Korean Judo at the high school and collegiate level

A look inside of a Korean high school/college Judo Development Program.

You Should be Training: Rolando Samson of Atos

Stumbled across this on facebook last night.

Atos newly minted purple belt, featherweight:

There's more about him and his training regimen over at Moya Brand's webpage:
Rolando recap of blue belt:

Rolando wins Abu Dhabi Combat Club Ticket:

Rolando recap of purple belt thus far:

Because You Didn't Ask: 2013 MMA Yearbook! My 10 Biggest MMA Stories& Plotlines of 2013

Belts changed hands. PEDs/Steroid continues to plague fight outcomes. Champs got injured. Champs retired. Champs won but looked beatable.
It was an interesting UFC/MMA year in review.
Let's recap!

Honorable Mention:
War Machine returns to MMA after his second stint in jail. He won a fight, then he lost one in the tournament, but in some way, it was probably MMA's own bizarre version of a happy ending of sorts (still waiting on Junie Browning to pull his act back together)







Honorable Mention:
Wrestling survives the IOC chopping block after game of chicken over rule changes and being more viewer-friendly (Judo lost the game of chicken and threw in the towel years ago and just flops around like a dead fish or a dancing monkey whenever the IOC says so)

Honorable Mention:
The inevitable onslaught/deluge of Russian/Eastern bloc origin-ed fighters has begun their influx with increasing regularity. The landscape of MMA will change over the next 2-3 years, mark my words. Gilbert Melendez already accepted a fight with the wrong Russian due to basically admitting "their names all sound the same".

Honorable Mention:
Deep breath.......Alvarez ends contract dispute and Bellator ventures into PPV but cancels last minute due to Tito Ortiz injury was that the plan all along?   which leads to Chandler and Alvarez putting on classic non-UFC championship fight.
















Honorable Mention:
Palhares booted from UFC for holding onto the leg lock too long with Mike Pierce.
--

10. Pride stays dead. ONE FC is basically the only Japanese-ish MMA event anyone hears about anymore (Don't even tell me you tune in and watch Shooto matches, bro).

9. Shinya Aoki turns down UFC, stays in ONE FC where he has more fans and won't get Gilbert Melendez'd again outwrestled

8. UFC neglects to sign Ben Askren - style-wise or not, the most successful and dominant boring to watch welterweight outside of the UFC

7. TRT/Testosterone Replacement Therapy via Belfort's string of annihilations (of Rockhold, Bisping, and Henderson) becomes a hot button issue with increasing debate about its use and status as a PED.

6. Shane del Rosario Passes away unexpectedly.


















5. UFC Cards begin to water down depth of programming while ending in a year end card with no Primetime special but costs an additional $5 (Weidman vs Silva II). UFC events International move to Fight Pass which will also house past events and supposedly otherwise unavailable content/interviews and the like.

4. Rousey becomes UFC's first female champ/Women come to UFC less than a year or two after Dana White publicly said he could not see women fighting in the UFC.

3. GSP retires indefinitely after razor thin decision win over Johnny Hendricks amidst the building concern over concussions in combat sports and the continued debate over clarity in judging criteria.

2. Chris Weidman defeats Anderson Silva (part I). The Spider shucks and jives a split second too long and pays the price.

1. Anderson Silva's leg breaks in rematch against Chris Weidman (part II). The Spider's body fails him and fans and haters watch as the UFC's most dominant champ in history is carried from the octagon on a stretcher.
 

Gianni Grippo Promoted to Black Belt by Marcelo Garcia

Add Gianni to the list of American black belts who will now ply their trade in the elite division.

Gianni's departure from his longtime home at Team Renzo Gracie last year was a big story (as was the departure/exodus/collapse of Team Lloyd Irvin).
This year has us looking at Keenan Cornelius, Gianni, and the Miyao brothers as notable newly minted black belts.

The future is bright.

Judo Friday: Watch 3 Japanese World Champions March @ Rio 2013 Judo World Championships

As I've stated before, I'm very interested to watch someone play/compete their way through their bracket at an elite level tournament. Everyone wants to watch the finals and the medal matches.

It's like watching and looking at an entire campaign rather than one decisive victory. Excellence has to come out on top over the long haul, not just during an individual match.

Came across 3 collections of Naohisa Takato (60kg), Masashi Ebinuma (66kg) , and Shohei Ono (73kg) as they each march toward winning their respective black belt gold medal/world championships in Rio in 2013.

In Judo there are no skill divisions save basically black belt and then everyone else. There is non-elite and elite. That's it. There is a master's division, but in terms of the "adult" division, there are only two skill divisions to cover all of the belts.

Of the 3, Shohei seemed to absolutely demolish his bracket (granted, not all of his matches are included on his compliation, but of the3 included, he runs roughshod over the competition in what almost seems like a complete mismatch each time.

He was later suspended from competition for physically abusing teammates (a considerable feat with regards to how strenuous the Japanese teams train).

At any rate, enjoy.
 

Naohisa Takato



Masashi Ebinuma



Shohei Ono

A Way of Life - Stuart Cooper

Jiu-Jitsu saved my life.
Cliched as it sounds, it's true.

 

Videodrome Thursday: UFC 168 Phantom Cam