Casting doubt... reeling in confidence

Out of the blue this morning I was greeted with an e-mail from someone who I don't know who said he saw me lose to a white belt at my last shiai and told me that I don't deserve to wear a brown belt and that I should give up judo, or start again from scratch. I politely told this person (who sent this message anonymously) that I would be more than glad to come to his dojo for some instruction from him (her?), as I am open to learning from everyone. I eagerly await his reply.

Even though I know in my mind that this person admittedly only saw me play in one match (forget about multiple matches in a shiai), and has know idea of how I really play Judo, he still put the monster of doubt in my head.

I wondered aloud if he was right. I decided to ignore him and let my technique tell me the truth. Today in Randori I landed to amazing throws - one Ippon-worthy Uchimata and one wazari-ish Sasae Tsurikomi Ashi. Okay, maybe it is no big deal that I did this - after all, I have landed hundreds of throws in Randori and been thrown with hundreds more - so why are these special? Because these two throws were two throws that I had extreme difficulty with even 3 or 4 months ago. While one can say that this was a fluke, it is also safe to say that I have improved to the point where my technique shown through and I was able to execute them.

I am now so much more confident than I was after reading those e-mails. I still look forward to a reply from the sender inviting me to his dojo for a workout. If he/she does, I will be glad to be humbled by his or her experience, and who knows, maybe I will surprise them to show that I am worthy of my Brown belt after all.

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Goodbye 2018, Hello 2019

Well folks, this has been a crazy year in Judo. A year that saw siblings win gold medals at a world tour event. A year that saw returning favorites and rising upstarts and dozens of awesome ippons.

It was a year of peace and friendship in Judo - If I told you 12 months ago that we'd see the Israeli flag hoisted in Abu Dhabi while their national anthem played in the backgroumd, or that a unified Korean team would compete at the World Championships in Baku - you would've thought highly unlikely that either one of those would come true, yet alone both.

It was also a great Judo year for me personally. After a few years of spotty practice due to various life events, I've finally got back to practicing regularly. I've also got back to blogging regularly (well, semi-regularly). I am always amazed that people are reading my blog, and I just want you to know that I appreciate it.

Happy Holidays and Best wishes for a great 2019.

For your viewing pleasure - below is a video the …

The one thing Putin Taught me about Judo... (kind of)

In the early days of this blog, I did some book reviews, including a review of a book written by the current Russian Premier - Vladimir Putin and co-authors Vasiliy Shestakov and Alexei Levitsky (you can read the review here). Although the book is out of print, you can find it on google books - here.

One of the things I really like about the book, is what he refers to as the 'Technical-Tactical Set' (you can see an example for Tai Otoshi on pp. 80-81). For each technique, he shows how to set it up as a sequence both to and from other throws. For example: turn your blocked Tai Otoshi into a Seoinage.

Granted, it's not earth shattering, but when I first saw it, it enabled me, (generally a visual learner) better understand how to follow-up one technique with another and, more importantly, that attacks aren't one off - there's no one swing of the bat, or taking a shot and waiting for a rebound - the attacks are continuous, and need to come in rapid succession.

On many …

Zabgreb GP Day 1 - Israel's strong showing, American Hardware, IJF's improved experience

I captured an interesting moment earlier today during the Zagreb Grand Prix. As I watching the matches streamed on YouTube, There were 3 Israeli women competing simultaneously - poor Shani Hershko (the Israeli women's national coach). The commentators on the broadcast also spoke a bit about the rise of the Israeli Judo team of late, especially the Women. Unfortunately, the Israeli Women's team today didn't perform as well as we would hope - they finished just off of the medal round with two 7th place finishes, and a 5th (with a further two women being knocked out early). The men's team finished a bit better with Tal Flicker and Baruch Shmailov taking Gold and Bronze, respectively, in the Men's -66kg.

Overall, Israel has been progressively improving it's Judo, and unlike in the past where they may have had one or two competitors who had a chance at World or Olympic hardware (think Oren Smada, Yael Arad, Arik Ze'evi), they now have a handful of people who ha…

The Road to Shodan

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