A lot of people ask me on a weekly basis why I chose to stay with Judo instead of doing both Aikido and Judo?  There were a lot of reasons that went into my decision to do this, none of which had anything to do with the level and quality of instruction received.  Allen sensei will always be one of the Three teachers of the martial way that I will hold in the highest regards.  He along with DeVore Sensei, and Mossor Sensei, continue to impact my life in so many ways that I would never be able to thank enough.

So Why did I decide to just focus on Judo?  I could say injuries, it did seem of late in Aikido I was walking away with more and more minor injuries that would later come back to haunt me in Judo.  However, anyone who knows me, knows that sprained back and sprained knee incidents but yet I still am in Judo,  So it wasn’t really the injuries to a major degree.  I could honestly say Time, but that is just simple bullshit.  I do work full time and teach Judo 3 times a week, the last time I had a honest day off (no Work, no Judo) was October 2008. If you want to do something then you will find the time to do it.  I work 40 hours a week teach 3 times a week and yet I find time to workout, hit the firing range and such, so like I said before, simple bullshit.

So why then?  Aikido is represented in WV as is Karate, Tae-Kwon-do, Boxing, wrestling, Hell MMA is better represented in WV than Judo,  Outside of My School and one in St. Alban’s I honestly don’t know of to many Judo schools in the Mountain state, and this saddens me.  I decided to focus on Judo and hopefully get it to the level that it is well represented in the Mountain state along with the other martial arts. So far, way behind schedule, I have two registered high ranking belts Richard is a shodan with the usji and a great person, busy like me.lol  and D. Howe an ikkyuu who should be a dan but he will when he is ready.  So time will tell if I am to realize my goal or not.

To me Judo has a lot to offer people, kids, adults, competitors,and non competitors alike.  Judo Has principles, I know what you are going to respond with, “Don’t all Martial Arts have Principles”  Easy answer to me is , No they have fundamentals not principles.  I came upon this one time looking upon the honor wall at Aikido and seeing a quote from Karl Geis (Alan Sensei, Sensei) it read, Maximum efficiency.  I thought to myself, but that is the principle of Judo along with mutual benefit and welfare.  I asked around and asked various Aikidoka what the principles of Aikido were and they told me things like  standing up straight, slight bend in the knees, move from the hip etc. all correct to what they were taught but therein lies the problem those are fundamentals to the art of Aikido not their principles. those fundamentals are required to function within the art of Aikido  Judo also has some of the various fundamentals as Aikido, like standing up straight and moving from the hips. however we call them fundamentals, not principles.  The principles of Judo are Max. Efficiency and mutual welfare follow us not only in practice to become better Judoka they also follow us in Life to be better people, this is what Kano Shihan wanted in Judo, through practicing Judo and adhering to Judo Principle you not only would become a better fighter but more importantly a better person in society.

Aikido does have principles don’t get me wrong, there is redirection of an opponents energy and non aggression, these are good principles  but I find them very limited compared to the scope of Judo principle.  Take for instance the redirection of opponent energy, Judo does this as well SOME of the time we however will use other various principles to achieve supremacy on and off the mat  that is why we have Maximum Efficiency it combines all the principles in to one that states; use what is the most efficient for the situation. Aikido’s other principle is non aggression, most of you who know me know that I am not an aggressive person but I will fight when I have to defend what I hold dear.  Well I find that principle more in Mutual Benefit and welfare than I do in being non aggressive.  Mutual benefit follows more of the Golden Rule of Do unto others, while to me being non aggressive is more akin to being a pacifist, of which I am not. Just Because I won’t start a fight doesn’t mean I won’t finish one!

Also Judo has Randori true good spirited sweat your ass off randori, God loves it when we work hard.  A dry judogi at the end of class is sacrilege. D. Howe teaches us that.lol

So there you have it why I focused entirely on Judo, my dream, Judo’s Principles, and RANDORI!

Disclaimer:
If this offends you then Sorr…. Crap on that if it offended you then that is your problem not mine!

Came across this while scoping out the competition!

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Now you all know me, Why shouldn’t I be able to own something my Government (of whom I do not trust) has?

