Another new year!

The summer seems to have gone by in a flash and its time to welcome old friends and new faces back to judo!

If you are returning for another year, our times remain the same as last year. See the details on the club website – http://www.southampton.ac.uk/~judo/html/training.html.

The first session for this academic year will be on Tuesday October 4 at 8pm. But we are running are usual taster session for new members on Sunday October 2 at 4pm so if you can join us in showing people what we get up to that will be much appreciated.

If you are new to Southampton and interested in Judo then we would be delighted to see you at one of our sessions whether you have some previous experience or are a complete beginner. We had a lot of interest at the bunfight on Wednesday so are hoping for a great year. On Sunday October 2nd at 4pm we will run a taster session to give you a flavour of Judo and we would love to see you there. If you are unable to make that session for any reason, don’t worry just come along to a session and join in – we let everyone take a couple of sessions for free to see if you enjoy Judo.

All sessions are in the Martial Arts Suite on level 1 of the Students Union building – follow the signs along the corridor. Beginners should come along to the Thursday session at 6pm, anyone with some previous experience should aim for Tuesdays at 8pm and Sunday at 5pm.

Looking forward to meeting some new faces!

Hampshire Team League – Round 2

After a break over Christmas it was time for round 2 of the 2015/2016 Hampshire Team League. Having had a team of relatively experienced players for the first round, this time we were all about gaining experience for some of our newest club members. With 4 players along, we teamed up with Fleming Park’s sole representative to create a full 5 person team. This time there were 5 teams in total – Southampton Solent, Priory, Matstumachi and a mixed team in addition to us.

Our first match was yet another local university derby with the Southampton Solent team, which went to a 2-2 draw with a bye in our favour in the last contest giving us the overall win. The second match against Matsumachi followed a similar pattern to give us 2 wins.

Following matches against Priory and the mixed team were tougher propositions that prevented us taking further wins but winning 2 matches out of 4 left us in 3rd place overall. The best part of the afternoon as a spectator was seeing great effort put in by everyone; in particular Jayko and Joe in their first ever competition showed progression in their approach throughout the afternoon and attracted complimentary words from much more experience players.

We’ll be back for more at the next round on March 6

 

 

Hampshire Team League – Round 1

After a bit of a rest, the Hampshire Team Series returned today with round 1 held in a new location at Fleming Park instead of the usual spot in St Marys.

It looks like some gentle pushing of the event on Facebook had helped with a good turn out for the “regular” teams (Southampton University, Southampton City, Fleming Park, Priory and Summit) and first appearances from Winchester University and Matsumachi. With Priory fielding 2 teams I think this was the first time we had to split the entry into pools. We were drawn in a pool with Matsumachi, Southampton City, and Summit with the other pool made up of the 2 Priory teams, Winchester University and Fleming Park.

We kicked off with a 3 – 1 victory over Southampton City, with some nicely performed techniques from all concerned. We followed up with a 4-1 victory over Matsumachi and 3-1 win against Summit to finish up the winner of our pool with Southampton City in 2nd place. In the other pool the 2 Priory teams came out on top.

Having got fully into their stride, the team took a convincing victory against Priory 2 in the semi final including a nice ippon hold for James who was mixing it with the heavyweights while still recovering from a nasty cold.

Priory 1 took the other semi final ahead of Southampton City, setting up a Southampton University vs Priory 1 final. As both the teams have previously won the series, it was always going to be a close match.

Matthias and his opposite number kicked things off and immediately showed how the match was going to go, as both players put yuko and waza-ari scores on the board. Eventually however Priory were the first to convert the scores to ippon and took a 1-0 lead. Not happy with that, Ignas went out and very purposefully equaled things up scoring ippon in a few seconds with a nice clean sumi-gaeshi.

With the score even at 1-1, Andre was up and shrugging off an ankle injury from the semi final he found himself in another close match but persevered to take an early waza-ari lead. The contest continued in a very close manner with both players trying everything but struggling to score. Unfortunately a committed uchi mata attempt from Andre was judged to have been a dangerous head dive and he was disqualified leaving Priory leading 2-1.

That left James in the position he had feared as he faced his strongest opposition of the day. He got stuck in however and we were shouting huge encouragement as he countered a weak attack with a hold. Unfortunately the Priory player proved too strong, escaping and setting up a strong ippon throw to give Priory the victory for the first round of the series.

Final results :

1. Priory 1
2. Southampton University
3. Southampton City/Priory 2

Well done to Matthias, Ignas, Andre and James for a great display of judo, and big thanks to the support of the other teams and officials for making it a good afternoon’s entertainment for everyone.

We will be losing some players before the next round in February so if you fancy a fun introduction to judo competition, watch this space!

No Sunday training, and Hampshire Closed entries

Hi folks,

There will be no Sunday session at the university this week – we will be away at the University Championships in Sheffield.

To save you missing out, why not head down and visit the folk at the Solent Uni club instead:

http://southamptonjudo.com/training/

Finally, if you intend to enter the Hampshire Closed and have not yet got your entries in, make sure you get it sorted ASAP. Entries close on Monday 23 Feb. Details here:

http://www.britishjudo.org.uk/events/hampshire-senior-closed-under-16-closed

Gary

Warwick University Student Tournament 2015

Despite having been aware of it for a couple of years, this was the first time we had managed to attend Warwick University’s student judo tournament. With everyone done with exams and BUCS looming in just a month’s time it was well timed to get a feel of what we need to work on and to start the final block of training with a bang.

