January News
This month started quite quietly with various members attacked by Omicron and others relying upon the famed feeble excuse of 'exams'. However, by the middle of the month numbers picked up into the high 20's and once again we had bustling busy sessions with more new members joining us.
Whilst January may well be the quiet cold month for most, in the Judo world it is the time to prepare for competition. These will be announced shortly and opportunities will abound for members to try out their skill in order to test their real ability.
February News
Just before half term we hit the jackpot! 34 attended one Tuesday evening (clearly there was nothing better to do). It was very busy, enjoyable and satisfying for Sensei. To have such a busy mat makes the effort worthwhile. However, after that, the numbers tailed off again as people wasted their time visiting the piste and other similar activities. Sensei is sad, he has not been skiing for many a year. If only some parent took him instead and left their offspring to fend for themselves for a week...
The start of the month also saw another enjoyable event. A competition! So Sensei drove up to Leicester one Saturday morning to spend the day waving his arms around. Good to be back to refereeing.
March News
The first is that on the 19th March Sensei visited North Birmingham Judo Club with Jonah and gave a course on Kaeshi no Kata, the forms of counter attacking. Apparently (from the comments on Facebook) everyone enjoyed it and several gained great pleasure from watching Jonah hammering his father into the ground.
The head coach of this club, (far left, next to Sensei) wrote "Many thanks to David and his son Jonah for delivering an excellent Kaeshi-no-Kata seminar this morning at North Birmingham Judo Club. Great technical content and delivery. Plus some randori at the end so members could put the techniques to practical use". What he failed to comment on was the extensive knowledge of the classical music repertoire that was demonstrated.
The second exciting matter took place on the next day, the 20th March at the Southampton Samurai championship where Olivia, in her first competition, won the Bronze. This was an excellent result and she came back very excited, elated and eager for more.
April News
The BIG EVENT had its day. The Chalfont Championships 2022 took place on the 23rd April and was once again the BIGGEST event to occur not in Chalfont (but at the Evreham Sports Centre Iver). 168 contestants fought for the fabulous medals featuring Mifune 10th Dan who is referred to as the 'god of Judo' such was his technical skill and contest ability that he was never defeated and was almost impossible to throw. Also crammed into the hall were over 200 spectators plus the fantastic team of referees, table officials and other helpers without whom we could not hold such an event.
Our club did rather well as you can see below:
Name |
Category |
Position |
Hugh |
Novice Male 10-15 45-50Kg |
Gold |
Anusri |
Novice Female 10-15 35-40Kg |
Silver |
Christopher |
Novice Male 8-9 45-50Kg |
Silver |
Nicola Cleary (ex-DCHS) |
Senior Female 1-2Kyu 55-90Kg |
Silver |
Rishika |
Primary Female 5-8 10-40Kg |
Bronze |
Louis |
Primary Male 8-9 40-45Kg |
Bronze |
Alex |
Junior Male 10-15 60-65Kg |
Bronze |
Jack |
Junior Male 10-15 60-65Kg |
Bronze |
Jaishna |
Novice Female 10-15 35-40Kg |
Bronze |
Harry |
Novice Male 10-15 45-50Kg |
Bronze |
Alistair |
Novice Male 10-15 25-30Kg |
Bronze |
Emma (DCHS) |
Junior Female 10-15 50-55kg |
Bronze |
Emily (DCHS) |
Junior Female 10-15 50-55kg |
Bronze |
Olivia |
Primary Female 5-8 25-30kg |
Bronze |
Of course at this time one has to get the obligatory photo:
There are four absences in the picture, but they contested and did well. My thanks for Jogilia for pretending to be Christopher who is currently absent with an injury, we wish him a quick recovery.
It is important for me to mention the clubs grateful thanks to those who helped on the Friday in getting things ready, on the day and again on the Monday in finishing up the return of items. Without this help, the event would not happen.
Friday setup during the day, Jonah for taking time off from the writing off assignments to help me shift the mats and chairs. Friday evening to Grace Constable, Emily, Jacque Purnell, Vicky Harriman, Chandra Addepalli, Mr. Gillmartin, Shona Alfert, Noah Alfert (on IT) and Lorraine Alfert.
