Tough Workout Tonight

 We had a pretty tough workout tonight, Sensei Doug Clark is getting the club ready for the Spring Judo Tournament season. My Judo Gi was soaking wet after the class tonight. We had a long workout/warm up first, a short technique session and a very long randori (sparring) session. I was able to beat everyone I played except Dorian, who is at least a foot taller than me, he's probably 250-270 lbs. He's a black belt from Romania, he has very good technique and he's very strong. I have thrown him for Ippon once, but he's been paying me back ever since...Playing with him will only make me a better player.

 I'm really excited about playing in the Cherry Blossom Open this weekend, my breathing is getting stronger and I'm recovering faster between matches. A player from our club, Rick is going to play. It will be his first tournament, we will probably ride down to Boyton Beach together. He's a heavyweight too at 245-250 but he's in the senior men division (under 30) I am in the masters division. If there are no heavy weight masters I will play senior men. Maybe we will face each other. Our club has a really good junior player (under 17),  Natalie. She is a really good Judo player and will most likely be going to both senior nationals and junior nationals this year. She has really good technique and is a really aggressive. The funny thing is she looks like a super model and you often hear comments in the crowd like, "I can't believe her parents let her play Judo, she should be a model". Its pretty funny!!!!! One of our competition coaches is a former Polish national team member and he's a really good friend of mine. I told him when he's coaching me at the tournament to say everything in Polish, he laughed and said you don't speak Polish but neither will your opponent, so you will be having me intimidate your opponent for you, very funny!!!
Anyway there will be an official weigh in at the tournament, I will also get a weight after the tournament and I'll fill in my blog with both weights.