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I have been having a lot of people asking me how my Judo training has been going.

For those of you that don’t know, I started training in Judo to aid with my karate when I was about 14.  I really enjoyed it and sometimes would leave karate to then drive right to Judo on the same night.  I trained regularly at the Steveston Judo club until my family moved to Port Moody when I was 17.  Unfortunately that put an end to my Judo days, however it has been in the back of my mind for about the past 16 years, that I never got my Shodan (Black Belt) in Judo.

So in May I joined back up again, and have been loving it.  It is nice to be a student again and to be learning new techniques.  I am really enjoying the humility that I am experiencing in being a student again, and fortunately I was able to pick up where I left off (Green Belt).  Judo uses a different rank system:  White, Yellow, Orange, Green, Blue, Brown, Black.  Also, many of these ranks are refered to kyu or dan ranks.

A Black Belt is a Shodan.  Sho meaning first, and Dan refering to Black Belt.  The coloured belt ranks are referred to Kyu ranks and count down to dan ranks like so:  White is 6th Kyu, Yellow is 5th Kyu, Orange is 4th Kyu, Green is 3rd Kyu, Blue is 2nd Kyu, Brown is 1st Kyu.  Then at Black you start counting up the various degrees of black from 1st Dan to 10th Dan (this one you usually get at your funeral).

The whole coloured belt system was actually developed by Jigoro Kano Sensei, the founder of Judo.  All other martial arts have taken the coloured belt ranking system from Judo.

Anyways, I thought that some of you would enjoy watching me in action with Sensei Chris at our training session today.

See you in class,

Sensei Ron.

I found it tough to get started today.  However one of the best way’s is to just get going.  I am a big fan of faking it.  I just pretended that I was really excited to go to the dojo this morning and train and before I could realize, I was having an awesome session.  Having a training partner helps too.  People will generally do more for someone else than for themselves.  While that is really nice, it isn’t always the best for your own goals.  Hope you enjoy.  If you have any questions regarding the video just post it in the comments and I will reply.

Great job to Isaiah for being the Student of the Week.  Here he is in action at Curran’s Karate in Maple Ridge.

Never stop learning — the world is a big, complicated place and there’s always something new and exciting right around the corner. Maybe you want to pick up a new language (spoken or programming — take your pick), master a new skill or just consume a few interesting trivia tidbits.
Simply put, the more things you know, as a Master of the Martial Arts, the more reference material you’ll have to draw upon whenever you’re trying to solve a task. The more research you do, the better you’ll understand the process of discovery and leadership.
Education/curiosity and creativity go hand-in-hand.