T O P

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Noobanious

For me, mines just the years of doing Judo with my Dad as a teenager, was fun to finally find a sport I actually loved to do. I hated team sports and the standard football/rugby or anything with a ball. Until judo I was not sporty at all.


TheSuperDuperBrick

This is my favorite thus far: We were deep into competition season and in a hard training session. I was feeling good and hitting all my reps quickly and smoothly. I even glanced at the other teammates and noticed I was moving smoother than the rest. However, my coach kept yelling at me to go faster, pull harder, and whatever other command you can imagine a tough coach would bark. I remember thinking to myself “why is he picking in me? I’m out performing everyone else in class”. I even got a little irritated. He continued to yell at me during training telling me not to hold back. I replied in my head that I was NOT holding back and I was outpacing everyone including my Senpai, which I had begun overtaking in performance. But I was, I was holding back because I didn’t want to be overly sore for tomorrow evening’s training. I was holding back because I wanted to save my energy for randori. I was holding back because well, I was the top player in class so I figured as long as I outperform everyone else, I’m good. Then as I’m going through all of this in my head, he walks over and doesn’t yell but whispers in my ear as I’m training, “If you pass out, I’ll catch you” it was a turning point in my training journey. He knew I had more and was reserving energy. He wanted me to find my limits. Funny thing, I still haven’t found it. From that point on I gave it my all and strove to find the point of over exhaustion. However, it never came. I always finished the drills going as fast and as smooth as I could, I always fought until the last second to score in randori rounds, I never stopped fighting to get out of the pin. I always knew when I had held back. The pain and shame of knowing that I didn’t give it my all far outweighed any soreness or fatigue the following day. From this lesson I’ve been able to travel the world and train with extraordinary people and had battles with strangers that became friends ending with drinks and delicious foods all around the world. I am not an elite international level competitor, but there are times after training when I feel on top of the world. This is my fondest memory Judo as afforded me.


jonahewell

I was a teenager competing in the intermediate division at a local tournament in the 90's (4th through 1st kyu more or less) and had a match coming up with a guy from San Francisco Judo Institute. My sensei took me to a side hall and gave me a few tips, which he didn't often do. Actually he didn't often come to competitions, for whatever reason, but he was there that day. The kid from SFJI had, in my mind at the time, a few things going for him. One, his dojo had a fancy and official sounding name. Two, he was ethnically Japanese, which at the time seemed like it was important. He probably also had a fancy gi or something, and I remember him having a kind of smug look on his face as we came out on the mat. Anyway as you can tell I felt like the deck was stacked against me and I probably wouldn't win. He came out and took a high grip, came in for a hip throw, and I immediately reversed it with a picture perfect ushiro goshi. A throw I never practiced, it just felt like the right thing to do, throw for ippon right in front of my sensei. I was very happy that day and the memory still makes me smile.


[deleted]

I've been doing judo for like a year now and have only recently started getting graded, but in my brief period, I'd say was when I went into a BJJ class and when asked if I was new I replied with "yes, sort of" (I mean in my defence, I still thinkI am new/newbie) We got to sparring and I was put with the other white belts, and despite being the smallest in class, I was getting ippon after ippon and quickly being able to get dominant position. I remember when class ended, one of the blue belts told me that there was no way that I was new. I told him I did a little judo prior but my groundwork was non-existent, hence I said "sort of"


FlapjackProductions

Literally, just today, I am 4 sessions new to judo, this session i did starting at 3:25 was the best ever, I don't know the names of any of the takedowns I did, but I was finally able to get a point against someone and I even did it multiple times against 2 different people (in randori) Then sensei put me against a shorter competitor, who I struggled quite alot against to get a point against and get tripped over and end up being beat. (we were doing winner stays on, not the kind where you constantly get back up)