Any Judo Players?

[BBAddict]

Originally posted by therock
What happened to orange belt? You skip that too? Also I like teakwondo but the onlything I dont like is the fact that they make you black belt so fast. I mean within a year or year and a half you can become a black belt. Depending on who is your sensey. For someone in Judo it would take anywhere between 5-10yrs b4 you become black belt 1st dan. You have to learn Japanease in order to advance from belt to belt. But either way, good luck bro and I think you need to spar or as they say in Japan Yrondory.

1-1.5 years!! There's no way my dojang would let anybody do that. There was a black belt test tonight and I know two of the people had been studying for 6 years to become a black belt 1st dan. I think thats the way it should be. I know some schools give belts too easily-thats why I picked a school very carefully.
We seem to have extra belts-the belt progression is white, yellow, gold, orange, green, blue, purple, brown, red, red w/ black stripe and then black. Does that seem like more than you're used to seeing?

[therock]

Yeah it does. Ours is white,yellow, orange,green,blue,purple (purple is only if you are 16 or under,brown 3types b4 black, then black 1st dan. All belts also have 3stripes of the next color b4 you can move on to the next belt. Thats good that your school does it that way bro. Cause too many I know around here had them over w/o actually knowing the stuff. It really does depend on who is teaching you.

[hlcn8]

Originally posted by therock
What happened to orange belt? You skip that too? Also I like teakwondo but the onlything I dont like is the fact that they make you black belt so fast. I mean within a year or year and a half you can become a black belt. Depending on who is your sensey. For someone in Judo it would take anywhere between 5-10yrs b4 you become black belt 1st dan. You have to learn Japanease in order to advance from belt to belt. But either way, good luck bro and I think you need to spar or as they say in Japan Yrondory.

yeah, some schools are no better than gyms in terms of recruitment and retention techniques, they're belt mills in that they know they won't maintain the interest of the majority of participants if they have to actually dedicate themselves to it and take time in doing so, so they create a bullshit system of belt awarding and produce incompetent people, with no self discipline, who think they world of themselves. It's funny though because as a bouncer i've had to deal with a few of those, and you can see their shock at not being able to do shit and the fact that i know practically every counter to the simplistic techniques they try to use...
I once had an aikido teacher tell me that progress in that art form is measured not in years, but in decades... but there's something to be said for it. by that point things are actually ingrained in your muscle memory, and you react instinctively with little prompting.
as another sensei once told me; the japanese can make an artform out of taking out the trash, interesting society and i hope to visit there someday.

[therock]

Yeah I want to visit there aswell. Also I agree totally bro on your post.

[BBAddict]

I visited Japan last year for the first time and both the martial arts and their entire society are something you have to see first hand to appreciate. I will definitely go there again and would recommend it to anybody considering it. I spent a lot of time with somebody that was highly proficient in kendo (3rd place in a tournament in Tokyo).
As a bonus, the sushi is orders of magnitude better than American sushi!!

[therock]

Originally posted by BBAddict
I visited Japan last year for the first time and both the martial arts and their entire society are something you have to see first hand to appreciate. I will definitely go there again and would recommend it to anybody considering it. I spent a lot of time with somebody that was highly proficient in kendo (3rd place in a tournament in Tokyo).
As a bonus, the sushi is orders of magnitude better than American sushi!!

Thats badass bro! How much was the roundtrip?

[BBAddict]

It was more expensive than just a roundtrip cause I also went to Hong Kong, but I'm going soon again and I think that ticket is just under 1000. Staying in Tokyo is really expensive though-it's one of the most expensive cities in the world in terms of lodging and food, but it was worth it. I think the hotel was almost 200/night, but it was at Shinagawa station-train station that it is easy to get anywhere from.

[therock]

So would you say with $4000 between me and my girl will cover everything, if we stay a week?

[spidey]

Originally posted by therock
What happened to orange belt? You skip that too? Also I like teakwondo but the onlything I dont like is the fact that they make you black belt so fast. I mean within a year or year and a half you can become a black belt. Depending on who is your sensey. For someone in Judo it would take anywhere between 5-10yrs b4 you become black belt 1st dan. You have to learn Japanease in order to advance from belt to belt. But either way, good luck bro and I think you need to spar or as they say in Japan Yrondory.

