The Women in Judo

Thank you - Mesdemoiselles - you have been great

Chapeau - Hats off.

Tokyo - Return to Kodokan

Our young ladies were so thrilled by their japanese experience that they have asked when they returned to the Kodokan to sleep in the Japanese dormitory which is directly on a tatami with a futon.

Akita - Good Bye party

The Akita judokas have prepared a good bye party for us. Food and beverage were provided with the usual speech from both sensei and from the team captain.

Akita - Koshiki-no-kata

Sannohe Sensei is performing with his student the Koshiki-no-kata. It is a very old kata which orginally belongs to jujutsu. It is a kata that has to be performed for the 8th Dan.

Akita - Painting Museum

We visited the Hirano art Museum where a painting from Tsuguji Fujita (1886-1968). It is the longest canvas painting in the world.

Tsuguji Fujita - Events in Akita

Akita - Home Stay

During that week-end our three young girls were staying in a family and therefore had the opportunity to live the japanese life style - here they are enjoying a fine diner that Yuko, the hostess, prepared.

Akita - Group Picture

The group picture - Players from Akita High School and the team University.

Akita - Training

Alix on the Mat

Axelle on her way to execute Osoto

Jade in full motion

William is in big trouble

As in Konan Daigaku - Training lasts between 2h30 and 3 hours.

• 20 minutes warm up.
• 10 minutes Taiso
• 10 minutes Tachi Waza Uchikomi
• 50 minutes Tachi Waza Randori
• 10 minutes Ne Waza Uchikomi
• 30 minutes Ne Waza Randori
• 3 sets of 10 San ni Uchikomi (power uchikomi).

It is a very intense and adding the heat (30 C + / 86 F +)

On that Sunday morning - Training was with judokas from Akita high school and the University.

Akita Daigaku - Female High School

We left Kobe very early that day to go 900 km up north in Akita - we arived at around 3 pm - just in time for practice which was schedule at 4pm.

A group of 14 female judokas were waiting for us.

The training lasted for 2h30

Konan - Good Bye Party

A little good bye party was organized for us. They gave to the girls the traditional Kimono.
A wonderful group of people who are truly dedicated to judo and do everything to share their passion.

The team in a traditional kimono

Konan Daigaku - Our last day

Our last practice was in the same format than the other days except for a reminder from Yamasaki Sensei. The fundamentals of judo. Power is not enough and power does not do any good if you do not have technique. He spent the last 30 minutes having all students working on Uchimata with no partner.

We can see Axelle working on it.

Jade Nagekomi - Konan Daigaku

Nagekomi means repetitive throwing practice - it is indeed an exercise that is done systematically after the one hour plus of randori.
We usually use crash pad - however some hard core judoka will not.

See Jade throwing and being thrown

Jade in Randori - Konan Daigaku

Axelle in Randori - Konan Daigaku

Typical Training Schedule @ Konan Daigaku

The typical training schedule at Konan Daigaku is:

20 minutes warming up

10 minutes standing uchikomi (Repeated practice)

10 x 3 minutes Ne Waza Randori (mat work free practice)

10 x 5 minutes Tachi Waza Randori (standing free practice)

20 minutes Nage Komi

10 minutes Taiso (Stretching)

Kyoto - Himeji

The ladies had a chance to visit Himeji castle, which is registered on UNESCO's World Heritage list

While in Kyoto we visited two large temples Nishi Honganji & Higashi Honganji located in downtown Kyoto

Heading to Kobe & to Konan University

Our next destination is Konan Daigaku located in Kobe

In 3h30 with the bullet train from Tokyo to Kobe

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On their way to Konan Daigaku's dormitory

Good Bye Kodokan

Posing in front of Jigoro Kano's statue

At the Kodokan

Ceremony All Japan Championship

The award Ceremony for the Ladies and the welcome ceremony for the Males.

All Japan Championship - University Team - No Weight Category

There is no weight category in the team competition

A 130 kg player can meet a 73 kg.

In this case, the lighter player was able to score a koka

but lost anyway by Ippon few seconds later.

All Japan Championship - University Team

This is the event of the year - All Japan University Team Championship.
40+ Female Teams

62 Male Teams.

We stay all day and came back on Sunday for the final

This is a must go in your life of a judoka.

Women University Team - Getting Ready for All Japan Championship

Dozen of University teams came to the Kodokan to practice on the Friday. Saturday a major event will take place at the Budokan Arena; it is the All Japan University Team Championship.

A true pleasure to watch all these students whose average is about 20 years old.

Matsumae Dojo Practice

The PE teacher from the French Lycée of Tokyo took us to
Matsumae Judo Club, a local dojo located in the suburb of Tokyo, which part of Tokai University.

Tokai is one of the most prestigious university for Judo. They have produced a certain number of champions and one of them being Yasuhiro Yamashita.

