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Showing posts from November, 2005

Learning by doing... Learning by watching...

So last week I went on a business trip to California, and I decided to find a dojo to work out in on the road. Fortunately, my hotel was a block away from San Jose State University, and their Judo team has an open-door practice policy. So I couldn't resist. All told, there were about 25-30 people in the room playing and practicing Judo. It was a great Judo experience for me. First some words about the SJSU Judo team. They are probably one of the few colleges in the US that takes Judo as a sport seriously. Even though the team's members are students first, they are also excellent and first-rate Judoka, and many of them have competed and won at high-level events. It was amazing to see so many young, enthusiastic and athletic Judoka hard at work. While I bowed out of the full randori session, I still managed to get one round in with a Japanese student named Kento - his ashi-waza was beautiful. It's as if wherever I stepped, his feet were there. I also admired the skill student

Trying to get back into the saddle

Wow - after a month of Jewish Holidays, and schedule changes with me now driving carpool at least once a week. I have finally gone back to Judo. Before yesterday, I had played about 2-3 times in 8 weeks! (and one of those was a tourney). I am still sore from not working out and still about 7 lbs heavier (all that holiday food). Practice was good, I am taking to heart some of the things that my Senseis mentioned to me at the shiai, and working on my strengths. I also noticed two other things: The lower belts got better while I was away. I need to play to my strengths as well as work on new tricks, because I am becoming predictable. I also need to adjust my schedule. I don't think that I can swing two daytime practices anymore, which means I will need to convince my wife that to let me workout at night once every three weeks or so. If I can still workout twice during the day once in 3 weeks, I will get 5 practices in in every 3 weeks. I hope that I can pull this off.