Saturday during the actual event, Noah on weigh-in, Lorraine and Shona Alfert in the cafe, Vicky Harriman on reception, Emma, Jacque Purnell with the cafe. Also and very importantly (or there would not have been any event; Bob and Ricky Cleevely, Gareth and Stephen Merredew, Roger Harris and Sensei as Referees, Liz O'Neal, Jo Merredew, Simone Strong as Table Officials and Danny McIntosh for the annoucements. Also the UCL team and several others, especially Mr. Gillmartin for loading the mats into the van (and unloading the Chalfont ones).
On the Monday to Lorraine Alfert for returning the chairs to the Evreham Adult Education Centre and loading the DCHS chairs and Jonah for helping me unload the mats and chairs at DCHS.
These events are exhausting and take a lot of time. We do it because we wish to further the club members Judo (which is why Sensei tries hard to encourage everyone to give them a go) and they also support the clubs finances thereby keeping the membership fees at the very low level they are. Hopefully next year the entries from the club will be rather greater.
May News
This month didn't see very much of excitement for the club so instead, Sensei is going to tell you about his exciting weekend of the 14th:
It was a dark and stormy night as I drove off to Birmingham and booked myself into a local hotel. Actually it wasn't that stormy at all but writing "it was a dark night" isn't as dramatic. Saturday morning Sensei headed to the Wolvehamnpton University Walsall Campus where the Jamie MacDonald Brain Cancer Championship took place. This is an event that Sensei has involved himself in every year in memory to our own Grace Gaskell who tragically passed away in late 2020 from this vile disease and thereby depriving her family, friends and our club of a joyful, dedicated, charming and committed young lady who was ripped from her family far to early and is dearly missed.
The event was smaller than pre-Covid years but was nevertheless of a decent size spread over four mats. Not only did Sensei referee but he was joined by two other BJC refs. who served for the whole day and whose efforts and skill was praised by the RIC (Referee in Charge). It is not true that she said "those other two BJC refs. are really pretty good, it is a shame about you David". Sensei was even given the honour of handing out the medals at the end of the event although this was a bit problematic when the taller players, standing on the podium had to bend over double for him to reach to pass the ribbon over their heads.
As soon as this event finished Sensei drove up to Leeds with another BJC referee, Matt Hope in preparation for Sunday. The next day Matt and Sensei attended Ichiban Judo Club Dojo in North Leeds where they proceeded to run a training course for 12 people starting at 9:20am. At 8:20pm when Sensei finally said "we've finished"! The rush for the door was striking to observe. Overall the day was a success but there was a lot to learn for both the attendees and for Matt and Sensei as they were trailing the new BJC Referee training course for the first time. Adjustments will be made and the day will be shortened. It was clear that 11 hours was far to long.
At the end of this long day, Sensei and Matt drove back to Walsall where Matt left Sensei to make his lonely way to Bristol. Both arrived at their homes around 1am thereby demonstrating great commitment to the cause.
Was this all?
Tuesday 24th saw the Chalfont club session take place as per normal. As soon as the club was finished and all the mats put away, Sensei went home, had a quick shower, packed and got in the car to go to Cromer in Norfolk. Expecting to get there between 11-midnight he was stymied by finding the main road from Newmarket to Norwich closed for roadworks and he was forced to drive along minor roads stuck behind slow moving lorries. Arriving at the campsite at 1:50am he put his tent up and settled down to sleep at 2:30am.
The next morning (Wednesday) he got up and sorted himself out to get to the BJC Cromer course, now running again for the first time since the Covid outbreak. In the morning he took part in the Table Officials course (something he had not done before) and in the afternoon led the Referee training course which was attended by a slightly disappointing three people. The next day (Thursday) he again led the training course on the mat based segment but noted that he had lost one potential trainee. Never mind, the course completed at lunchtime and in the afternoon the two remaining candidates took the two exams just leaving the practical for the Friday.
The next day at the National Grading David assessed the two candidates and with both of them passing all parts of the assessment, the BJC now has another two referees to add to the cohort.
