Judo

      With my five years of experience in judo I know that judo is often considered to be an individual sport, but I feel it’s more than an individual sport because my coaches give me wise advise before my matches or teach me more on respect and discipline. It kind of feels like a different world when you step on the mats as a blue belt and I must give the respect to my sensei’s as they would for me.

    Since I’ve been a blue belt people think that all my throws, techniques, gripping, and game plan would be perfect well not exactly; it takes years and years to perfect a throw and my game plan and techniques still needs some work but as they say “practise makes perfect”. In my tournaments I had my share of wins and losses; with my losses some I didn’t know what happened and some I knew that I had the wrong technique or grip and it's important to always learn from mistakes because that’s how to become a better judo player and a better person.  I  have to push myself in order to be a better person.

     But with my wins I really get a good feeling inside of me because of all the hard work and dedication and practising that I do can pay off in the future. The feeling when I step on the mat for a tournament; it can be a little edgy because I don’t know who I am fighting, how strong they are or how they fight, but at the same time I get an adrenalin rush.  I don’t know what will happen and I am just anxious to get on the mat and fight that’s all I want to do is fight and win.

    I think judo can connect us together because it’s a sport where we support each other, take care and even learn from each other new ways to look at life.  Even though judo is an individual sport, it’s the people and teammates that help us to grow.  

-Aaron McKenna