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 […]
Categories
Toning down the training
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 […]
Categories
Facing a black belt line-up
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 […]
Categories
The Death of the Casual
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. […]
Categories
The wonders of Koshi Guruma
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 […]
How does AI tie in with our popular past time of Judo? How can it help us get better? What could the future hold for Judo as a sport? Read on and I’ll give you my quick take… Shu Ha Ri There’s a popular Japanese martial arts concept known as Shu Ha Ri. In brief, […]
Recently I entered the Kent International Judo competition here in the UK. It was a hot day, a busy competition and I came in with the worst possible mindset. What followed was a mediocre event for me which led to some rethinking and much needed soul searching. Allow me to elaborate.. The mindset before the […]
When I first ruptured my left distal bicep tendon I scoured the internet for details of what recovery involved. I found a dearth of information about what recovery for a recreational Judo player looked like after a year. This article aims to address that. Time heals all wounds Time heals all wounds provided you undertake […]