June News
After the excitement of May, June has been relativily calm except for the elevated stress levels of Sensei as he tries to get everyone ready for the grading. Sensei is always frustrated at these times and becomes tetchy as he tries to get a group to demonstrate techniques that they have already learnt and demonstrated many times before and proceeds to watch half a dozen different versions of wrong. But it always gets sorted out in the end and this time was no different. Sensei is looking forward to the grading confident that everyone will do themselves, the club and Sensei proud (and let's not forget the parents).
July News
Well what has happened this month? Quite a lot really! For a start we had our grading for those below 3rd Kyu (Green belt). For this, Steve Rand 2nd Dan, the Bucks Area Technical Officer paid us a visit in order to oversee the grading and ensure that standards are maintained. He was impressed with the progress of all which is evident in the advances that can be seen below.
Chalfont Members (dark background is only to make the white and yellow text readable):
Name |
Old Grade |
New Grade |
Alex |
6th Kyu |
6th Kyu 2 Orange |
Daniel |
6th Kyu |
6th Kyu 3 Green |
Olivia |
6th Kyu 2 Green |
6th Kyu 2 Blue |
Catalina |
6th Kyu 2 Green |
6th Kyu 1 Blue |
Maxi |
6th Kyu 3 Green |
5th Kyu 1 Orange |
Parker |
6th Kyu 1 Blue |
5th Kyu 1 Orange |
Ian |
6th Kyu |
5th Kyu |
Christopher |
5th Kyu |
5th Kyu 3 Orange |
Lilly |
5th Kyu |
4th Kyu |
Jack |
5th Kyu 3 Orange |
4th Kyu |
Jaishna |
5th Kyu |
4th Kyu |
Anushka |
5th Kyu |
4th Kyu |
Alistair |
5th Kyu |
4th Kyu |
Robert |
5th Kyu |
4th Kyu |
Jogaila |
5th Kyu 3 Orange |
4th Kyu |
Anusri |
5th Kyu |
4th Kyu |
Leyla |
4th Kyu |
3rd Kyu |
DCHS Members (dark background is only to make the white and yellow text readable):
Name |
Old Grade |
New Grade |
Saamya |
6th Kyu |
5th Kyu |
Eshika |
6th Kyu |
5th Kyu |
Agam |
6th Kyu |
5th Kyu |
Chelini |
6th Kyu |
5th Kyu |
Jakin |
6th Kyu |
6th Kyu 3 Yellow |
Gayatri |
6th Kyu |
5th Kyu |
Emily |
6th Kyu |
5th Kyu |
Aanhita |
6th Kyu |
5th Kyu |
Anandi |
6th Kyu 3 Yellow |
5th Kyu 2 Orange |
Trisha |
5th Kyu 1 Orange |
4th Kyu |
Sana |
5th Kyu 1 Orange |
4th Kyu |
Caterina |
4th Kyu |
3rd Kyu |
Is this all? No. Unfortunately, July also marked the end of the DCHS Judokwai. To celebrate a decade of this club where more than 200 have tried Judo out and over 100 stuck to it for at least a year, where some have entered National competition (and gained medals), several have attended national courses, coaching courses and more, we decided to run a mini-competition for the club members and the results are as below:
Low Grade group 1:
Anushka |
Gold |
Ruchithaa |
Silver |
Chelini |
Bronze |
Saamya |
Bronze |
Low Grade group 2:
Gayatri |
Gold |
Eshika |
Silver |
Jakin |
Bronze |
Emily C |
Bronze |
Mid-Grade:
Caterina |
Gold |
Trisha |
Silver |
Anandi |
Bronze |
High Grade:
Saffron Chalfont |
Gold |
Mia Zekic |
Silver |
Emily G |
Bronze |
July also saw the hottest days ever with temperatures over 40C. Nevertheless Judo carries on, albeit with significantly reduced numbers. For the hottest day, we kept the session to low pressure with more technical work on the ground which will provide a good grounding for future development.
August News
Well what has happened this month?
