#ThrowYourselfIntoJudo Judo in Southampton restarts today!

Judo in Southampton is back!

cropped-20131030-073728.jpgAfter our short two week break, we get back into the swing of things today at 8pm down at St Marys Leisure Centre.

As ever our sessions are open to novices and experienced players in our dojo upstairs, where as well as air conditioning we have a water cooler.

The plan for the next two  months is to ensure that everyone is graded appropriately before the Southampton Solent University freshers fayre; which is where we normally gain a large number of beginners.

Also, many clubs in Hampshire are closed in August, so we often have visitors looking to train during the summer; so expect some new faces over the next month or so.

 

Summer Break – Next session August 4th.

The Budokwai visit was a great success and seems a high note to cap off the hard work everyone has been putting in recently.

We shall be closed for a couple of weeks, reopening on August 4th.

Have a good break and bring a friend to that first session on the 4th. It will mark the build up to the Freshers Fayre at Solent University; which is where we normally get our largest boost in new members each year. This year we want to attend enmasse (Late September), and do everything we can to build a strong team to compete in BUCS and other events.

A big thank you to all those who have supported us over the past few months and to those who have attended sessions and events.

London Budokwai Visit #ThrowYourSelfIntoJudo

This Saturday we will be travelling up to London to visit the historic London Budokwai Judo club. We have been invited to train at this the spiritual home of Judo in the UK. The Budokwai has been central to development not only of British Judo but also of the European Judo Union and International Judo Federation.

We will be travelling up by train. Catching the 12:13 train from Southampton Central to London Victoria. Returning on the 18:32 train. Please be at the station at 12:00 with your ticket so we can all meetup and travel together.

The London Budokwai is at 4 Gilston Road London SW10 9SL

The Budokwai is situated in the heart of Chelsea, just off the Fulham Road. Closest tube stations are either South Kensington or Fulham Broadway, and we are a 10-15 minute walk or 5 minute bus ride from there.
Directions from South Kensington Station:
By Walking- Turn left out of the station and walk down Onslow Place till you reach Fulham Road. Turn right onto Fulham Road and carry on walking (aprox 10 minutes) till you walk past Fulham Road Cinema. Gilston Road is the next turning on the right.

We are guests at the club so please make sure your Judogi is clean. Please also make sure that you personally are well presented, short nails, clean hair, etc.

I’m hoping we have a strong turn out and we can one day host the Budokwai at our dojo in Southampton!

#ThrowYourselfIntoJudo “Inner Improvement”

11700544_1019140114771936_6501157433906026680_o

Our partners at SportSolent posted this picture today as some “Monday Motivation”.

It is a quote from Pierre de Coubertin, father on the modern Olympics.

“For each individual, sport is a possible source for inner improvement.”

Judo was founded by Kano Jigoro; who was am member of the International Olympic Committee. He was very much a believer in Judo and sport as a way of improving people and society.

In our club, we practice Judo as a sport; not just because it is a brilliant sport; but also as sport is a great method for self improvement. We are currently working hard on both technical skills as well as physical development. Specifically, we are working on posture (shizenhontai) and on flexibility (especially in reference to good posture).

As well as improving our technique, by developing ourselves physically we help our day to day life by decreasing the damage that sitting at desks all days and being inactive can have on us.

So come on down to the dojo at St Marys Leisure Centre on Sundays at 3pm or Tuesdays at 8pm and find inner improvement via the sport of Judo.

#throwyourselfintojudo – Judo Food!

naraNext Saturday the club will be having a meal together at the Nara Restaurant on Bedford Place in Southampton. The idea being to introduce new Judo people to the food of Japan and more of the culture surrounding Judo.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1610079255935353/

We have created an event on our Facbook Page, so please RSVP there. The meal is open to wives, husbands, boyfriends and girlfriends; so bring someone else along too to experience a great night out with the Judo Club.

Training continues this Sunday at 3pm and on Tuesday at 8pm, both at ST Marys Leisure Centre.

Tuesday Judo Training in Southampton #throwyourselfintojudo

Taking a page out of the book of our friends at the Kuala Lumpur Judo Training Centre, I wanted to share a little about the Judo training we did this Tuesday in Southampton.

Tuesday is our higher intensity Judo training session of the week. This week was a great session, our new dojo with air conditioning and fans are turning out to be ideal in the summer! I think all the members who attended training at St Marys would agree it’s great to have the cooling when we are working hard.IMAG0068

As well as standing randori and groundwork; we had a conversation about the scoring and points system of Judo and how that affects the strategies we use if we play the sport of Judo.

We also did our usual uchi komi, both shadow uchi komi and with partners. We introduced another style of Uchi Komi too, using belts. There are plenty of good reasons for using belts for uchi komi, it helps us develop our hand grips as well as lifting action. Also as shown in the picture, it encourages commitment of your body in the right direction. And of course, it’s a fun change from our nightly uchi komi Judo drills.

I would also like to take a moment to thank everyone in attendance for observing a minutes silence in memory of the great Judo man Roy Inman who passed away recently. Roy was a huge part of British Judo and will be sorely missed.

Throw yourself into Judo, June 7th.

11216423_10153277847213255_1900515903_nThrow yourself into Judo this summer!
We are running a 10 week beginners course starting on June 7th at our club in St Marys, Southampton. Aimed at late teen and adult beginners, this is a great opportunity to get into the sport.

Judo is minute for minute one of the best workouts you can ever get in terms of calories burned! So as well as learning self-defence you will also get fit.

We run a relaxed club, where we are currently enjoying summer training sessions with the air conditioning on and music turned up loud. Everyone enjoys themselves and it’s a chance to have a good wrestle with  friends.

See our dedicated page for more details on all the things you get for free when you sign up!

https://southamptonjudo.com/2015/04/29/beginners-judo-course-starting-june-7th/

 

Kime no Kata concludes and competition methods begins

ThrowHTC1This weeks marks our transition from Kata training to competition training. Each Tuesday will remain Randori and Sunday from now till June 7th shall be dedicated to examining modern competition techniques and methods.

We will try and understand and replicate the Judo of the elite athletes of the IJF circuit.

Then come June 7th we shall start our beginners Judo Course.

We look forward to welcoming new members to the club!

Kime no Kata update.

This Sunday marks the end of our 6 week block of studying the Kime No Kata.

Kendo visitThe Kime no Kata is a kata from the late 1800s that involves defenses against, grabs, strikes, kicks, daggers and even sword. We have taken the opportunity to invite sword experts to the club and help us understand how to correctly handle the sword in particular.

We have had two visits, one from the Southampton Kendo Club and secondly from the local Iaido Club. Both these Japanese forms of sword martial arts have taught us different but important things for our Kime no Kata.

As we turn our primary focus of our Sunday technical sessions away from Kime no Kata we will continue to practice and learn with extra sessions in Portsmouth planned along with more time at the club also.

We hope to put several couples into the national Kata championships on October 4th in Crawley, so we have a great preparation period to continue to learn the kata and develop it to a better standard. Members are encouraged to express interest (to Lance) if they would like to train for the kata championships.

A big thank you goes to the Kendo and Iaido instructors and students who visited our club. We hope to continue building friendships with other clubs.