I didn't actually skip yellow since I earned my yellow when I took it before. We don't have an orange belt. Our belts go white, yellow, green, blue, red, black. The teacher is called a kwanjanim in korean and he only gives belt tests twice a year. So, IF you studied hard and passed every belt test (that would be unusual), you could get a black belt in 3 years. After that, there is 1rst degree etc. through 9th degree. Although, you would have to go to Korea to get your 9th degree. My kwanjanim is an 8th degree blackbelt.

Kwanjanim is of the opinion that many of these schools that have 65 different belt ranks are just doing that to make the students buy more belts. The teachers make more money that way. He is definitly not in it for the money. He charges about half what any other school in the area charges. He is also a school teacher and a minister so he is one busy guy, LOL.

Anyway, I placed 4rth in kata and 3rd in fighting at the competition. This was my first competition so I didn't really know what to expect. The rings were pretty small and were CARPETED. That really screwed me up with kata. Not being able to slide my feet necessitated me to actually pick my foot up and step which kind of screws up the form a little. Everybody else had to do that too though so I am sure that balanced out. I misjudged how far back I needed to be from the judges to start my kata. If I had taken just one more step back before beginning, I would have placed higher I think. My stances were too narrow right in front of the judges (to avoid stepping on their feet, LOL) and that probably lowered my score some. My biggest error was that I had a spit-second brain-freeze right at the end. I am sure that short hesitation was obvious and that sunk me. I missed 3rd place by 0.02 points.

On the fighting, I drew the eventual first place finisher as my first match. I scored first with a front snap kick to the stomach; that got his attention. then, I slipped while throwing a roundhouse kick. The kick still got through and should have scored but it lacked power because of the slip and the judges apparently didn't see it get through. He caught me with a reverse punch as I was recovering my balance and scored. He had fast hands but no feet at all. The final score was 3:1. I should have beat him and was pretty annoyed with myself so I beat the crap out of the next guy who ended up placing fourth, LOL.

There is another tournament in May I think. I am going to clean house in that one :D.

[blm]

I never cared for TKD it's more of a ballet of martial arts.

[therock]

Thats good Spidey. Sounds like me on my 1st tournament in Judo. Got 3rd aswell. But after that I really never lost, so think about it that way.

[BBAddict]

Originally posted by therock
So would you say with $4000 between me and my girl will cover everything, if we stay a week?

That should definitely cover it. You can really tweak how much you spend based on where you stay and where you eat. The trains there are so easy to use, so you can get to any part of the city easily, so there isn't really a good reason to spend the extra money to stay downtown.
If you're into that culture, make sure you bring extra money for souvenirs. I bought a really cool tea set (~$600) and some art work (~$1000) and kick myself everyday for not buying a sword when I was there. I will definitely get one on my next trip.

[BBAddict]

Originally posted by blm
I never cared for TKD it's more of a ballet of martial arts.

I guess I don't see any justification for that comment. Every discipline has choreographed forms. I don't have a ton of experience with a lot of disciplines or dojangs but I do know that my dojang places a lot of emphasis on speed and power of every technique that you throw. I also know that our fighters regularly place in national open sparring tournaments in which people from many different disciplines are fighting.

[BBAddict]

Congratulations on your first tournament experience Spidey-I can't imagine fighting on carpet! Sounds like it was a good learning experience for next time. Let us know how the next one goes. I'm gonna have to get into a tournament soon to get that experience.

Any of you guys that do really heavy weightlifting find that it affects your flexibility for throwing really high kicks?? That's my biggest concern with regards to going to tournaments.

[spidey]

Originally posted by BBAddict
Congratulations on your first tournament experience Spidey-I can't imagine fighting on carpet! Sounds like it was a good learning experience for next time. Let us know how the next one goes. I'm gonna have to get into a tournament soon to get that experience.

Any of you guys that do really heavy weightlifting find that it affects your flexibility for throwing really high kicks?? That's my biggest concern with regards to going to tournaments.

Not if you stretch every day religiously. Besides, in a tournament situation, 90% of your kicks will be in the midsection/ribs or kidneys. No real need for super high kicks unless you see an opening for an axe kick. Those will be few and far between as they are a slower kick and unless he is off-balance, he will be able to avoid it.

This tournament was open to all forms of martial arts. I competed against several different japanese styles and at least one chinese kung-fu style. I didn't compete against any other Tae Kwon Do people. There weren't any in my division. It was broken down into divisions based on belt, sex, and age. My division had green, blue, and purple belts 35 yrs old and higher.