It was the summer month and lots of people went on holiday. This was disappointing for Sensei who ran the club for all but one Tuesday as the attendance was almost half of the same month last year. Nevertheless, for all but one week we were in double figures and on the 23rd August, we actually had 17 attend which was impressive and made for a good session.
Sensei apologises to those who attended on the 2nd August. An update was sent out by newsletter and SMS but it appears that some people didn't get this and turned up. The reason why there was no session on the first week of the month was because Sensei was in Scotland where he said "och aye the noo" to a lot of people and none had a clue what he was on about (and neither did he). In fact, a quick check of "13 things you should NEVER say to a Scotsman" reveals that Sensei said 7 of them - tactful as
always.
Sensei and his good lady climbed up a mountain in Kintyre in order to get the 'remarkable view of Arran' only to find that when they got to the top, they could barely see each other let alone anything further than 100m. Then they went to a waterlogged campsite in Fort William where Lorraine flatly refused to get out of the car until the tent was fully assembled and on the final day, ended up in a very nice castle courtesy of some friends who felt sorry for Lorraine being stuck in a tent because of her nasty husband. All in all we had a very good time including a visit to the Highland Soap Factory where a remarkable quantity of soap was purchased (at a remarkable price).
The only other exciting news is that Sensei and Jonah are almost finished in developing their new Kata which will of course, be ground breaking, something that has never been done before and potentially even sensible (a real first).
September News
Jonah had to go back to Durham Uni. mid-September and so it was decided that on-route (sort of) we would visit Ben Nevis and climb it. Why not, it ain't that high. So on the 17th we drove up to Fort William and arrived with just five minutes to go before the resturant closed. After that we put up the tent whilst Sensei wife sat in the car, refusing to budge until everything was ready. Next morning a quick visit to M&S to acquire lunch whereupon Jonah and Sensei started to climb. Not Lorraine, she took a boat trip to look at seals and Golden Eagles.
Around a third of the way up Sensei was berated by his son for 'losing his mojo' and having 'mental weakness' which is an outrageous suggestion with no evidence in support. Little allowance was made for the father being three times the age of the son but we plodded on.
After five hours, we made it to the top and enjoyed stunning views:
There is beginning to be a theme here when also looking at last months newsletter!
The way down was a bit better:
For proof that this is what Lorraine was subjected to:
Then we drove to Durham, offloaded Jonah and came home.
On the Judo front the club started the new term and attendance started very nicely and then dropped a bit. People kept on making silly excuses like 'studying', 'homework' and 'exams' but Sensei didn't buy any of this.
October News
This month has seen a sudden boost in people wanting to join our thriving club. This has resulted in very healthy numbers with the mat full despite several people missing each week for various almost justifiable reasons for missing Judo. Some people have even claimed that Sensei makes it 'fun'.
We also had an interest in the Senior session starting with one person but apparently now growing rapidly as Sensei has been going around the village harrassing many people to start.
November News
Two from our club entered the Southampton Samurai in the 13th November and both, on their very first competition, did VERY well.
- Catalina was first up in the Primary Girls category and she was in a pool of 5 so had four contests. She lost the first contest to an experienced contestant who 'does the circuit' but won her other three contests to take the Silver. You can see the video of her contests by clicking here.
- Next up was Maxi who unfortunately was in a pool of his own. Well obviously he can't fight himself (although knowing him, he would have a good try) so they moved him into the next heavier category where he had two people to contest with. Losing one but winning one, he was awarded the Gold for his own category and you can see the video of his contests by clicking here.
Catalina with her Silver |
Maxi with his Gold |
The following week was the BJC Closed National Championships which Jonah Alfert entered in the under 73Kg Dan grades and also in the Open category (not limited by weight and therefore he would contest anyone within that category). Jonah once again took the Gold in the main event notching up his 19th National Gold and with a bit of a farce, took the Bronze in the Open. There were 7 entrants for the Open category which was organised as a straight knockout. In the first round, as Jonah was the lightest, he was the 'odd' man and had a 'bye' which means that he automatically went through to the second round thereby guaranteeing him a bronze. His next contest was against Harry Stone from the Isles of Scilly who weighed in 15Kg heavier. Jonah lost to him and Harry went on to take the Silver, losing to Tom Lish who was
another 15Kg again heavier (at 103kg). Video of Jonah's contests can be seen by clicking here.
