As I posted earlier, my old dojo, Oishi's just moved to a new space a couple of weeks ago. I refer to Oishi's as my old dojo, because I haven't been there in a while. I used to go to their afternoon classes, during my lunch break, but ultimately, after getting a lot more responsibility at work, taking two hours off in the middle of the day twice a week became less of an option. While Oishi's dojo was close to my office, it was not close enough from home for me to attend his evening classes.
Thankfully I have found that Sensei Watanabe's classes fit my schedule and are 5 minutes from home. But I still miss my lunchtime Oishi Crowd. So I went down to the new dojo today to say hi and check it out. As it turns out, the new dojo is even closer to my office and I also discovered that I have a handful of classes left on my account (you can pay per class or pay per year at Oishi's). So I think that I will have to go work out there once a week!
Lurking on the Judoforum, I found that another person from Oishi's has a blog - Andy Lee (who I've never met, because he's a night guy, and I am a day guy). I starting reading the posts and he had one about Sensei Dave Williams.
In addition to being a great guy and a great sensei himself, Oishi has been blessed with a Yudansha of down-to-earth individuals who are also great teachers. One of those people is Sensei Williams. Dave is not only a great teacher, but a great motivator too. He pushes you to your limits, and helps you find elements of strength and courage that you didn't know you had.
I remember one practice last September where I went to Sensei Dave's class. I was the lowest ranked person there, and everyone was gearing up for a tournament. It became a giant randori session. I was fighting people with more experience. At first, I was getting thrown like a bean bag and wanted to give up. Dave wouldn't let me. By the time I hit round three, I was hitting throws with better accuracy that I ever had.
I guess this is why I generally only hear good things about Oishi's - because he's surrounded himself with some excellent people.
Thankfully I have found that Sensei Watanabe's classes fit my schedule and are 5 minutes from home. But I still miss my lunchtime Oishi Crowd. So I went down to the new dojo today to say hi and check it out. As it turns out, the new dojo is even closer to my office and I also discovered that I have a handful of classes left on my account (you can pay per class or pay per year at Oishi's). So I think that I will have to go work out there once a week!
Lurking on the Judoforum, I found that another person from Oishi's has a blog - Andy Lee (who I've never met, because he's a night guy, and I am a day guy). I starting reading the posts and he had one about Sensei Dave Williams.
In addition to being a great guy and a great sensei himself, Oishi has been blessed with a Yudansha of down-to-earth individuals who are also great teachers. One of those people is Sensei Williams. Dave is not only a great teacher, but a great motivator too. He pushes you to your limits, and helps you find elements of strength and courage that you didn't know you had.
I remember one practice last September where I went to Sensei Dave's class. I was the lowest ranked person there, and everyone was gearing up for a tournament. It became a giant randori session. I was fighting people with more experience. At first, I was getting thrown like a bean bag and wanted to give up. Dave wouldn't let me. By the time I hit round three, I was hitting throws with better accuracy that I ever had.
I guess this is why I generally only hear good things about Oishi's - because he's surrounded himself with some excellent people.
Comments
I'll subscribe to your Atom feed when I get back to New York on Monday. (It's a boring story why I can't do that now.) I don't know why I didn't do that in the first place.