This group if allowed to continue Will eventually disarm us all and they be the American hunters and shooters Association!!!!!

TES

William

 GETTING FRAKKED BY CONGRESS YET AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!

pelosi signing our future away

Well People it seems we have been royally Frakked by the ones we elected to “serve” us at the national level of our government.  Listen to this they voted down the cheaper bailout package and then when presented with the same package again only this time with so much pork injected into it that it would kill a horse, and guess what?  They passed it!!!!

Yeah now the “Experts” tell us it won’t be enough, Imagine that!!

People wake up and smell the Crap they are spewing in your direction.  I know you feel you have to vote for someone in the election because there is only those people to choose from.  I am telling you to start sending a message by voting “None of the Above”.  You must still vote but tell the “powers that be” (btw that should be us not them) by just handing the staffers back a blank ballot or just voting for those officials that stand up for the people, namely the local races.

I have a list of those who voted yea for the bailout.  They don’t deserve a vote for dog catcher let alone any office

Our presidential hopefuls:
McCain-yea
Obama-yea (Biden-Yea)

How your state’s senators voted:

Vote Key Y N NV PY PN G NG

Yea Nay Not Voting, Excused, Absent, or Present Pair Yea Pair Nay Guilty Not Guilty

I would advise if you were against the bailout and your senator voted for it I would advise you to get the masses voting against them

Now on to the House,  the ones who originally voted against it and on the second time around when it was even bigger voted for it should be FORCED OUT OF OFFICE.:

H R 1424      YEA-AND-NAY      3-Oct-2008      1:22 PM
      QUESTION:  On Motion to Concur in Senate Amendments
      BILL TITLE: Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008

—- YEAS    263 — 

—- NAYS    171 — 

If we don’t Change things soon we will witness the dying of a Republic!

Begin The Revolution vote!!!!! but vote smart, make them our servants once again!

People should never fear their government, the Government should fear us, Make them feel it

TES
William

The most he has ever made sense

TES

William

Hello Folks I was just waiting a while to tell you this, because I wanted to make sure my dream of having one matched the reality of having one.

I bought my first rifle about a month ago.

This is it

It is called a Mini-14 it is made by the prestigious STURM, RUGER & CO., INC.

it fires the .223 round (5.56mm)

I seems to handle very well the 30 round mag I purchased for it seems to work very well, I cannot wait for the weather to clear up so I can spend some time at the firing range getting aquainted with my new rifle

Other than that got me two paintball guns that I am going to use this summer.

However I am going to start saving my money and quite possibly pick up an additonal job during my days off to pay for a Jeep I am wanting to go in debt for.

So if I am not around for a while you all will know I am working myself to death to get that toy paid off as soon as I can. If I can get it.

Take care

William

Till next time

William

hello judoka


It is with great reluctance that I announce that I have, for the time



being canceled the Saturday Judo class until further notice.  This is



due to a lack of attendance on Saturdays.  If Anyone has any idea how



to drum up some business for the Saturday class let me know.  Outside



of holding it later in the day, which is most difficult for me because



the early time format made it possible for me to get other things done



as well.




So to sum it up




the new schedule for the time being:




Monday: 6:30pm to 8:30pm




like I said, give me some ideas or leads and we together can get the Saturday class back up and running.




William

Welcome to the December edition of the the Almost Heaven Judo Monthly Newsletter, hopefully it finds you enjoying the holidays.  

Notices and News:
 The Big news is that we have moved to 800 Camden Ave. South Parkersburg about 1.5 miles from our old location.  Hopefully in the near future we will get a sign up letting the masses know who and what we are.

John and Steve recently put up a dusk to dawn light where we park in the back so that makes it a tad safer of a night for our students.  Thanks Steve and John. 

Winter is moving in so we have fired up the gas heaters so don’t let the cold keep you from training.

Judo as Physical Training:

This month I would like to talk about my favorite technique, it is Uki Otoshi (floating drop).  I have loved Uki Otoshi ever since one time I tried it in randori and it succeeded, much to my and my opponent’s surprise.  Anyway once I started learning it for the Nage-no-kata I found out that there is a lot more subtle than other judo throws.

