April Nanka Judo

Transcription

1 April 2006 Nanka Judo

2 Page 2 of 9 Nanka Judo THE FACES BEHINDTHE NAMES At left are Paula Duarte shown on the podium for winning the high school nationals. Paula also placed second at Northglenn, establishing herself on both the junior and senior rosters. Paula is from Mojica Dojo. Pauline Macias, bronze medalist at the high school nationals, will be representing the U.S. this weekend at the junior Panamerican championships. Pauline is a member of Antelope Valley Judo Club. Congratulations to Vitaliy Vanyan of Hayastan Dojo for his bronze medal at the New York Open last month. INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS Good luck to our athletes competing this weekend in the Junior Panamerican Championships - Pauline Macias (Antelope Valley), Ronda Rousey (Venice), Aaron Shiosaki (Gardena) and Anthony Aguilar (Guerreros) will all be representing the U.S. this weekend.. Go Nanka Go USA. NANKA NORTHGLENN RESULTS Our senior team, led by Tony Mojica and Jason Uno, continues to bring home the medals from elite events. Paula Duarte and Michael Fujimoto, two high school students, placed second and third, respectively while Pomona College student Otari Sadov also earned a silver medal. One of the untold stories in American judo is the rise of Guerreros Judo Club. Brothers Frank and Eric Sanchez placed first (55 kg) and second (81 kg). This is on top of a 1 2 finish by Frank Sanchez and Anthony Aguilar at the San Jose Buddhist. Anthony is also representing the U.S. at the junior Panamerican championships. Just last summer, Frankie and Eric were profiled in California Judo magazine as two of the upcoming young coaches in America. They are also, apparently, two of the upcoming young athletes in America. Go here to see Eric throwing for ippon. The young man does have beautiful technique. And he is a nice guy.

3 NANKA JUDO Page 3 of 9 NANKA NORTHGLENN RESULTS cont. Juniors Michael Fujimoto Christina Zamora Aaron Kunihiro Seniors Paula Duarte Frank Sanchez Michael Fujimoto Eric Sanchez Otari Sadov 1st 3rd 2 nd 2nd 1st 3rd 2nd 2nd UNSOLICITED PRAISE FOR AARON KUNIHIRO AND KYLE TAKETA Hello All, I hope the weather is better there than here. We are hearing rumors of snow. I just thought I would send a quick note to let you know that I had the pleasure of watching your two fine young judoka compete at the Liberty Bell. Both Kyle and Aaron made quite an impression on myself and received a lot of interest from the Judo Canada's coaching staff and in particular Nicolas Gill. Kyle's transition into Newaza from standing demonstrated skills well beyond his young age, and the agility and speed of Aaron made all his matches extremely entertaining and exciting to watch. Both these young men represented themselves and Nanka admirably both with their judo skills and sportsmanship. I applaud you and these two young fighters. Caption describing picture or graphic. Sincerely, Ron Angus

4 Page 4 of 9 NANKA JUDO It is a fact that our young athletes seldom get the press they deserve. WHY NANKA IS THE BEST: One in an ongoing series It is a fact that our young athletes seldom get the press they deserve. That is one reason for the Nanka News so that you in the judo community can get regular reports on these young people who are representing us in regional, national and international competition. One of the many great things about Nanka is the strong academic performance of our young athletes. While those in some other parts of the country appear to be what one colleague referred to as a lost generation, with no real direction outside of judo, the Nanka Judo community has overall done a fabulous job. It is important that we stop from time to time and celebrate our successes. Let me just mention a few: Emily Lilly junior national champion, kata champion, regional referee and a student at UCLA since she was fourteen. Emily is now 15. She placed second at the San Jose Buddhist, moving on to the senior roster during her second semester at UCLA and before her fifteenth birthday. Masha Scheglov is a national kata champion, junior national medalist, senior competitor and was recently admitted to the U.S. Air Force Academy. We all at Nanka would also like to take this opportunity to extend our condolences for the tragic and unexpected loss of her mother. Aaron Shiosaki is a national junior judo champion, will represent the U.S. at the junior Panamerican championships. A standout high school wrestler, he is now completing his freshman year at San Francisco State University. The youngest of the Shiosaki brothers, Aaron also lost his father at a young age. He and his brothers have been their mother s pride and joy over these last few years. They have all been junior national champions, all enrolled in college and the two older brothers still drop into the local dojos to help teach young children. Adrianna Blakely, junior national champion too many times to mention, is now a student at West Point. Tawny Uemura, a former junior national and junior U.S. Open champion is now a junior at UC Riverside aiming for dental school. Asma Sharif, who placed twice in senior nationals while in both high school and college and competed in the 2004 Olympic trials will complete graduate from UCLA this year with a degree in biochemistry.

