Kirkwood Judo Club Blog

We have come a long way

The above photo was taken at The Kids Class, on Thursday May 27th, just 9 months after the resurrection of the Kirkwood Judo Club kids program. The program that was restarted by "yours truly" has grown and flourished under the direction of Sensei Steve Palmer. Steve has nurtured a connection with the kids of the program, that is simply remarkable, and with the able assistance of Sensei Roland Morgan is well on his way to creating the best kids program in the St. Louis area.  For more information on the Kirkwood Judo Club Kids program check out: www.kirkwoodjudo.com/kids.html.

Hope to see you on the mat real soon.

Sincerely,

-Sempai Russ
Kirkwood Judo Club

By Mark Purdy
Mercury News

Yosh Uchida will have the best seat in the house next weekend. He deserves it. You will learn why in a few paragraphs.

``This is a great thing for San Jose,'' Uchida said the other day, sitting in his downtown office. ``You know, we've never had an Olympic trials here.''

The oversight will be corrected this weekend, when the U.S. judo and tae kwon do teams for the Athens Games are determined by a competition at the Event Center at San Jose State.

As for me, I'm feeling a little nervous about my interview because I realize that, in speaking with Uchida, I am talking to the George Washington of judo. It isn't often that you can interview someone who basically founded an Olympic sport. This is what Uchida did.

To be sure, judo had been practiced as a martial art for centuries after originating in Japan. But no one had organized it into a worldwide competitive sport, with strict rules and weight classifications, until 51 years ago. That is when somebody had the bright idea to set up a U.S. championships, which eventually led to a world championships, and to judo at the Olympics.

The somebody was Uchida. In 1953, he was a local businessman and a former San Jose State wrestler who coached the judo club at his alma mater. Judo was, and is, a fun way to grab somebody and twist them into flying pretzels. But in that era, competitions were rare, scattered and unsatisfying.

``There were no weight divisions,'' Uchida said. ``Big guys, small guys, they all fought each other. That's just how it was. To increase the popularity, and to try and get the AAU to recognize judo, we felt we had to break it down in terms of weights. We knew that would get more people involved, and it would also be more fair.''

Uchida and Henry Stone, the wrestling coach at Cal, petitioned the Amateur Athletic Union -- at that time the all-powerful governing body of American sports -- and requested permission to hold the first sanctioned U.S. judo championships. The proposed site? San Jose State's old gymnasium.

To the delight of Uchida and Stone, the AAU agreed to sponsor the event. Then they gulped. They had no clue how to locate potential competitors. There was no Internet or television network to publicize the event. There wasn't even a specialty judo magazine or newspaper.

``We didn't know all the places where judo was being practiced,'' Uchida said. ``So we started sending out blind letters to any place we could find across America that had a Japanese name or word attached to it -- Japanese Methodist churches, chapters of the Japanese-American League, wherever.''

Uchida and Stone also tried to spread the word among non-ethnic athletes. They caught a break from the military. Gen. Curtis LeMay was in charge of the Strategic Air Command, and he was a judo freak.

``He required that all of his pilots learn judo,'' Uchida said, ``in case they had to bail out from damaged planes and then were forced to defend themselves in hand-to-hand combat. So we got a lot of support there.''

Even so, Uchida and Stone held their collective breath until the actual applications arrived. About 120 competitors showed up. The two drew up rules and a tournament bracket, and the throwdowns began.

A year later, influenced by the AAU, European countries organized a judo event using the American format. Asian nations followed suit, overcoming the traditionalists who wanted to keep judo an art, rather than a sport. The lure of gold medals finally overrode those objections.

By 1964, judo was recognized as an Olympic event. Uchida coached that first four-member American team at the Tokyo Games. It included Ben Nighthorse Campbell, a fellow SJSU alum who is now a United States senator.

``Japan was dominant in the whole thing,'' Uchida remembered. ``But at least we were in there fighting. And now, 40 years later, it's an honor to host the Olympic trials here.''

Fittingly, Saturday's event will be staged just a hundred yards or so from the old SJSU gym, where that first national tournament was held, and where Uchida went on to coach many champions when judo became an intercollegiate sport in 1962.

So, yes, Uchida will feel a heap of pride this weekend. It's a bit surprising that the sport's Olympic trials have never been held here. The U.S. Olympic Committee traditionally has held the event in Colorado Springs, Colo., the organization's headquarters. But last winter, the USOC hinted it was open to moving both the 2004 judo and tae kwon do trials, and the San Jose Sports Authority pounced. A year ago, the city successfully hosted the Titan Games, a multisport USOC festival.

``Because of that, we were chosen to host the judo and tae kwon do trials,'' said Dean Munro, the authority's executive director. ``But I know Yosh's involvement was an important consideration in the USOC's decision. He is The Man in the martial arts community. He's really revered and liked by them.''

All in all, Uchida is having a pretty good spring. Saturday, he received an honorary doctorate from San Jose State. At 84, Uchida comes to work every day and oversees his philanthropic and commercial projects, which have included a significant real-estate development in Japantown.

Yet next Saturday will be the most major kick, when Uchida settles into that prime seat to watch his favorite sport. He is proud that judo has avoided the drug problems of other Olympic events; he attributes it to the athletes' honorable attitude. And he sometimes finds himself pondering all the twists and turns and holds along the way, since he drew up those first judo tournament brackets in 1953.

``I look at it now and say, `How'd I survive?' '' Uchida said.

One throw at a time. That's how. And now, half a century later, those throws have come full circle.

Source:  http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/8803317.htm

There were over fifty feet inside the dojo last night at the kid's class. At an average of two feet per person, that equates to 14 kids, three black belts, two assistants, and a gallery of parents. We welcomed Trevor onto the mat with his brand new green belt earned after months of extra practices and a fine showing at the North/South tournament. Despite the heat and an all time record of three water breaks, the energy level stayed high during the teaching of one new standing technique followed up with a healthy dose of mat work. We capped off the night with promotion tests for Hanna and Romaine who both did exceedingly well and earned a stripe for their belts.