Big Judo on Tour Plus An Old Friend

A great picture of our man Tony in Fiji. Tony had a great time in Fiji and said the locals looked after him really well.  Big thanks from Big Judo to our Fijian friends for looking after our man.

Reciprocity is a key part of Judo. My experience has been that anywhere in the world you go you will find Judo and the local Judoka will host you well.

Looking after fellow travelers is important. Getting good at Judo means always training with new people. If all Judoka look after each other it makes us all better,

 It's a part of being in the 'Judo club'.

With about 40 million Judo players around the world its a big club.

Finally, some of the University 'prodigal sons' will remember Casino on the left of the photo.  A good Judo player and friend of our crew. He disappeared to the South Island years ago. But he's now up in Fiji. Great to see him again.  Keep in touch mate.

Big Judo Big Boys Howick Success

Big Judo adults did well at Howick. Jordan and Henry showed why they are Black Belts.  Noah, Johan and Jacob fought very well beating higher graded players,  Awesome to see the 'Big' boys having a tussle. Winning is just icing on the cake!

Big Judo Howick Fun Day

A good day on Sunday at the Howick Fun Day.  We had lots of kids and adults fighting. Some key highlights were:

          

• Big Judo took a huge team 33 fighters

• Big Judo had seven girls fighting, this is wonderful because it is very difficult attracting girls and keeping them in Judo. A  group of girls fighting in a reasonably sized 'Girls'  division was neat.  

• At Big Judo a key value we promote is bravery.  A number of our older kids have gone up ages grades recently and have improved in leaps and bounds because they have; been brave. They have learned from their loses and are now starting to win in their age categories - Well done.

•  We had lots of brand new fighters on the mat. It is fantastic for us coaches to see our people getting out there are giving it a go.  Not everyone wins a medal but everyone learns from testing themselves.

•  Finally it was neat seeing our adults well represented. We had some newbies on the mat who did extremely well and Jordan and Henry both had a good time. It was nice to see them on the mat enjoying themselves and doing good Judo.

It was a really good weekend. Thanks heaps those who came we really appreciate the effort you made!

Big Days for Big Judo at the Auckland International Open

We had a big couple of days at the Auckland International Open.  This is New Zealand's biggest competition with:

• Three competition mats in operation all day for two days;
• 360 entries; from
• 11 countries.

It was a weekend for Judo about as good as you will get in New Zealand.

Big Judo took nine competitors to the competition. Eight kids and one adult. Our adult Kyle Leggot demolished the Senior Men's + 100 kg Category, two of our kids won their divisions and everybody wo went learnt a lot about Judo.   

But I was also really happy that we had lots of volunteers helping out (about a dozen people) .  At Big Judo we are proud to be a leader in the Judo community, One of the ways we do this is by being willing and able to 'step up' and support events.

Good work and Thanks Heaps

Big Judo Term Three Starts Now!

Judo starts up again tomorrow. All of our normal classes are taking place even though we have the Auckland International Open this weekend. 

Over the holiday’s the instructors and senior members discussed a number of matters and we are aiming to the achieve the following actions this term:

 Support the Auckland International Open (30-31 July) – We have 8 kids and 1 adult fighting in this competition. It is New Zealand’s biggest competition so it will be great to watch. If you can provide a couple of hour on either day just turn up and we will find work for you!

More mats for Pukekohe – By moving our mats around we can free up another ten mats for Pukekohe.  This will give Pukekohe a mat area the same size as town. Great for growing the seniors out there!

Another night in town – We have enough instructors available and committed in the city that we can now look at another night during the week providing the church has the times available

 Take a big team to the Howick competition (14 August) – This competition is ‘entry level’ and there are ‘white belt’ categories. It is well run and a perfect opportunity for kids and adults to try out competition Judo.

Grow our senior numbers  – The team at Puke have done really well.  We have a regular group of seniors out there now and have kept that class going. We also need to make sure we don’t lose momentum in the city.  So keep telling your mates!

We are looking forward to the term and hope that everybody keeps on supporting us! Thanks heaps 

Big Friend of Big Judo

This week we have had a visit from Mike 'Bondy' Bond. Mike is a 69 year old 6th Dan who was one of Ben and Nelly's instructors for many years.  He is a great guy, good and Judo and very welcome visitor.

Nice to see you Mike.

Big Judo Looking for Top Guns

After the sucess of Pia our German guest instructor we thought we might see if we can find some more Judo tourists interested in working with us here in New Zealand.

We can't offer much we aren't a huge club and your competitive Judo won't get better but we can offer great coaching opportunities with kids and adults in a supportive and friendly environment.

We also have an active social calender and being part of the Big Judo team will provide you with a great range of contacts in New Zealand.

So if you are a:

• Judo Black Belt;
• Have at least reasonable English;  
• Are OK for us to do some background checks;
• Like coaching Judo; and 
• Are keen to visit New Zealand.  

Drop me an email on ben@benstallworthy.com