Edition No. 33. Winter, 2002. Today is
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 And another three months Our man in Japan, Adi Jones, continues his report Part 4 in an ongoing series |
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 Well
it's getting colder here now, and morning running is unfortunately becoming a thing of the
past. I have a bad ankle, but half the reason is that my bed is a lot warmer. Since my back
injury in the summer I have been finding it harder to keep up with these young whipper-snappers.As this term comes to an end, the 4th year students are preparing for graduation, and so they don't train as much. Hence in randori there are less players now. The sad thing is that in this Japanese system, judo is very popular at junior and university level, but once players graduate they retire from judo altogether. The Japanese system produces so many great players, and then once they finish their education they are unlikely to go back into a dojo again. Unless these 4th year students get a job as a teacher, or in the police, or at a company where there is a strong judo club, their judo will most likely come to an end. Adult judo in municipal dojos, as exists in Britain and most of the rest of the world, is not as common here. What a waste of all that talent and years of hard work. Adult judo, judo for fun and social reasons, and the veterans judo is not, in my experience, very prevalent in Japan and that is a shame. Last week there was a foreigners judo competition held in Osaka (13 hours drive away from the university!). The competition was open to any foreigner living in Japan and all expenses were paid. We all entered from the university and competed along with another couple of hundred judoka from 31 different countries. Japan also had a strong representation which was quite surprising (seeing as though it was supposed to be for foreigners and local Japanese only), and along with Korea, they shared the medals haul. The competition had individuals in the morning (based on age categories, not weight), and then a team competition in the afternoon, in which Budai got 3rd.
It made a nice end to the year. Winter training awaits ! ! ! Adi Jones adijones@hotmail.com « back |
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