Mr. Isao Wada, head sensei at Gardena Judo Dojo, passed away on Monday, July 28, 2008.
The services for Isao Wada, will be held Monday, August 4, 2008 at 7:30 PM at
Gardena Buddhist Church 1517 W 166th Street, Gardena, CA 90247

Most Judo teams train and compete as a team. A great opportunity to test your skills, and spend time with members of your club in a truly electrified atmosphere. If you haven’t competed yet. I urge you to consult your Sensei to prepare you for this great experience. Arizona is hosting a novice tournament keep an eye on this page http://heartjudo.com/WhenWeCompete.html for upcoming info regarding this perfect venue.

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Jesse Udell eliminated reigning Grand Canyon champion Tavi Bondar in the first round in route to his Gold medal in the heavyweight division. Justin Udell was oustanding as he came back from a 1st round loss by Ippon to defeat all opponents by Ippon in the mens lightweight division. Justin has been training at Heart Judo for less than a month. He has been away from the sport for 6 years. His performance was the highlight of the tournament. Samantha Reilly placed 2nd in the girls 9-10 lightweight. Jack Reilly placed 2nd in the boys 11-12 year old middleweight division. All four are members of HeartJudo.com

Justin Udell top photo…. Jesse Udell bottom photo. Photo’s by Heidi Reilly

MIDDLETOWN — Justin Hingstron, Jonathan Wilson and Max Lehman of the Middletown Judo Club are headed to Walt Disney World in July for the USA Judo Junior Olympics.

Hingstron, 8, Wilson, 10, and Lehman, 12, qualified for the Junior Olympics after competing in tournaments in San Jose, Cupertino, Santa Clara and Alameda. They brought home numerous trophies in their weight divisions.

The annual USA Judo Junior Olympics is the top tournament for young competitors age 16 and younger. Middletown Judo Club qualified two youngsters for the Junior Olympics two years ago when the event took place in San Jose. With the event in Orlando this year, the Middletown Judo Club hopes to enlist the financial support of the community in order to send Hingstron, Wilson and Lehman to the competition.

If you are interested in helping them out, call Aaron Transue at 928-4324 or come visit our judo classes in Middletown on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5 p.m. until 6:30 p.m.

This is the next tournament in Arizona…. A great opportunity to participate in the Judo tournament experience. All Heart Judo students are encouraged to attend. Many students have already participated. Samantha and Jack are returning Gold medalists and Sensei Jesse captured silver in two divisions in 2007.

LOCATION: Saturday June 21, 2008 - Salvation Army Gym, located at 13th street & Broadway in Phoenix.

IN ADDITION: By participating all competitors automatically qualify for the State Games of the West Championships in Colorado Springs, Colorado on July 24-27, 2008. The event will feature approximately 8,000 athletes from thirteen Western States competing for State pride & medals. Competition will be held at venues such as the US Air Force Academy & the US Olympic Training Center.

More info @http://www.gcsg.org/events/summergames/judo.php

Colorado Springs, Colo.) – Fans of two of the most exciting sports in the Olympic Games can purchase tickets for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Judo and Wrestling beginning at 9 a.m. (PDT) on June 9 at www.unlvtickets.com or by calling 866.388.FANS.

The Trials will be held June 13-15, 2008 at the Thomas & Mack Center on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and will feature contests in each of the 14 Olympic judo weight divisions as well as the 18 Olympic wrestling weight classes in the three Olympic styles (men’s freestyle, men’s Greco-Roman, women’s freestyle) to be contested at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.  Judo will be contested on June 13-14 and wrestling will be contested all three days.

“We are very excited about what promises to be an outstanding U.S. Olympic Team Trials. This is the most important event we host in the United States every four years, where we select our Olympic Team, which competes in the most important sports event in the world, the Olympic Games,” said USA Wrestling Executive Director Rich Bender.  “We look forward to holding the competition in Las Vegas and having a great turnout by the wrestling community to support America’s Team.”

Click Here For Large View Seating Map (PDF)

With eight athletes expected to compete in the Trials for each weight division, as many as 112 judo players will be eligible for berths on the U.S. Olympic Team.  USA Wrestling expects almost 200 wrestlers to participate in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials.

“These will no doubt be one of the most exciting Olympic Trials in the history of USA Judo. Las Vegas is one of the world’s most exciting places to host a sporting event; top that with the  fact that we are combining our sport of Judo with a proven popular sport of wrestling that has in the past attracted over 11,000 spectators and some 200 media to previous events,” said Jose H. Rodriguez, USA Judo CEO.  “Lastly add to this equation the partnership with Las Vegas Events and the United States Olympic Committee and you have the making of a great athlete-oriented and entertaining sport show in the best show town in the world.”

