RETURN TO JUDO: First Night

Earlier tonight I walked into a judo class for the first time in two years. I can honestly say it was indeed bittersweet. All of my training had been at the Winter Haven Judo club. However, tonight I walked into a different dojo about 15 minutes prior to class. As I sat and watched the ending of the children's class I found myself searching for a familiar face but I knew one would not be here. I was in a different state at a different dojo training in a totally different judo atmosphere for the first time.

The instructor walked up and introduced himself and then we all lined up for class to start. I had gotten inline with the rest of the students but the instructor had asked me to stand next to him at the front since he and I were the same rank. I however commented to him that I wanted to be treated like everyone else. There were several in attendance all of different rank. As we were going thru warm ups all managed to introduce themselves to me. I was indeed critical of myself and how I would perform.

It had been a long while since I had done any serious judo training and I soon found out this was not a recreational class. The instructor was indeed extremely knowledgeable of high level judo play. His daughter is in a bid to compete for a spot on the olympic team.

After warm up we began to drill TACHI WAZA the instructor had all of us line up and the person in front was to throw everyone in line using their favorite technique. The nervousness of being back in class had long since worn off and I felt more at ease as periodically all would engage me in small talk between taking turns being thrown and throwing. We then moved to newaza working on some guard escapes.


EXAMPLE OF TACHI WAZA

Then we started NEWAZA training going for a couple of minutes and then changing partners and going another couple minutes we kept this up untill everyone had a shot each other. We ended the nights training with some conditioning drills and calisthenics.After the class all began to engage me in conversation once again making me feel very welcome.


EXAMPLE OF NEWAZA

Needless to say for the first time in a long while I really enjoyed myself just training and working on judo. No politics, no hassles, no games, no posers, no B.S. of any kind, just pure Judo. The pure enjoyment of just training and getting ready for competition. I am sure I will be a little sore tomorrow but it sure feels good to be back doing something I love. Wednesday will be a two a day practice. I am sure I will have more to say then.