The Dutch & San Francisco Judo Ladies Team

The dream team

Female Judoka from Holland

A group of 4 women from Holland came to Japan for a 4 weeks training in different universities.
We decided to combine our training session together.

Cultural Visit

After a short hour of running and conditioning - we went to visit the French Lycée of Tokyo. We had to ask to the Police station (Koban) our way - since the address system is not like in the US.
We were welcomed by the PE teacher who is a Judo teacher as well. A very nice fellow orginally from Bordeaux who have been living in Japan for 30 years. He kindly showed us the school. We happened to arrive at the same time of the Bac results - there were some animation at that time.

We then went to visit the Senso-ji - We were making sure to be at the Kodokan for 6pm - time where the judo class starts - at the end of the woment class - the three girls went to the main dojo and were able to do randori with the Kodokan Sensei and the Police Department Sensei and to throw them if the technique applied was good.

Final Bow - Mokso

Always showing the respect

Mokso - the moment to empty your mind

First Training at the Kodokan

They landed at 2pm - they were at the Kodokan at 4h30pm - at 6pm they were practicing.
They were right away in the ambiance. They have been introduced by the international departement to head Sensei who had to make an evaluation of their level.
Once this was done, they were able to work on a few technique.
Since axelle was arriving at the same time at the airport, she was able to join the training in the next day.

Dormitory @ the Kodokan

The girls are sleeping in the Kodokan dormitory - It can sleeps 20 - it is very spartan.
They had the opportunity to share the room with a university team of 8 japanese female judokas

Just about to arrive in Narita

Alix & Jade

are about to land in Narita and can see the rice field of the airplaine window.

Axelle is coming 4 hours later

Training in Japan

The young ladies will have two trainings a day - one in a morning, It will be either conditioning or Judo training. It will last roughly 1h30.

In the evening it will be solely Judo and the training time will vary from 1h30 to 3h. At the Kodokan, they will have a chance to study standing and mat technics in more details, mixed with Randori (free fight). In some other dojos it will be uchikomi (repetition exercices) then Randori. The average randori is 4 minutes and the Judoka will do roughly 10 randori.

Jade who am I ?

My name is Jade Corenthin, I’m fifteen finishing my sophomore year.

Judo has been a sport I’ve been doing for the past 3 years and a half.

It’s a very good experience to train with other people, men and woman in the dojo I train in.

The training is very sufficient and keeps me going.

I have just been promoted to my green belt, and will continue working hard to get to the higher rank.

Other than judo, I do piano and I sing, those are things that keep me focused and relaxed.

To keep me in shape, I run with some people of my judo team every Sunday,

and try to run with my dad on Saturdays.

Going to Japan will be a great experience.

Learning the culture and visiting a new country will be very rewarding, but on top of it, being in Japan means training with people that have a great experience and being in a country where judo originated.

Axelle - Who am I ?

So, I started Judo in Germany, where I practiced for about 3 years and a half.

Then in France I stopped. I started again about 2 years ago, and I am currently an orange belt.

Outside of judo, I do a lot of horse-back riding and theater.

I really enjoy reading, and I especially like Japanese mangas.

My favorite ones are" Naruto", " One Piece", " Full Metal Alchemist" and " Nagima".

I love Japan, and its culture, and I could basically live off sushi,

but besides that I like (almost) everything.

From reading so much mangas, I was able to pick up a few Japanese words, and its fun. I give myself 300% for everything I like, and stick with it.

Alix - Who am I ?

My name is Alix and I'm 15 years old. I study at Lycee Français La Pérouse in San Francisco

and just finished my sophomore year.

I have several passions the main one is judo.

I've been practicing judo since the age of 5 and I am now a brown belt working on passing my black belt.

I also appreciate circus but more specifically trapeze, I preformed a couple of time,

and I even uploaded a video on

youtube

This trip is a great opportunity for me to discover a new country and mainly discovering where judo came from.

This trip is a once in a life time chance and I am grateful to learn different style of judo throughout different cities in Japan.

Objectives

• Perfecting their own Judo techniques
• Meeting with high level female judokas who are college students
• Discovering the rich ancestral Japanese culture
• bringing to their home dojo new techniques, new teaching appraoches

The Study of Judo

Discovering the japanese culture through the study of judo.

Three 15 years old female athletes:

Jade Corenthin

Axelle Weeger

Alix Desmole

Will study and practice Judo in three different schools and Universities:

1. Kodokan
2. Konan Daigaku
3. Akita Daigaku

Women in Judo

Judo among women is one of the most popular sports - even though the number of female players are not as important as male judokas, the number of women practicing judo is growing steadily.

Some dates to give you an idea how long did it take to have this sport fully recognized by the international community:

• 1925 First female competition at the Kodokan
• 1934 First official female judo class in France
• 1949 First US female (Ruth Gardner) to study at the Kodokan
• 1964 Judo is an olympic sport for men
• 1988 Female Judo is a demonstration sport at the Olympic games
• 1992 Judo is an olympic sport for women