Life versus Judo, pt 2

Well, here's the reason I haven't posted anything to my judo blog in ages. No, that's not a baby picture of Kim Jong Il, that's my new daughter, Charlotte, born in August. I've been putting judo on the back burner as my family and I get used to the newest family member. She's a very happy little girl and we all like her, especially big sister. In the past couple of weeks I've been able to get back into judo about once a week. I'm really feeling the lack of practice, particularly in my lack of endurance, but it'll come back eventually. Also, since the last time I posted, Lena turned 4. I'm thinking sometime early in 2010 I'll be taking her to a judo class. Exciting times!

Life versus Judo

No, I haven't died. I realize that I haven't posted in a while, but I'm still doing judo and still intend to blog about it in the future. I think every judoka gets to a point in life where they realize they can't do judo ALL the time or the rest of life is going to suffer. That's kind of where I am at the moment. There's a lot of stuff going on right now, and a lot of that stuff is not judo.

The big thing happening right now is the family is gearing up for baby Pickering #2 (nicknamed Rufus for now) who is due in August. Ironically, he or she is due in exactly the same week that the Judo Worlds Masters tournament will be happening in Atlanta, GA. That's probably the closest that tourney will ever be to me, and I will probably be busy. Granted, a new baby is pretty cool :-)

Stay tuned.

Judo for Health

I had my annual doctor checkup a week or two ago. I went to the appointment in somewhat of a bad mood because I have had three or four little nagging injuries that have been a nuisance to me, a possibly broken toe, my bad shoulder has been acting up, and I have a neck crick that won't go away. Individually, they aren't so bad, but taken together they make me feel older than I should be feeling (in my opinion, anyway).
I came out of the checkup feeling much better about myself. I was given a clean bill of health. My pulse was good and strong, my blood pressure was great ("Gorgeous" is the actual word the doc used), and my cholesterol readings from last years lab work were so spectacular that it was determined I could skip the lab this year.
This got me to reflecting about my lifestyle. I sit in a chair and stare at a computer screen for 40+ hours a week. I don't watch my diet, at all. The only thing I do is try to pay attention to portion control. I've been known to eat myself sick in the past, but I've gotten better about that. I tend to eat fairly healthy, but that's mostly because my wife does the grocery shopping. I drink coffee and soft drinks (Dr Pepper is my favorite), but I tend to limit my intake. I also don't smoke and I drink alcohol veeeery rarely.
Outside of judo, the only physical activity I do on a regular basis is mow our quarter acre yard, and that doesn't even happen in the winter. Otherwise, I go to judo 2 or 3 times a week and huff and sweat for two hours at a time. I'm sure some of my health can be attributed to genetics, but I tend to think a lot of it comes from just doing judo. Not bad. It makes me think judo can be the next big thing on the health infomercial circuit ("Just think. You only have to exercise twice a week, and the only side effects are incredible muscle soreness for the next three days!!!").
Now if I could only avoid broken toes, big bruises, and mat burns......

2009 Tennessee State Judo Results

Some of the results from the tournament this past weekend have been posted on the tournament site. I think most of them are completely done, but a few of them may need a few corrections.

http://www.tennesseejudochampionships.com

2009 State Judo Tournament

Well, the 2009 Tennessee State Judo Championship is over and our club finally rest for a while. The tournament was held at the Al Menah Shrine Temple in Nashville, one of the best venues I've ever seen for a local/regional judo tournament. Here's a view looking from the back of the venue towards the mats.And here's a view looking from the competition area towards the back. If you look closely at the back of the hall, behind the spectator area you'll see something that every good judo tournament should have....

That's right, an indoor koi pond, complete with waterfall. This was one of my favorite features at the venue. We also noticed there was a disco ball hanging near the stage, but I couldn't figure out how to turn it on. That would have been great for awarding the medals.

