First Judo Tournament yesterday 10/15/06

[rush2024]

As mentioned in previous posts, I began Judo at the beginning of August this year, at the ripe old age of 34. Having had a wrestling and karate background in a previous life, I wasn't a complete noob to the idea, but not far from it.

This Sunday was my first tourney, the Great Lakes Open in Ypsilanti, Michigan. About a dozen members of our club participated, and at least 8 medaled in various ages and weights. I personally took Second in Masters medium division, which was an amalgamation of a couple of divisions. This is not as impressive as it sounds, as there were only four in the division.

As a whitebelt, I won my first match, againt a green belt. This too is not as impressive as it sounds at first, because I didn't actually Judo the guy, but rather caught him while he was doing a technique then pinned him with a basic chest to chest hold. It really went very fast and I don't remember a whole lot.

As an aside, the green belt was a very sociable guy. It was his first tournament as well, and in general the atmosphere was very collegial.

I lost in the second, and final, bout to a 240 lb high school wrestling coach (I weighed in at 210 - the lower weight class). I noticed a lot of wrestling type things going on; however, I was still pinned in the first round and basically beasted.

All in all this was great experience and a lot of fun. However, I'll have to see about sliding into the senior division to get more fights at next year's tournament.

I know this thread's useless without pics. I'll see if any one taped it. Regardless, a photo should appear on the club's web site, which I'll link to when its updated. Further, the tournament directors would have records of the bout (which is kinda throwing PERSEC out the window, but anyway . . . )

Its not the same as the hardcore fighting alot of people here engage in, but for these old bones its probably as rough as its going to get.

[benonmsn]

congrats on your win!

train more and do better next time