November saw a boost in attendance and FINALLY we achieved the much sought after number of 30 people attending the final session of the month. The club actually has 36 members and it would be great if everyone could turn up every week!
We also had similar joy at the DCHS club with numbers peaking at 21. Still more work to do here but everything is going in the right direction.
Jonah at the BJC Open National Championships 2021
At the BJC Open National Championships 2021 on the 21st November, the first major competition in two years, it will not be surprising to know that Jonah entered and took his 16th BJC title and his 18th National Gold (including BJA events).
Jonah @ BJC Open National Championship 2021
Combined Area Grading
The Combined Area Grading took place at St. Albans Judo Club on the 28th November. Five members of our club entered, none of them having contested before and all acquitted themselves well. Because of the nature of a contest grading, only one or two would grade and Isabelle was the one who gets to add a Blue bar to her belt to indicate her success.
James Stockwell was the other who graded and did exceptionally well gaining his Blue belt and garnering positive comments for his contest performance as well as his technique. Sensei was also proud that all demonstrated Kata to a good standard and generally higher than the other contestants from other clubs.
Name
New Grade
Isabelle (DCHS)
3rd Kyu 1 Blue
James Stockwell
2nd Kyu
Jonah Attends the Sunderland Area Grading
Sensei travelled up to Durham for the Cleveland Area grading where they had four 1st Dan men for Jonah to fight. Saturday 4th was spent learning Kaeshi no Kata (counter techniques) and the final set of Katame no Kata (armlocks). Sunday was grading day. The Area Technical Officer really wanted Sensei to referee which Sensei felt was a bit of a problem if his own son was competing, but the ATO said "we know you won't be biased" which resulted in the Referee having to be overly strict in his award of scores. He suffered for that all the way back home.
The end result was that Jonah beat all four opponents and successfully demonstrated Kata to be recommended to the President of the BJC for his 2nd Dan.
Jonah 2nd Dan Grading
For those who don't wish to watch the whole video, Sensei recommends the kata demonstration at 13:27 onwards where you can enjoy Jonah not giving any consideration to his father as he is thrown through the floor (particularly 4th, 5th and 10th techniques).
Kyu Grade Grading
On the 14th December we were honoured to have Steve Rand Sensei, the Area Technical Officer for Bucks visit our club to administer the club grading. The ATO is authorised to award a larger grade advancement than a club coach and this saw many members make big advances in grade. Congratulations to all.
Name
New Grade
Olivia
6th Kyu 2 Green
Catalina
6th Kyu 2 Green
Maxilian
6th Kyu 3 Green
Parker
6th Kyu 1 Blue
Lilly
5th Kyu
Issac
5th Kyu
Anushka
5th Kyu
Sana (DCHS)
5th Kyu 1 Orange
Trisha (DCHS)
5th Kyu 1 Orange
Jogaila
5th Kyu 3 Orange
Jack
5th Kyu 3 Orange
Caterina
4th Kyu
Leyla
4th Kyu
Jack
3rd Kyu
Alex
3rd Kyu
Emily (DCHS)
3rd Kyu
There were some people whom, for various reasons, were unable to attend this grading. After a couple of weeks of training in the new year, Sensei will look to grade them also.
For our last August session we had the honour of Paul Ajala as guest coach. Great guy, great coach. Lots of fun and we all gained. It is great to see different coaching styles which we can all gain from and everyone enjoyed having Paul over. Total of 28 with several of the older Juniors staying over for the Senior session. I hope that Paul, whenever he has the urge, will come and join us again.
Kyu Grade Grading
Well the promised grading was delayed a week until the 20th July in order to get some last bits of training in and it was well worth the delay. Congratulations to all for exceeding Sensei expectations:
Name
Old Grade
New Grade
Marcus
6th Kyu Primary Beginner
6th Kyu 2 Yellow
Isaac
6th Kyu Junior Beginner
6th Kyu 3 Yellow
Hugh
6th Kyu Junior Beginner
6th Kyu 2 Yellow
Louis
6th Kyu Primary Beginner
6th Kyu 2 Green
Parker
6th Kyu Primary Beginner
6th Kyu 2 Green
Harry
6th Kyu 1 Green
5th Kyu
Jogaila
6th Kyu 2 Yellow
5th Kyu
Jack (CSP)
6th Kyu 2 Yellow
5th Kyu 2 Orange
Alexander
6th Kyu 2 Yellow
4th Kyu
Jack (Seer Green)
6th Kyu 2 Orange
4th Kyu
Emily
5th Kyu
4th Kyu
Abbie Burton
5th Kyu
4th Kyu
Isabelle
4th Kyu 2 Green
3rd Kyu
Emma
4th Kyu
3rd Kyu
Mia Zekic
4th Kyu
3rd Kyu (Senior)
Key:
Background colour; no meaning other than to enhance readablity for white and yellow text.
Primary <10, Junior 10-<16, Senior 16+
For child safeguarding purposes, surnames are never used for under 16's.
Beginner; not previously graded.
Bars on belt; there can be none, 1, 2 or 3. They are considered intermediate grades.
Notes:
It is normal for parents to make comparisons with their child to others. In Judo, one of the key philosophies of Jigoro Kano, the founder of Judo, was "do not look at who you are better than today but whether you are better than you were yesterday". This is more relevangt at this time when we have just completed our first grading since returning from the Covid lockdowns. Some members had been active for some time whilst others have only started this year. There are rules and limits to that which Sensei is allowed to grade when not at an Area or National grading.
However, more importantly in the real world, Sensei also has to consider that a grade also signifies to other Judoka the skill/ability level (combined with age and weight) and those who one practices Randori with automatically adjust their ability to match the level of the partner to an extent in order to avoid injury. Many parents have seen what happens even to Sensei when his son throws him with force. It is therefore one of Sensei duties to ensure that the members are graded correctly and with proper consideration to all factors including safety.
The grade is also a statement of where the person is now. We have been through an unusual time and some of the members have kept themselves very focused on fitness and doing whatever Judo training they could during lockdown (eg. Judo in the park last summer) and other members have been less active. By the time we get to the Autumn grading, what may appear as a disparity now will even itself out as regular training provides the natural increase of skills that come with Judo maturity.
April - Back to the Dojo at Last!
Back in the Dojo! It was so good to be back and now, three weeks in the rust has started to fall off and everyone is once more starting to move like Judoka.
Attendance has been good with 15 the first week, rising to 18 the next and 16 for the third. Since then numbers have continued to grow with someone new starting almost every week.
March - Back to Judo in the Park
We started training again! Finally we were allowed to get back to it. Tuesday 30th March at Mill Meadow eleven of us got together and started working on our fitness again and some basic Judo movements. It was good to see those that turned up. Hopefully, the numbers will increase over the next few weeks.
February - It is 2C
We had a LOT of rain. The River Misbourne runs along the Misbourne Valley and whilst it flows at various sections, as it enters Chalfont St. Peter and passes behind The Greyhound, it is dry and doesn't flow again until it exits the village (it is assumed that the water flows underground). However, when we have heavy rain, it flows and sometimes gets very full. Sensei tried singing the song from Frozen, (let it flow, let it flow) but none thought it funny other than he.
So the big question is, why is Sensei going on about this? Has he done something daft again?
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