Saturday, 22 February 2020

Big Week at Big Judo



It was a big week at Big Judo this week.  We had plenty of good strong classes and even better old friends visited and trained with us.  

Shaun Walton, a friend for about thirty years visited both Pukekohe and Sandringham and had a couple of good sessions with the team.  In the early 90s Shaun and I used to travel down regularly   from University Judo Club to support training at Pukekohe Judo Club. 

So it brought back many, many fond memories, It was great see Shaun again and we shared a toast to absent friends Rick and Daniel.  

Katsuyoshi Saegusa was our second visitor. It is always awesome to have Yoshi on the mat. In his youth he was a top competitor in Japan then moved to New Zealand. In his day he was probably the best tachi waza (stand up fighting) fighter in New Zealand. He has the classical Japanese style of tachi waza that we try to teach at Big Judo.  So we were pleased to host him and let him coach the team on Saturday. Thanks Yoshi you also brought back many fond Judo memories. 

Scott learning about being Yoshis demo partner.  I remember being in the same position myself about 30 years ago!
It was really nice to have Yoshi and Shaun at training.  We have known each other for more than 30 years and it was wonderful to reminisce, catch and and share Judo with the next generation. And of course, afterwards we went out together for dinner and drinks.  

Reminded us of what Judo is about... people, especially training the next generation. 

Speaking of which here are some photos of the next generation in action both in town and in Pukekohe. The best bit of course is the old and young instructors helping out.  Awesome!!





Sunday, 9 February 2020

Big Judo Saturday Session


The big boys and girls of Big Judo were in action this Saturday. We had a great relaxed friendly session with lots of randori.  A good time. 

Saturday, 1 February 2020

Big Judo Starts 2020

2020 has started well for Big Judo.  Out in Pukekohe we are currently registering new adults. The adult class there is  going really well with nice supportive group of Seniors working together. We also had a strong first kids class which is awesome. 

In town the kids have kicked off and we had a nice first class for the year,  See the photo above.

The Seniors in town are looking exciting too. Noah Walliss has been back in town. It is awesome to have the big guy here and we have a nice group of teenagers supported by our club silver backs following his development.  With patience and little luck it looks like we have the potential to develop a few more competitive players this year. 



Nellie keeping a close eye of the seniors while they do ne waza (ground fighting)
Our biggest objective this year though is to consolidate our technical game.  We have a number of Blue Belts aiming for Brown Belt and a couple of Brown Belts looking at Black.  We also have some Black Belts keen to move up in Dan,  We don't give out grades easily at Big but we are getting to the stage where we are going to have few people moving up.   

The aim is to strengthen both ends (i.e. beginners and advanced players) and and keep working to the strategy we originally set.