5 NANKA JUDO Page 5 of 9 WHY NANKA IS THE BEST cont. This could be a very long list. Please feel free to send in more names to add for next month s newsletter. This point is important. Nanka produces terrific athletes. We love them. We are proud of them. Then, they take that drive, discipline and analytical ability they learned in judo and apply it in other areas to be successes throughout life. Remember the movie Field of Dreams? Someone says to Shoeless Joe Jackson, who later became a physician, that it was a tragedy that he only played major league baseball for only one day. He responded, No, son, if I was a doctor for only one day, that would have been a tragedy. Speaking of doctors, here is my last comment on why Nanka is the best. You make friends you will keep your whole life. My dear friend, Dr. Jake Flores and I are both Nanka homeys. We learned judo here and were supported by the Nanka system. A few weeks ago, my daughter, Maria was home visiting and, just as all the doctors offices were closing, she woke up feeling very sick. Jake drove two hours across LA in rush hour traffic in the pouring rain to make a house call. It turned out that Maria had pneumonia. He gave her a shot, called in a prescription, took a couple of cookies off the plate sitting out for my youngest daughter s bedtime snack, and, with the comment, I work for Oreos walked out and drove two hours home. P.S. His son, Justin Flores, who grew up as a Nanka member and did our awesome cover picture, will graduate with his degree in art this year. CORRECTIONS & OMISSIONS Last issue we said Ross earned his black belt in January at age 15 by defeating several brown belts in a row. Actually Ross got his black belt by defeating several (4, I think) senior Black Belts in a row, most by ippon. We are all proud of Ross's accomplishments and I want to make sure he gets all the credit due. PHOTO CREDIT OMITTED: The cover photo of the last Nanka News, of Jeff Fujimoto winning the San Jose Buddhist was taken by Ming Dong. Vanessa Gonzalez of Mojica Dojo placed third in the Middle School Nationals last month. Her name as inadvertently left off the list of medalists.

6 Page 6 of 9 NANKA JUDO COMING EVENTS April 15 Competitor Development clinic counters, combinations, matwork drills AnnMaria Rousey De Mars Guerreros Dojo 10-1 April 15 Nanka Senior Practice, Mojica Dojo 2-4 The paralympic team from the United Kingdom will be visiting both practices April 15 Grass Roots Development clinic 9-11 Goltz Dojo April USA SENIOR NATIONALS, HOUSTON TEXAS Best of luck to all of those representing Nanka! April 30 - Barstow Judo Invitation, Barstow, CA April 30 Visalia Invitational, Visalia, CA May 6-7 Fight Like a Girl Camp, San Diego, CA May 7 Parents Federation Tournament May 13 Grass Roots Development clinic 9-11 Goltz Dojo June 4 Speed Harada Tournament, Norwalk More information on all events can be found on the following websites (of course) also, they have the most comprehensive judo calendar you can imagine for events in California. Check it out. Ronda s England Report Ronda recently became the first American woman to win a gold medal in an A level tournament since 1997 All Nanka members who receive funding are required to write a tournament report. Ronda Rousey has been a member of Nanka since she started judo at age 11 and a member of Venice Dojo since age 12. She recently became the first American woman to win a gold medal in an A level tournament since We thought our members might find Ronda s report interesting. NAME: Ronda Rousey DOJO: Venice Judo Club/ NYAC EVENT: GB Judo World Cup EVENT DATE: April 1-2, 2006 EVENT LOCATION: Birmingham, England RESULT: 1st place SUMMARY: Woke, up in the morning.2 kg overweight, took a bath then ran 15 minutes in plastics and weighed in 62.9kg. Drank a lot and ate breakfast, walked to the venue.

