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Showing posts from December, 2007

Do or Do Not - There is no try

With the end of the year upon us, a lot of you have probably given some thought to New Year's resolutions. I have too - this year, I've decided to stop trying -at least in Judo. Yes, I really did say that, but there is some greater context here, as foreshadowed by the quote above from the character Yoda in the Star Wars movies. Think about how we use the word try in a sentence? While try is perfectly neutral in the future or present tense (i.e. I will try to eat that food, or I am trying on clothes) it almost always connotes failure or disappointment in when used in the past tense (i.e. I tried it on, but didn't fit, or I tried it, but I didn't like it) while there are notable exceptions (i.e. I'm glad I tried it), the moral of the story is it is rare to hear someone say "I tried and succeeded." Think of all of the times we say were going to try to do something and as the words leave our lips it's apparent to the person we're saying them to that

Combinations and Weight Loss Update

I went to practice on Wednesday night - it was our last practice of the year and it was followed by our holiday party. Some of the people brought their kids, but I didn't - it was a little too late for me to be able to send Mitch. Unfortunately I wound up being a bit late, but I still got a lot of Uchikomi practice in, and I also got in 3 rounds of Randori. I have been doing a lot of thinking about ways to improve and I decided that I would take extra efforts to do two things in Randori: More consistently look to be challenged - i.e. Stand up first for Randori, play the biggest guys in the room, and don't sit any rounds out. Try new things   The first is something that I think we all need to work on. While I don't mind playing the smaller and less-experienced people in the dojo, I am trying to more actively pursue the bigger guys - because they present the biggest challenge. I managed to play 3 different people - one a Sankyu who is slightly bigger and beat me in our c

More Masterclass Books

My friend Andy pointed out that there was a sale at the Japanese bookstore Kinokuniya in Rockefeller Center. Apparently they've just moved their store (to the Bryant Park) area, and instead of migrating their inventory, they've decided to basically liquidate most of their old store at 50% off. While their Judo/Martial Arts section isn't huge, I was able to get my hands on two masterclass books - Seoinage and Ashiwaza for $11 each (normally they go for $22, and the best price I've found online is about $20). If you are in New York, it's not a bad idea to stop buy. They're on 49th bet. 5th and 6th, and the sale is going on until the end of the year. Please note that the sale is only at this location - their new store is at full price. Note: Earlier there was a post here with some Gibberish. Don't be alarmed - I had tried posting this with a speech-to-text service, but I had a bad connection and it didn't come out right - so I edited it.

The Judo Web is Finally Blossoming

I took a look at my archives the other day and realized that I have been writing this blog for over 3 years now. When I first started, the state of Judo web sites was pretty poor. Many clubs and organizations didn't have sites, and even the ones that did had pretty poor excuses of sites. The sites were almost completely lacking any type of design or navigation, and their information was almost always out of date, or not relevant. Obviously, there were some notable exceptions, such as the Judo Information site and the Judo forum . In addition, at the time I started there weren't that many other Judo Bloggers in the blogosphere, but that has changed too. Somehow, over the past few years, the Judo world has decided that the time has come for Judo to increase its presence on the web. Within the past few months alone, the USJF and USJI have changed their web sites, and both have also begun sending member notices by e-mail. Companies like Hatashita Enterprises and Hatashita Spor

Club Competition

Last night we had our club competition. Our club is essentially composed of three distinct groups - the kids from the kids class, the people from the non-credit classes that Sensei runs, and the students of the for-credit class and martial arts club of the Community College where our classes our held. (This last group, while they are adults, are separate because they practice during the day). In addition, there are sub factions in each group because some people practice only on Monday/W or W/S or Sun/Mon so they don't get to really see one another during the course of the week. Between the competitors or spectators there were easily 40-50 people in gis and another 20-25 on the sidelines, not a bad crowd at all. I was also a bit apprehensive, because my wife was coming. We've been married for 8 and a half years, and she's never once been to a judo class or competition. I was especially worried how she would react to my son's competition. My son, playing in the littlest

Why Ronda Rousey is Awesome

The Kano Cup, one of the world's top Judo Competitions, took place in Japan this weekend. Ronda Rousey, competing against the world's best, including several local Japanese favorites, took home the Silver. On the one hand, this should come as no surprise as she just took home the World Championships Silver and the Pan-Am Gold in the past few months. But then there is always the back story. As she points out on her blog - she partially tore her LCL in one of her first couple of matches. Yet she still managed to win all the way to the Gold medal match against Ueno from Japan. So here she is, playing the crowd favorite in Tokyo, with a partially torn LCL, in the Gold Medal match of the Kano Cup - and it goes to Golden Score. For those of you who don't get it - imagine the Colts are Playing the Patriots in the AFC championship in Foxboro and it goes to overtime - and the Pats win by a field goal. Ronda lost by a Yuko - one of the smallest scores in Judo, and she was dissapoint

Tidbits

Just some quick updates on what's been going on. The last few weeks have been hectic, thankfully the baby has been calming down a bit at night, so I've been able to get to class 2x a week for the past few weeks. Unfortunately, this was the last class of the semester, and the next semester is 5 weeks away. We will probably have a couple of workouts in the next few weeks, and our club competition is next Weds.  I think I will go to Oishi's during the break! My weight loss is progressing. As of this morning I was down to 205. So I've dropped about 6 lbs in the past 3 weeks. The Starett Cup is on 1/20, and assuming I convince the Mrs. to let me go, maybe I can play in the -90KG weight group. As the semester has closed, my Nikyu promotion has been officialized, just need to get the paperwork done. One rung closer to the end of the road.