Shona's Story
I first started Judo when I was a small midget of a timid nine year old. Previously, I had been doing Karate for a couple of years and whilst I had progressed to about the fourth belt, I was still, as my Dad says, 'punching the air'. It was a rare and special time when the Sensei would get out the thick black gloves into which we would punch and kick. So when he heard about the Judo club run by Roy Sensei and remembered his own happy successful years of Judo as a young lad with a Blue belt, he took my brother, Noah and I along with him.
I am 14 now and Noah is 12. My other (younger) brother, Jonah, who is nine does it also and my Mum comes along to the Senior sessions occasionally as well. My dad now teaches and is a Black belt. I am now a Green belt with 3 Brown stripes and am a year and a half ahead of where I should be for my age. I now train once a week and often twice a week if I can.
Judo has given me confidence, strength, knowledge, insight into Japanese, friends, safety, fitness but most importantly, I can now defend myself. I would say that out of most martial arts, Judo is definitely the most useful in terms of practicality because once one is taught how to fall without hurting yourself, safely, we do full body contact fighting from the start, which definitely gives an insight into what it would be like in a real-life fight. The lessons are cheap, the doing is fun, you get to make new friends, become fit in all areas of the body..... If any of this appeals to you, I would like to say on behalf of the club, come along and learn Judo!
Shona 3rd Kyu 3 Brown |