Longtower Judo - Derry, Northern Ireland

**cam4276** · Posted On: 11/18/2009 4:34am

I have been training at Longtower since June 2009 and this review is based on my experience at the club.

The coach is Jim Toland who is the senior coach for Northern Ireland. Jim has won a number of awards for his coaching work and has built a very successful judo team. In the 2006 commonwealth games of Judo Northern Ireland came second out of 21 countries under Jim's management. He is also a very successful judo player himself and still competes in masters Judo.

The Wednesday classes are sometimes taught by Jim's wife Lisa who is also a very successful Judoka. I believe she trained full time with the British squad at one time and she is a fantastic technical coach and has competed successfully in several major events.

Terry Watt also attends most classes. Terry is a previous Olympic Judo player and was ranked second in the world. He is also the current world masters champion and is 7th Dan.

There are a huge number of guys/girls in the club who are very competitive at all levels (2nd place european masters, UK school games champion, etc) in all age groups.

The club is very competition focused but there is no pressure on anyone to do anything they do not wish to do or to attend classes although squad training is compulsory if you wish to be selected for the Northern Ireland squad.

There are three adult classes a week.
- Monday is a technical night and is held at Longtower community centre,
- Wednesday is a randori night (if Jim is teaching) or a technical night (if Lisa is teaching) and is held at Clondermot school
- Thursday is a randori night and is held at Pilot's Row Community Centre.

There are also childrens classes before the adults classes on Monday and Thursday and these seem to get very good numbers. Some of the young adults I train with who have come up from the childrens classes are very good.

There is a good mix of standup and ground work in the club. I have a blue belt in BJJ and get plenty of game from the black belts in the club.

The club is large so you usually have a good mixture of people below you and above you although sometimes the class can be almost all black belts (but they are not rough with you if you are new).

Overall I think it is a fantastic club and would recommend it to anyone.

**default** · Posted On: 11/18/2009 11:12am

all 10's, that's realistic

**1point2** · Posted On: 11/18/2009 11:34am

Grappling instruction 10 could make sense.

Aliveness does not--that would require strikes. Facilities (equipment and size) does not, since you're scrounging space from community centers and schools. Student/instructor ratio could be a 10, but do you have hard numbers to back it up?

This sounds like a good club. There's no need to inflate the numbers. Really. Read the stickies and re-rate the school with realistic ratings.

**cam4276** · Posted On: 11/19/2009 3:46am

Why does aliveness = strikes.

Aliveness means training in a manner where your opponent is resisting at various levels up to full resistance to ensure your techniques really work under pressure.

If aliveness = strikes then BJJ and judo cannot be alive. If this is how you interpreted what Mat was saying then maybe you need to go and watch the video again.

As for the training areas we have a permanently set up Dojo with four full size fighting areas three mats deep held in place by wooden surrounds. I believe the reason some classes are held in other locations simply because of the political situation here where people prefer to train in certain areas. When i said the class is held at clondermot school, it is no longer a functioning school. It is the headquarters for Judo in Northern Ireland (the permanent dojo i was referring to.

As for student instructor ratio, at the Wednesday class last night there were six of us and two instructors (Wednesday gets less people because it is an "extra" class). Also i have had an entire session where i was one-on-one with Terry Watt (a former olympian who won the european masters last weekend). At many of the regular classes there are a number of people ranked 3rd dan and above who are also referees. While they do not usually instruct the entire class (this is left to Jim) they certainly teach you plenty when you are partnered with them.

For equipment being a ten. They have 60,000 pounds (about 120,000 dollars) worth of mats. More than i have even seen in my life in every club i have ever stepped foot in. This includes judo mats and crash mats.

I believe my scores are justified. I really cant see how they could improve in any area except to always train at the permanent location (I will make it an 8 because of this). Perhaps someone else who has attended the club could provide some feedback. There must be someone else here who has been there before. I certainly tried to make this review unbiased.

**Rene "Zendokan" Gysenbergs** · Posted On: 11/19/2009 5:31am

Aliveness =/= add striking
Aliveness = training against a full resistant opponent, so 10 for Judo is OK.

Grappling = 10 --> OK, it's a grappling sport (if there's a 50/50% between tach-waza and ne-waza) else drop the number to 7.

Equipment = while it's got a great "judo" training facility (the tatami of 60.000 £), are there showers, is there a kettlebell program and/or gym equiptment, sauna? Some extra's to add to the Judo training like powertraining? If yes, keep the 10 else go to 8.

**cam4276** · Posted On: 11/19/2009 5:42am

Originally Posted by Zendokan

Equipment = while it's got a great "judo" training facility (the tatami of 60.000 £), are there showers, is there a kettlebell program and/or gym equiptment, sauna? Some extra's to add to the Judo training like powertraining? If yes, keep the 10 else go to 8.

All of the facilities have toilets and showers (for men and woman). They dont have kettlebells, gym equipment or a sauna but they do have cargo nets, climbing ladders, etc for conditioning training which they use during squad training but not during normal classes. Anyone can attend squad training you do not have to be part of the national squad. I will drop it to a 9 due to the lack of gym equipment.

**1point2** · Posted On: 11/19/2009 7:41am

The clarifications for equipment, gym size, instructor attention are excellent and sound awesome. This is much more informative.

Aliveness defined in the context of dojo reviews:
Ratings and You --- Read This Before Posting Your Review. - No BS MMA and Martial Arts
RATINGS: How Do Aliveness.....does your school look like this? - No BS MMA and Martial Arts

If you disagree, the place to do so would be a Support Forum thread, or a PM to ErikW & Phrost, I imagine.

**Rene "Zendokan" Gysenbergs** · Posted On: 11/19/2009 9:17am

Originally Posted by 1point2

The clarifications for equipment, gym size, instructor attention are excellent and sound awesome. This is much more informative.

Aliveness defined in the context of dojo reviews:
Ratings and You --- Read This Before Posting Your Review. - No BS MMA and Martial Arts
RATINGS: How Do Aliveness.....does your school look like this? - No BS MMA and Martial Arts

If you disagree, the place to do so would be a Support Forum thread, or a PM to ErikW & Phrost, I imagine.

Change the Aliveness to 9.
While I'm not agreeing with this definition of aliveness, this would be more the definition of Realistic, I see no good coming from re-evaluating all the previous schools if Phrost would add "Realistic" to the choices besides Aliveness.

**It is Fake** · Posted On: 11/19/2009 9:23am

Originally Posted by Zendokan

Change the Aliveness to 9.
While I'm not agreeing with this definition of aliveness, this would be more the definition of Realistic, I see no good coming from re-evaluating all the previous schools if Phrost would add "Realistic" to the choices besides Aliveness.

If you read the ratings guide it would be a nine. The videos depict a BJJ tournament, a Boxing match, and a Muay Thai match in the 8-9 category.

Both rules links explain, it is the totality of the gym not a rating on the art itself. IMO that is where the problem is occurring. Judo is a 100% alive art. The gym is missing a range in training. If I understand correctly, it doesn't get a 10 under current bullshido ratings policy. If the gym had a striking class, in totality it would receive a 10. I moved the complaint thread to the Support forum for further discussion.

Let's take the discussion there and quit shitting up his review thread.