t wait to post later!~

-J3nn

Great Practice Tonight, But A Lot On The Brain

     Practice today was great. I am getting excited for next weekend! October 9th I am going back to competition at the Texas A&M Go Shibata tournament. I have so much to work on, and I utilized as much time as possible in class today.
    
     Today I practiced my harai goshi, ogoshi, and osotogari. I am gradually getting better and better with harai. I just need to get used to feeling comfortable with pulling the sleeve across my face, turning the person like a wheel with my power hand and making sure that when I sweep that I can feel their whole leg on the inside of mine and that my toes touch the mat.

     My Ogoshi’s need repetition and consistency. I  realize that I am a person that is hard to keep with consistency. I either think about the move too much, or think about it too little. Where is the damned middle ground!? Ive been mainly working on my hip placement and my foot placement. I think it is definitely a winner move for me.

     The most time spent today was on my osotogaris. Before my injury, I was pretty damn slick with them. Now I am almost next to nothing. I am off on my power hand, I don’t step far enough in and most of all my kuzushi (off balance) is..well..off. I did many repetitions today to try to iron that out, but I still feel like I could have done more. There isn’t enough time in the day! Overall I know I made progress, but honestly.… it still doesn’t make me feel comfortable enough for next weekend. 

     I am mostly worried about possibly fighting in a new weight class. I am usually 55/57kg, and I might be fighting at 52kg. In 52kg there are a few nationalists that are commoners in Texas, so defeating them will be slightly impossible. I only met one of them, and she is really cool but handed my ass to me a majority of the judo training camp I attended over the summer XD But she is REALLY good. 

     Well either way, I have a video below that you can watch of my practice a bit. It is of my first forward throw called ogoshi. The quality is laggy, I am sorry for that, but my editor wouldn’t slice it correctly for some reason so I just recored it playing off of my desktop ha ha. You can comment on my YouTube page if you’d like, and it is preferred if you’re in judo :D Any help is great! 

Thanks for reading, and hope you critique!, -Jenn

The First Entry To A Long Journey.

     I had always wanted to do martial arts for a very long time. I remember peering into a local Karate dojo around my house and thinking to myself, “I want to know what that is. Why are they doing this?” Years later, I realized that my college offered Judo and Tae Kwon Do. At the time I was completely absorbed by the Japanese culture, so I stuck with Judo. What I didn’t know is that Judo would stick with me.

     My first semester was waxing and waning of emotions. It challenged me physically in all possible ways. It made me think forwards,  backwards, and upside down. Ultimately, it changed me. Explaining this to my family was interesting. My mother accepted it and hoped I did well, as did my grandfather. My grandmother, being horribly old fashioned, fought me on the fact that I am female and that, “Females do not belong in martial arts. It is play time, and causes you to lose track of what is important.” Boy was she wrong.

     Through the course of my journey until now, I have met my fears. Every single one of them, at every single practice. I have nearly fainted, puked many times, and hobbled out the Dojo. Yet still got it in me to bow off the mat and out the door. I have yelped while being slammed during a tournament, almost battle cried when I pinned someone to an Ippon (instant win), and found myself taping limbs and nursing muscles that I had no idea existed. Somehow I still stayed. I injured myself in Tae Kwon Do one semester, causing me to completely miss a whole semester, and it almost killed me. At that point, I realized that Judo was much more than a martial art. It was a philosophy, a way of living. Not only did you live through Judo, Judo lived through you. Because of this I was able to know myself better and learn what respect, confidence, empathy, certainty and most of all patience was. My Sensei was able to give me these things, that nothing else in life had offered. I mean absolutely nothing. Boy do I have the most honor to have received that from him.

     At this point you are probably wondering where I am going with this. To round things off, this is my first active season back from my injury and I am going full force. I am going to train harder…faster… every day that I can. My ultimate goal is to play in the Olympics for Judo. This is a HUGE feat, but hell. It’s worth a shot, right? I know I didn’t start learning Judo at the age of 4. I know I wasn’t active until college. That is fine. I have something, which I discovered from this beautiful art, inside of my soul that makes me believe I can do what I need to.

    The point of this journal is to not only document every single day until I get to where I need to go, but to also give a chance for other females to relate to something on our level. Judo is a popular sport recently, but there still are not enough females. We need more, and they need to realize that they should not be afraid. If anything, we can live through something, and relate through something. I hope this blog, and soon to be extension of my website on new years, can be a place for female Judoka to gather.

     Over the course of the next year until my brown belt, I will be recording my results from tournaments, post information about how close I am to the Olympic trials. I will also upload video and photos. I am horribly thrilled to be able to show someone what Judo is like from the inside out, and maybe…just maybe…they will understand.