All-session tickets are priced $150 for VIP seating, $75 for lower level and $40 for upper level. Competition will be held on four mats simultaneously with wrestling taking place on three mats and judo on the fourth.

Each day will feature two sessions a day, with finals being held each evening. The first day of competition will include Greco-Roman and women’s freestyle wrestling as well as seven judo weight divisions.  The second day will have another seven weight divisions of judo as well as the first day of men’s freestyle wrestling while the third day will be exclusively men’s freestyle wrestling.  If there are judo weight divisions that the United States has not been qualified to compete in at the Olympic Games, the division will not be contested at Trials.

A tentative daily schedule is as follows:

Friday June 13

Four women’s freestyle weight divisions (48 kg, 55 kg, 63 kg, 72 kg)

Two men’s Greco-Roman weight divisions (55kg and 60kg)

Four men’s judo weight divisions (66kg, 90kg, 100kg, +100kg)

Three women’s judo weight divisions (52kg, 63kg and 70kg)

Saturday June 14

Three men’s Greco-Roman weight divisions (66kg, 74kg and 84kg)

Three men’s freestyle weight divisions (55kg, 60kg and 66kg)

Three men’s judo weight divisions (60kg, 73kg, 81kg)

Four women’s judo weight divisions (48kg, 57kg, 78kg and +78kg)

Sunday June 15

Two men’s Greco-Roman weight divisions (96kg and 120kg)

Four men’s freestyle weight divisions (74kg, 84kg, 96kg and 120kg)

The Thomas & Mack Center has a seating capacity of 12,500 and USA Judo, USA Wrestling and Las Vegas Events expect a sell out for each of the three days. Tickets have been made available equally to both judo as well as wrestling fans on a first-come first-serve basis.

“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for both judo as well as wrestling fans to enjoy the best of these sports in one of the most important Olympic-related competitions in the USA. We are very appreciative of the vision that both USA Wrestling and Las Vegas Events have shown in teaming up with USA Judo to make this competition happen,” said Dr. Ron Tripp, USA Judo President, a former judo world team member and sombo wrestling world champion.  ”There will be limited seats available and wrestling has already shown that they are able to fill a venue of this size, which means that our fans will need to order their tickets now in order to guarantee their seats in these historic Olympic Trials.”

More information on hotel headquarters will be available soon.

At Jesse’s wedding we were able to catch a photo almost as elusive as photographing The Loch Ness Monster. Our Senei’s smiling…………….

All of us at Heart Judo thank Billye Paulson from the Mesa Tribune for her continued support of our club. She has been kind enough to ad all our tournament results in her section. Billye is invited to any of our Tuesday practices so we all can thank her in person. Ms Paulson articles and bio can be found at http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/columnist/26

Thank you again Ms. Paulson !!!!

Defeat is not final.My friend, Lanny Clark, has a great saying,
“Life goes to the slowest winner.”
His point is that it is not the person who is the junior national champion in the eight-year-old division who we remember, or the smartest person in chemistry our junior year in high school. It is the person who wins the Olympics or a Nobel Prize for Chemistry. In smaller, practice tournaments you may lose a match your first round, come back through the loser’s pool and beat that person to win the tournament. You may lose by ippon in thirteen seconds the next round and barely lose by a decision after five minutes in the second match. Learning to get beat and come back fighting is a good thing.
You have to take chances to rise above the competition.The smaller tournaments are where you try your new techniques.Focus on scoring as much as you can. Adrian Rivera, who is in his forties, still does this in tournaments, I noticed. He was saying after one match, where he threw his opponent for a waza ari and then pinned him,
“That was a mistake. I should have let him up from the pin and tried to throw him for ippon.”

The point of doing this is NOT to humiliate the opponent by showing “See I can score on you at will”. It is to give both of you a chance to practice more. Also, you are taking a chance because you could have won the match at that point and you are letting the other person have another shot at you.
Face down your fears. If we do it right, courage is one of the most important lessons we gain from judo. Thousands of years ago, Aristotle said,
“Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.”
No matter how ethical you are, how intelligent you are,if you are afraid to do what you know is right or logical then all of your integrity and intelligence is just a waste of time. I wonder how many times altogether one of my four daughters has complained about being scared or not wanting to fight or not wanting to be entered in two or three divisions and been told to suck it up and be a woman. In the end, they learned to face down their fears.

I can’t count the number of trophies from the YMCA championships or Nanka Fall tournament or 47 others they have each year that have gone into the dumpster. I don’t really feel bad about that, because what I brought my children to those tournaments to gain was not the purple and gold trophy, and the lessons they learned have stuck with them, and me, long after everyone has forgotten exactly who won the 13-14 lightweight divisions at the Silver State championships. posted by Dr. AnnMaria at 11:27 PM on Apr 7,

see comments here http://drannmaria.blogspot.com/