Judo has a steep learning curve. Some take to it more quickly than others. These are my experiences and categorisations from the perspective of a recreational Judo player with a relatively recent ranking accomplishment of 1st degree black belt with the British Judo standard.. The “Getting Smashed” stage You’re new to the game. You come […]
The return to sport after an ACL and meniscus repair has been a long one. I’m no professional sportsman – I’m a desk-based technology project manager by trade so the resources available for recovery are fairly limited to what once-monthly physiotherapy sessions will provide. This article delves into the details of what my situation has […]
Like many other sports, Judo is rich in the experiences it offers its community. One area I’ve been exploring is refereeing. This post will cover my experience which may resonate with some of you out there. Previous Experience As a player, the referee is the person with the authority to determine whether I win/lose or […]
Given I’m now month #4 into my rehabilitation from an ACL repair, I’ve been looking at ways to feed my Judo fix. I’m currently watching old fights of mine and am finding them useful to get a better understanding into how I move and react in the competition situation. Watching Tape “Back in the day” […]
I’m currently a week on from an ACL repair and miniscus trimming in my left knee. Read on and I’ll fill you in on the details of it at this early stage of recovery. The knee has four major ligaments – remember that a ligament is the tissue that connects bone to bone. One injury […]
I’ve had to tone down the training somewhat in the last couple of months. Life circumstances, health reasons, sobering choices: it’s all come to a bit of a head. We start a hobby like Judo, we fall in love with it and we presume we’ll be able to do it indefinitely. It consumes us, we […]
After a little over a month as a 1st kyu/brown belt in Judo I decided to sign up for a black belt grading. I’ll take you through my experiences of it which will hopefully help prepare you if you’re going down this route. How kyu grading progression works In the British Judo curriculum initially there’s […]
Every endeavour involving significant skill acquisition there will be different levels of mastery. You won’t necessarily fathom the different levels unless you’ve been immersed in it for some time. Judo is no different. Our perceptions of skill development are more often than not moulded from our experiences in randori and shiai (competition). The argument I’m […]
I have been a martial artist for over 20 years, I have studied over 13 styles and even taught. I went to the extent of learning random rare styles to be outside of the norm, but in recent years I have seen a paradigm shift back to what was probably the norm in the 1970’s. […]
If you’re a recreational player like me, you’ll probably be dabbling in a technique or two for a short period of time. Judo is great for exploring a set movement or technique and then losing yourself down the rabbit hole. Of late, I’ve been dabbling with Koshi Guruma (English translation: Hip Wheel). It might prove […]