So a small but keen group of people met on University Road at stupid o’clock on Saturday morning, climbed into a clean car and hit the road. Just over 2 hours later, a filthy car pulled into the car park at Warwick University, defeating the pessimistic forecast time from the sat nav and the need to take a long diversion after some fool closed the A34 near Oxford by parking a lorry in the ditch.

After a chilled out start to the day, with everyone making an appropriate weight, the ladies kicked events off with some great contests and then James was the first Southampton player in action, fighting in the u90 novice kyu grade category. Despite a few nerves at his first competition in a few years, and losing the first contest to the eventual gold medallist, he kept his composure and pulled off two nice wins with throws and ground work in the following contests to take the silver medal in the category.

After a break while the intermediate team category pools were fought, our team was in action – the 3 Southampton players augmented by the addition of Ellis in the heavyweight slot. Uncertain about the level of the teams in our pool, we got off to a great start with a 3-2 win against Strathclyde – Ben scoring ippon with soto maki-komi to take his first 10 points towards his 1st Dan and Marc flattening his opponent with the first of several big hip throws.

Next up was the Coventry team who along with Nottingham were starting to look like the strongest teams in the pool. A win and a bye put Coventry into the lead but a bye for Callum and another solid performance from Marc evened things up at 2-2.

It was all up to Ellis and he put in a spirited performance but was not able to break through the Coventry player’s defence and conceded the contest by 2 waza-ari scores.

The machinations in the pool meant that a win against Nottingham would most likely put us through to the finals. Unfortunately their team was just as strong as Coventry and they took a 3-0 lead with 2 strong throws and a bye. Marc completed a great day with another cracking hip throw, switching to harai goshi for variety and we were done for the day.

We had expected a tough day having arrived with a 3 man team, so all things considered it was a good day out with some nice confidence boosting wins ahead of BUCS. Unfortunately the pattern of byes meant Callum only got a single contest but everyone else was showing improvements since the London University tournament. Now we have 3 weeks hard work to get everyone into the best possible form for BUCS

You can see all the photos here : https://www.flickr.com/photos/southamptonuniversityjudo/sets/72157650050178798/

London University Open 2014

After a year out, we were back at the London University Open on Sunday Nov 23. This year had Marc, Szymon, Will, Ben and Callum taking part. As ever the level of the competition was high and was great experience for everyone in advance of BUCS next term.

Ben and Will got things started in the u60 and u66 categories respectively. Unfortunately despite some spirited fighting Ben was not able to proceed from the pool stage. Will did not have much more luck in his contests despite some strong tomoe-nage attacks.

Marc was in action next at U73, having had his preparation for the competition hampered by an injured hand. A slightly shakey start in his first contest saw him in the repechage stage earlier than planned but he stepped it up in the following contests to show good fitness and tactical awareness. The effort took its toll however and in the fight for a place in the bronze medal match he lost out to a much fresher player to finally finish in 7th place.

Finally Callum and Szymon were up at U81. For Callum it was a new challenge as the grade banding meant he was one of the lowest graded players in the category. There was not a lot of sign of that in his first contest as he showed a great level of fitness to dominate the contest and proceed to the second round. Szymon also fought well to take his place in the second round.

Things got a lot harder in the second round with both facing strong players from Oxford University and being relegated to the repechage. Szymon continued his habit of meeting favourites early by meeting the eventual gold medallist while Callum’s swiss opponent eventually ended up with bronze.

Callum was unable to progress after facing a much more experienced opponent but Szymon got right back in the mix to make his way to fight for a place in the bronze medal contest. After a tough contest he was leading with a few seconds to go but a momentary loss of focus saw him caught for ippon and a final position of 7th.

A long and tough day but a lot of valuable experience for everyone to build on for the competitions coming up in the new year.

 

Another academic year gets underway

Start of another academic year and the club is waking up from a nice relaxing summer to welcome new and old faces onto the mat.

If you are new to Southampton, come on down to the Bunfight on Wednesday 24 September to meet some of the current club members and find out what we are all about. We are also running taster sessions on Sunday 28 September at 4pm or you can just come on down to our first beginners session on October 2 at 8pm and have a go.

We let everyone come along and try a couple of sessions for free so that you can make an informed decision about whether Judo might be the sport for you. You can find lots more information about the club on our website at http://www.soton.ac.uk/~judo

Hope to see you soon!

BUCS photos

Rather slow turnaround this year, but here are my favourites from the photos taken at BUCS.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/southamptonuniversityjudo/sets/72157642066336783/

Sun 23 Feb – No Judo

No session this sunday as we are away at BUCS. Normal service again from Tuesday!

Session details

Hi folks,

A quick round up of what is happening over the next few sessions:

– This Thursday (tonight!) Owen will be recapping the techniques that people need to demonstrate to grade this term

– On Sunday 1st there is no session as I am on holiday but the next round of the Hampshire Team championships is on so you could either take part or head down to watch. Chat to Josh for details, see the post below

– Thursday 5th will be the main day for gradings, primarily for beginners grading to 6 Kyu. Make sure you have reviewed the syllabus and asked about anything you are not sure about.

– Sunday 8th, I am back and there will be a session at the normal time

Would be lovely to see more people at the remaining Tuesday sessions of the year – the BUCS championship is going to be on us very quickly in the new year!

See you all when I get back from holiday!