While attending the recent Judo World Championships in Tokyo with four of my junior players, one of them turned to me and said, “They don’t seem to be trying to get out of pins.” I had noticed that as well over the years, and had a pretty good idea why this was so.
Continue readingStubborn is an adjective that is sometimes used to describe me. After years of futile attempts to get some of my kids’ mothers to try Judo, I decided that a different approach was needed. One thing I was convinced about was that my moms did want to do Judo, in spite of saying they didn’t or that they would never do it. Yet talking to them and observing them as they watched their kids perform in class only reaffirmed my conviction that all we needed to do was change the setting before some of them would actually get on the mat and roll around with us.
I was minding my own business from the sideline, monitoring the adults who were doing randori. One of my players had scrambled off the mat to get away from a disadvantageous ne waza situation. His training partner, a former Navy SEAL and jiujitsu black belt, mocking his manhood screamed “Coward!”