Here is the opening paragraph from the Kodokan Judo institute concerning the throw uki otoshi.

The technique of Ukiotoshi is making Uke’s body into a right (left) forward floating position, then, with both hands Tori pulls down strongly to the left and throws or uses a similar technique to throw. Ukiotoshi and Sumiotoshi are identical techniques, which are generally called Kukinage.
 

You can read the Article in its complete form here: Uki-otoshi

Judo Etiquette:

  Instead of the usual Randori section I thought I would do an Etiquette section to let all the New people partake in the reasons why we do what we do.

The word Dojo has many meanings, such as exercise hall, practice hall or place of learning the way. It formally was used by Buddhist monks in reference to worship, it also could be a meditation hall or club. As you can see it can mean a great many things to the martial arts that you are studying. Our sport being Judo, we refer to it as a Judo Dojo.  “Jerry Dalien”read the rest of the article here: judo Etiquette

Kata:

I found this on You tube and thought I would post the link so you can also enjoy:

Nage no kata

Something cool I found:

A little dated but fun nevertheless

UK Judo circa 1950

Photos this Month:

Ed W. Doing some outstanding Harai-Goshi

More next month

Anata no juudoo sensei

Dai saru

West Virginia My home Well today people I paid the taxes on my and my Brother’s land. Feels good to be a land owner. Lol

Welcome to the return of an old project.  The Almost Heaven Judo Monthly Newsletter, hopefully it finds you in good health.  

Notices and News:
 The Big news is that we have moved to 800 Camden Ave. South Parkersburg about 1.5 miles from our old location.  Hopefully in the near future we will get a sign up letting the masses know who and what we are.

A lot of people have asked me, “Why did you move?” The answer is this,  The old place built with a lot of Budoka hands was just at the end of it’s life span.  The roof was shot, and the mold there was getting to everyone, whether they would admit it or not, I know it got to me.  This new place is a lot better.  We got the same canvas mats along with some Excellent Swain mats Thanks to a great Martial Artist Matt W.  Don’t worry for all you people out there this place too was built with a lot of budoka help. 

Judo as Physical Training:

The Pedro Guard Pass by Jimmy Pedro
6th degree black belt, 1999 World Champion

In Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, the following position is referred to as the “Open Guard.” Since there is no formal name for it in Judo, we will also refer to it as the open guard.

Throughout his career, Jimmy Pedro had a lot of success attacking from the top position in the open guard, and was able to pin numerous opponents with his signature guard pass. In this special technique development section, Jimmy will demonstrate and explain how you can master the Pedro Guard Pass.
Here is the link study it: Pedro sensei open guard escape

Randori:

A lot of talk about this subject as of late.  This is mainly do to last semester’s Judo class at the College.  I think the message is getting out on how I view randori, especially for the college students.  How I view randori is plain, simple and to the point it is a learning experience.  I know arts like BJ-j’s “rolling” tend to be more competitive than ours, that is cool, and that is how I grew up with judo randori.  While I had fun and did learn, I was and I saw people hurt needlessly through trying new things way too fast and with limited knowledge of what was going on.  While I returned as some others did, a lot of others did not.  At first, I thought them weak and they couldn’t hack it, then I learned no, they viewed the pain as not worth it.  That is when I started formulating my idea of randori, which to me, is more in line with what Kano Shihan wanted.  My randori is simply to pay heed to the second principle of Judo, Jita Kyoei or mutual benefit and welfare.  When you randori with someone of lower rank give them a good workout but stay at 1 rank higher to do that.  One should not be slapping arm bars on white belts that have never been introduced to arm bars in connection to randori.  In closing  I just want to say that everyone is coming around and randori is becoming less and less injury laden. 

Thanks.

Kata:

I found this on You tube and thought I would post the link so you can also enjoy:

Kime no kata

Something cool I found:

We all know of Dave H.’s Story about his adventures being a blind Judoka.
Here is another’s story
Ohashi

Photos this Month:

More next month

Anata no juudoo sensei

Dai saru