Big Judo Visits Wellington Judo Academy

 

Enjoyed a wonderful weekend in Wellington with our friends at the Wellington Judo Academy (WJA). We have a long friendship, I trained regularly with WJA for a number of years when I lived in Wellington and Palmerston North.  A friendship that remains strong. 

We did two solid training sessions, with lots of randori and plenty of technical discussion. It was great learning new ideas from the younger Black Belts like Hugo and Sparkles, bookended with a few good meals together. 

Most importantly we got to spend time together reconnecting old friendships. Cameron and I have known each other for 25 odd years, and it is fantastic to see that his students now know more than I do! It was tremendous to look at the clubs history wall, and remember people like Pat, Rick and Daniel.  

Cameron in front of the history wall.

We also got to catch up with a couple of other old friends Kelvin Bradford, a renowned Judoka who is still coaching competition players and and old friend. 

And older Big Judo members will remember KB, one of our alumni who is now training in Wellington. 

KB on the left.

Kelvin Bradford (right) like Rick and Pat he is one of the 1950-60s generation that went and lived in Japan, then brought their skills and knowledge to NZ. People like Kelvin taught generations of NZ Judoka and made us all better.  It was nice to see him again and say - Thanks.

In conclusion, it was a fantastic weekend. The Judo was fun and it was great to reconnect with a wonderful and hospitable group of fellow Judoka.  Thanks heaps we really appreciated tour kindness and hospitality. It will certainly be reciprocated next time you visit Auckland. 

Congratulations on Another Win for Noah

 

Congratulations to Noah on another win in Australia. He won the -90 kg and Open Weight Category at the New South Wales Open. 

Well done mate, the team at Big Judo are really proud of you! Keep up the good work. 

Last Night's Training in Pukekohe

 

A nice photo of the team and Pukeohe last night. Great to see a few people on the mat. Well done team!

Big Judo Visits Henkada Judo Club

On Wednesday, Geoff and Ben drove down to Hamilton and trained with Henkada Judo Club.  

It was awesome! 

We both had a great time and did plenty of randori. It was also nice to  reciprocate the support that Henkada has provided for Bog Judo's open mat trainings. 

Thanks heaps for fun night, and remember you are always welcome to visit Big Judo.  

Big Judo Central Dojo

 

Last weekend, Big Judo moved into its new, mats down dojo in Balmoral.  A long-term plan finally coming to fruition that provides a great basis for growth. We trained last week, and even though there were a few people away this weekend, we had a good turnout and plenty of fun.  Well done team.

Training times are Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7pm, and Saturdays at 3pm. On Saturdays, the adults and teenagers from Pukekohe also come down providing good numbers for randori. We aim to build this session up and help our Judoka improve. 

Big Judo Open Mat Session

 A great Saturday morning workout in Mount Roskill. We hosted judoka from Ochiba and Howick jufor a tough randori session.  Forty five minutes of ne waza followed by forty five minutes of tachi waza, meant everybody finished the session tired.  

No coaching, just an opportunity to practice doing Judo in a hard randori session.  Fantastic fun.   

We took lots of photos but this one was my favourtite, being a ne waza aficionado I love seeing sankakus.  A technique that is central to the Kosen style of Judo we were taught, by Rick. 

Big Judo Training Day at Big Judo Pukekohe

Wiremu and Marco doing tachi waza. 

Today, we got all the mats out and trained with some of our friends from other nearby clubs.  It was a good session, about an hour of ne waza randori followed by about an hour of tachi waza.  A good training session.

  

Tachi waza randori. 

Guests today included, Marco Corvino an Italian -73 kg retired competitive player visiting New Zealand and Ockert Steryn a local -90 kg retired competitive player.  Both judoka played hard and gave the large group of cadets a good workout. It is vital that young players get to randori with good quality players to develop their skills, and we really appreciated Ockert and Marco putting in the effort to help  out.    

Ne waza randori. 

Next inter-club session will be in about a month to six weeks and will be in town, at the Tristar Dojo. 

Ockert showed everybody his version of ushiro o soto gari and a defence. 

A photo at the end of training.