The following week was the Combined Area Grading which Tom Hargreaves entered looking to gain promotion to black belt. He won his first contest in short order but unfortunately came unstuck at the next. Nevertheless, he was looking good and Sensei is confident that with a bit more work he will succeed.
Our Senior session doubled in size which is great.
December News
13th December was our GRADING day. As is typical, Sensei was in a terrible mood, feeling full of stress as he wanted to see everyone do their best. Naturally, as in previous gradings, he watched twenty different variations of wrong. But, like a rainbow after a terrible storm, by the time we finished (rather late), enough had been extracted of the required standard so that everyone could go home proud. Including Sensei.
It is worth stating here a quick note of the Oriental difference to a grading from the occidental (Western) perspective:
- Here in the West, people are assessed at regular intervals to see how they are doing and are marked accordingly. This is all very good and proper and if Billy does well it is because he is studious and makes effort and if Fred does poorly it is because he is lazy and day dreams.
- However in the Oriental (at least the traditional version), a Sensei puts a person forward for assessment (grading) when he considers that they are ready and if they do well it is a positive reflection upon Sensei and if the students do poorly, Sensei is a real FAIL and should possibly be shot, excomunicated (if he is lucky) and at the very least, face ridicule from his peers (in this instance, Branko, Bob and Roy Smith). There is also the risk that the Area Technical Officer (Steve Rand - who oversaw our grading) will consider that he needs to write a report to BJC HQ in order to seek assistance in improving the standard.
- So you will understand that Sensei takes gradings seriously and works hard to make sure that everyone is ready to grade... and then proceeds to fall into a vortex of dispair as he watches it all fall to pieces - whereupon, somehow, gloriously, it all rises up and ends okay.
The results of a pretty impressive grading (both in terms of numbers attending and results achieved):
[Dark background is only to make the white and yellow text readable]
Name |
Old Grade |
New Grade |
Natalie |
6th Kyu |
6th Kyu 1 Orange |
Peter |
6th Kyu |
6th Kyu 1 Orange |
Pavit |
6th Kyu |
6th Kyu 1 Orange |
Alex |
6th Kyu 2 Orange |
6th Kyu 1 Green |
Zac |
6th Kyu |
6th Kyu 3 Green |
Daniel |
6th Kyu 3 Green |
6th Kyu 2 Blue |
Catalina |
6th Kyu 1 Blue |
6th Kyu 2 Blue |
Elisa |
6th Kyu |
5th Kyu |
Michael |
6th Kyu |
5th Kyu |
Sofia |
6th Kyu |
5th Kyu |
Sanjana |
6th Kyu |
5th Kyu |
Adithyaa |
6th Kyu |
5th Kyu 1 Orange |
Eshika |
5th Kyu |
5th Kyu 3 Orange |
Ian |
5th Kyu |
5th Kyu 3 Orange |
Parker |
5th Kyu 1 Orange |
5th Kyu 3 Orange |
Maxilian |
5th Kyu 1 Orange |
5th Kyu 3 Orange |
Anahita |
5th Kyu |
4th Kyu 1 Green |
Agam |
5th Kyu |
4th Kyu 1 Green |
Robert |
4th Kyu |
4th Kyu 2 Green |
Jogaila |
4th Kyu |
4th Kyu 2 Green |
Trisha |
4th Kyu |
3rd Kyu |
Anushka |
4th Kyu |
3rd Kyu |
Anusri |
4th Kyu |
3rd Kyu |
Johnny Mitchell |
6th Kyu |
5th Kyu |
Rabih Beaini |
6th Kyu |
5th Kyu |
The week after the grading was our final session before Xmas and fun was had by all who attended. Sensei was a bit disappointed as quite a few were missing who had clearly gone away on holiday and once again not invited him. Anyway, substantial amounts of chocolate were dispensed to the various winners of the various silly competitions, eg. who can do the most sit-ups, the most squats and more.
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