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shadowspar: An angry anime swordswoman, looking as though about to smash something (Default)
Saturday, July 23rd, 2011 15:27

Dr AnnMaria DeMars, former judo world champion and hardcore statistics geek, who I've followed on twitter seemingly forever:

  • DrAnnMaria: If you're following me hoping to hear about business, statistics or programming you want @annmariastat
  • DrAnnMaria: I have two twitter accounts because most programmers don't care about conditioning for martial arts or matwork.
  • DrAnnMaria: On the other hand, with all the sexual harassment problems at conferences #OSCON maybe those programmers ARE following me here on purpose
shadowspar: Picture of Kurama lashing out with a rose whip (kurama - rose whip)
Thursday, August 14th, 2008 09:29

Ok, so up to this point the CBC has been streaming live video feeds of the Olympics in Beijing. This is great. Every morning starting around 6am, they've been streaming the semi-finals and finals of each judo division, which is even better.

Now, what happens today, on the only day when we have two Canadians competing, both of whom are outside medal contenders? The judo finals get bumped off the schedule in favour of volleyball and basketball preliminaries -- ones that no Canadians are competing in, no less.

Thanks a lot, guys.

shadowspar: An angry anime swordswoman, looking as though about to smash something (Default)
Monday, August 11th, 2008 06:10

Apparently the universe really wants me to watch olypmic judo.

The CBC is streaming a live video feed of the finals and semifinals of the judo competitions. This is extremely awesome, because in previous years you were extremely fortunate to catch much judo on TV if indeed any at all. The admittely minor downside is that there only seems to be a live feed and with the time difference, that means that the action starts around 6am EDT.

I'd hoped to watch as much of the coverage as I could, but if I'm up late or don't sleep well, trying to get up at 6 in the morning will make me nonfunctional for the rest of the day. Since this is the case, I haven't actually set an alarm to wake up in time to watch judo. As it turns out, though, I haven't needed to -- two out of the past three nights, my daughter has helpfully woken up in the middle of the night and then fallen back asleep at the magical hour of...6 in the morning.

Surely this is divine providence at work. =)

On another note, this is really the first time that I've been actively participating in an olympic sport when the olympics rolled around, and it kind of changes my perspective. I am probably never going to go to a major international competition, let alone the olympics, but even myself and my little club out here in the sticks are connected to something much larger. It was astonishing to see how many judoka were bearing their national flags into the stadium during the opening ceremonies, and how many different countries judoka were coming from. Maybe I've always subconsciously thought of judo as something that originated in Japan and spread around a bit to North America, Brazil, and Western Europe. It was awesome to be disabused of that notion. African nations fielded judoka. Russia and the former Soviet republics are extremely strong competitors. Israel. Iran. Italy. Cuba is a judo powerhouse. (Who knew?) Even tiny little nations like Malta sent a number of very tough judoka to Beijing. It's very cool to be reminded that I have peers practicing the same sport as I in every corner of the world.

shadowspar: An angry anime swordswoman, looking as though about to smash something (Default)
Monday, April 28th, 2008 21:27

I passed my second grading test at judo class tonight. This moves me up to 四級 (yonkyuu; orange belt).

This one was a bit of a surprise. I wasn't actually supposed to test until Wednesday, but towards the end of class when all the juniors had gone home, Jonathan (my judo partner) and I were pretty much the only folks left. My teacher asked if I wanted to try my test tonight, and knowing that we have a lot of tests to fit into very few classes in the next little while, I figured I'd give it a go, despite feeling rather underprepared.

As it turned out, I was able to rattle through 17 right-handed throws, three left-handed throws, eight hold-downs, six strangles, one combination, and one counter in about eight minutes, so I suppose I couldn't have been in terrible shape. I wasn't very happy with my technique -- I thought I had to use a lot more force than should have been required at times -- but the folks who were watching apparently didn't share that opinion.

Poor Jonathan -- after tonight, I really have to buy him a beer. By the end of the test, he was in pretty bad shape, not just from being thrown about, but from me nailing him in the knee a few times with some throws that weren't supposed to have any knee-on-knee contact. He did get me pretty good later in the night with a koshi guruma that left me checking to see if my kidneys were still installed, but still, fair is fair. =)

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shadowspar: An angry anime swordswoman, looking as though about to smash something (Default)
Wednesday, January 9th, 2008 22:04

I just learned the coolest throw in the known universe -- yoko guruma (横車, "side wheel"). It works just like shown there -- step around, drop, roll to the left, and throw uke over your left shoulder, all in one fluid motion. Here's a video.

It's actually a lot easier than I thought it would be at first -- it seemed to come to me quite naturally, while some of the kids had a bit of trouble with it. My biggest concern was avoiding any inadvertent face plants either when throwing or being thrown, and that didn't turn out to be a problem either.

Funny thing, too...tonight I noticed on the way in to class that I'm starting to feel more like a judoka and less like a guy who happens to wear funny pajamas to the gym a few nights a week. I'm about as far away from judo godliness as you can get, but feeling like I'm able to put in an effort instead of just floundering is pretty cool.

Okay, maybe it's not the coolest throw in the universe, but currently it's the coolest throw in my universe. =)

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shadowspar: An angry anime swordswoman, looking as though about to smash something (Default)
Thursday, December 13th, 2007 02:07

...I passed my first grading test tonight, thus elevating me to the rank of gokyuu (五級, "fifth grade").

For the first time in my life, I don't have to wear the white belt that marks me as a total noob to martial arts class, which is nice. (Instead, I get the yellow belt that marks me as merely being a major noob.) Staying in one place for a few months at a time without moving or going to camp really seems to help with that. =)

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