We had a special guest at our tournament this year, 2008 Olympian Daniel McCormick. Daniel was a former student of our own sensei Jim Irvine and graciously agreed to be a guest of honor at the tournament. He handed out medals, had his picture taken with the kids, and hosted a judo clinic the following day. I had a chance to sit and talk with him for a few minutes before the tournament and he struck me as a very friendly, humble kind of a guy. He's also one of the few people I've seen who was bigger than sensei Terry Spencer, as can be seen below.

We had about 220 competitors sign up for competition. I was not in that list. I posted before that I was going to fight my first Masters competition at this tournament, but I was too nervous about the tournament running smoothly (mostly because I'm a control freak), and decided to help with the tourney instead of worrying about any upcoming matches.

We used the new rule changes done by the IJF, most noticeably the elimination of Koka as a score. It was the first time I saw those rules in action, but I'm not really sure if I noticed a real difference or not. I'm kind of wondering if the stricter enforement of penalties may have slowed down the action somewhat since the referees would pause the action more often to assign them.

During the actual tournament, I spent most of my time glued to a chair and scheduling matches. In the picture below, I manned the chair behind the laptop.

Why a laptop? One of the club members, John Pepper (also my supervisor at work), developed some software that we used to register all the competitors, bracket them into weight/age divisions, schedule matches, and keep track of medalists, all via a local network. I was mostly responsible for keeping the matches going on Mat 1. As I scheduled matches, competitors could also watch on a monitor to see when their next match would occur.

The software worked great, with very few glitches, but despite this new way of using technology at a judo tournament (we also used electronic scoreboards), some things remained the same. For instance, I was asked more questions by more people in a small space of time than I ever am at work or home. Am I fighting soon? Which side will I be on? Am I done fighting, yet? I experienced more stress in 5 hours than I usually do during a 5 day work-week. However, I did have fun, got to meet some great people, and I think the tournament went very well, even though it did go pretty long.

I haven't heard what the official response from the TN Judo head honchos is, yet, but I'm kinda hoping we didn't do SO great that they ask us to do it again next year. It sure makes for a very long day.

State Tourny and the Masters Division

I recently realized I haven't fought in a judo tournament for almost 2 years. So it's high time for me to do so. Our club (Columbia Judo), is hosting the Tennessee State Championships for the third year in a year, so that will be a perfect opportunity to fight. We had a good turnout at the tournament last year, and we're getting ready for another good turnout this year. For more info, you can go to the tournament site at http://www.tennesseejudochampionships.com/.

This tournament also presents another special opportunity for me. In December, I turned 30, which means I can now fight in the Masters division. Being as I hardly ever drink, turning 30 is a bigger milestone for me than was my 21st birthday. Now instead of fighting young, incredibly fit college students, I get to fight older black belts. I'm hoping this will be a better fit for me, because most of the guys fighting in masters are like me in that they have a job and family to get back to. So they aren't likely to go out on the mat with a "I must win at all costs even if it means grievously injuring this short bald guy" attitude. Another advantage is that the masters division is usually fought first (seniors are usually last), I guess so the old guys can get a nap in. So I can get my matches over with and enjoy the rest of the day helping with running the tournament and watching others fight without stressing about my upcoming matches. Finally, if I get absolutely destroyed out on the mat in my first foray into Masters competition, I can just chalk it up my youth and inexperience....

Too Many Cookies

I finally went back to a judo class, again. It was my first one back since before Christmas. The first day back to any kind of physically strenuous activity after a long, food-laden holiday is always bad. I think I ate my body weight in Christmas cookies, and I was afraid I might see them again. Fortunately, I didn't. I actually lucked out, because due to the number of people, I was sort of the odd man out. So instead of working out really hard, I walked around looking knowledgeable and helped out the sensei. I did however do a round of randori at the end of class with a monstrously strong teenager. I spent most of my time defending and concentrating on not throwing up or passing out. So I considered that round a success.

Well, now that the holidays are over, it's time to get back in shape.......again.