7 Note to self: Do not wear little piggy slippers to walk a mile in the rain. Warmed up (ran, stretched, matwork uchikomi, standing uchikomi, grip fighting, transition). Tournament started at exactly 11am, I was the 1st match and fought BEZZINA Marcon from Malta. She fell to the ground after the first exchange, then tapped out from juji-gatame. Note to self: Find out where Malta actually is. Next match was against TOUCANNE Emmanuelle, France. She was right handed and tried mostly pick-ups and leg picks. I fought pretty sloppy but after 3 minutes I caught her in a pin and won. Third match was against from MARZOK Christina Germany. Again it was a sloppy match and I didn t play very smart. I scored a yuko and a koka first and then I did a few risky attacks that I shouldn t have been doing while ahead and she countered me for a yuko and koka. I then scored a waza-ari with drop seio nage and another koka with I don t remember what. It was all very sloppy but I won the match. In the semifinal I had Sara Alvarez of Spain, who actually was the European champion in 04 and 05 and won quite a few A tournaments. I ve watched her a lot though and fought her in camps so I wasn t too nervous. For the first 2 and minutes I didn t get many attacks in cause she kept doing makakomi and falling on her face so I was given a shido but then I caught her with osoto for ippon. There was only like 2 hours before finals started but we didn t have any food at the venue so I walked back to the hotel to eat lunch and then took a 20-minute nap. Note to self: Really, piggy slippers in the rain was a bad idea. And buy more water next tournament, I drank 3 liters of water by 1pm and then had to drink from the tap. Walked back to the tournament, Sara Clark, the British girl favored to win the tournament lost to this French girl I never heard of, RIABOFF, Fanny. Turns out she has won the French national championships twice, won a few A tournaments, and got second in the French super A tournament last year. Well in the final I scored a koka early. Then once I knocked her down and she was trying to stand up again. tried to take her down to the ground again, but then the referee gave her a koka that I thought was unfair. I threw her again with a switch I think, it seemed like a yuko but they gave me nothing. Then I caught her in an armbar, she tried standing up and they called matte even though my head wasn t off the ground yet which I thought was again unfair. Riaboff was taking forever to tie her hair and belt, it was really getting annoying. Some people in the crowd even started laughing because they could tell I was annoyed. Then just as time was running out I caught her in a pin, but time was out before they could call it. We were tied koka to koka so we had to go into golden score. After 30 seconds I caught her with and ouchi and won.

8 NANKA JUDO Page 8 of 9 Though I don't think I was physically strong enough this time in Europe t (I had to stop lifting while cutting weight because my weight was too high) my stamina was a lot better than most of the other girls and I think that s what really pulled me through. Well it was all really cool, we didn t have time to fix our hair or wipe the sweat off our faces before they rushed us on the podium. The medals were cool and they gave up a free copy of the Athens Olympics on DVD, I gave it to Sayaka who sat in the coach s chair for me that day because we didn t have a coach. That night Eva s dad took the team out to eat which was really nice of him, it was an Italian place and I ate ravioli. It was really good after having to make weight 2 weekends in a row. THE END!!!! JUNIOR NATIONAL TRAINING (Picture of Ronda doing that same o uchi in the junior world finals in 2004) (You don t have to be going to the junior nationals to attend these. Anyone who wants to get better is welcome.) Nanka Development has made arrangements with the surrounding dojo's to open their dojo's for those competitors wishing additional practice in preparation for the Junior Nationals in July. The open practices will be at no charge and open to all who have current USJF, USJI or USJA membership. Please bring your membership card, as you may not be allowed on mat without proof. The circuit practices will commence on Sunday, April 23 and go through Thursday, July 6. The circuit practice will be weekly according to the following schedule: Sunday, 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM, Orange County Kodokan Dojo Monday, 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM, Harbor Dojo Tuesday, 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM, Norwalk Dojo Wednesday, 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM, Sawtelle Dojo Thursday, 7:45 PM to 9:15 PM, Gardena Dojo Friday, 7:00 PM to 9:30 PM, Valley Dojo Saturday, 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM, Mojica Dojo Before going, please check to ensure practice will be held. Most dojos are part of a community center, which hold carnivals and activities. Before stepping on the mat, please notify the head instructor at the dojo or representative, as club waivers may be required. Also, please observe proper Judo etiquette and dojo rules. For any questions or comments, please contact Tyrone Taketa by at nktaketa@aol.com.

9 For more information on Nanka Judo: If you have any pictures or articles you would like to contribute, send them to If you would like to advertise, contact Jeff Bruner at for an amazing deal on ad rates in our monthly newsletter. Thanks to our sponsors Making life better! Education! Grant-writing! Evaluation services! Management consulting! Customized software design An Indian-owned business located on the Spirit Lake Nation.