Judo

As you may remember, the boys have been doing Judo since April and they love it.
At the end of June we let them attend a little fun day that was held at our Judo Club and they had a ball competing at it, Ben even walked away with a medal.

Since then they have wanted to compete in many of the little fun days that have been held around the region by local clubs. They have both again thoroughly enjoyed competing in them. Ben has walked away with a medal of some description from just about every day, whereas sadly Alex has not quite got there yet.

They have both been asking recently, as well, when they will get a yellow belt.
We have been answering that one by telling them that their Sensei is always watching them and when he feels they are ready for it they will be graded and achieve it, hopefully.

This weekend, our club decided to hold a little fun day for just our club, no other clubs were invited, so everyone knew everyone and it was a well supported event.
They decided not to place the children in weight groups this time but have them go in height and build groups.
This actually made for a much fairer mix of competitors.

Alex in his little group

Alex had 2 other people to fight against, 1 little girl who I knew he would beat and 1 boy who he would have to work against. He easily beat the little girl and with a bit of work also beat the boy too. That meant he had secured his first medal and a gold at that too. We were so proud. He was pretty chuffed too.

Ben however had a taste of his own medicine and had a large group to fight against and some of them were not a walk over, he really had to prove himself and work hard at technique during these fights, oh and he also had to manage to not laugh and giggle when being held on the floor! Just goes to show that he loves what he is doing and is very relaxed with it.



Ben's little group



He managed to win 2 of his fights and lost 2 or 3 more, so all over he had managed to secure a Bronze medal. Which is all he needed really, because I think this time he took away more understanding about technique than actual winning etc.

Getting Gold

Ben's larger group

After all the medals had been awarded the Sensei started calling little groups up and informing them they had achieved enough to have a small yellow strip placed on their white belt, thus meaning they were either 1 or 2 steps closer to a yellow belt, however he never called either Ben or Alex up for either of these first 2 groups. My emotions hit me a little and I suddenly got very worried for them, but within about 2 secs my mind caught up and I realsied that Ben and Alex would not be getting little strips on their white belts towards their yellow belts because they were no longer going to be wearing white belts!

Yes, my 2 darling little fighters had just succeeded in securing themselves 'Yellow Belts'

Way to go boys, we are so very proud of you and all the hard work you have put into Judo over the last 7 months to achieve this awesome award.

Several other people in the club got promoted on their belt colours and it was a wonderful successful day for lots of people at the end of it.