December 2009 Promotions
The following Suzuran athletes were promoted on December 29, 2010.
 Carlos — Sankyo Brown Belt |
 Thomas — Sankyo Brown Belt |
 Katie — Yellow Belt |
 Emil — Orange Belt |
The following Suzuran athletes will be promoted on Wednesday December 29, 2010:
Please attend the promotion ceremony in support of our athletes’ continued success.
Two weeks after Dallas, we decided to have Emil compete at the 8th Annual Brian Olson Winter Classic tournament in Boulder Colorado on December 4, 2010. Yep, another 4:30 Saturday morning with a long drive and then a long wait. The tournament invitation said that the registration would close 8:30 am so we were there early. Of course, reality showed that the registration closed 1 hour later.
Anyway, Emil and dad had a good breakfast and then we went back to the tournament site for the mandatory waiting. Emil’s bracket consisted of 4 boys and 1 girl, all weighing in at 52 lbs or below. Emil warmed up with the OTC kids and then it was match time.
Emil’s first match was against Adian from the OTC. Emil showcased that he now knows how to handle Adian’s favorite throw just fine. Alas, Emil got impatient attacking Adian with a Sukui Nage allowing Adian to use his favorite counter not once but twice winning Adian the match.
Next, Emil fought Natasha from Hyland Hills Judo showcasing his Tomoe Nage yet again. The sensei from Hyland Hills looked quite surprised to say the least. 
Isaac from the OTC faced Emil in the third match of the day. This was clearly Emil’s best match of the day even though he had to make due with dad’s coaching… the OTC coaches have suddenly stopped being neutral when Emil fights one of their kids. The match went to golden score with Emil coming out a winner.
The forth match of the day saw Malek from the Denver Buddhist Temple as the opponent. Alas, a camera malfunction prevented the video from being recorded. Surpringly, Emil got pinned and lost — for some reason, he’d forgotten how escape a Kesa Getame! Time to work that escape until it is imprinted.
Emil walks off the match saying “the only thing good about this day is that it’s over” but that was not the case. As it turned out, there was a three-way tie for second place so Emil needed to fight two more matches!
Back to fighting Isaac again, still with a malfunctioning video camera. (It’s not good to drop them!) Emil lost the match but we can’t remember on what.
For match 6, the camera was back in business and Emil came out with speed against Malek. Alas, he was caught and that ended the day without a medal. So, we packed up, drove back and Emil went on to his next assignment of the day: the Toys4Teller Christmas float.
Next competition is the Olympic Training Center Winter Classic in Colorado Springs on January 22, 2011. We hope that you come watch our athletes fight!
Videos:
In the end, there’s only you and your drive to win.
Your hometown will not rally behind you, there will be no marching band, no cheerleaders, no large scholarships, and most people will not even remember the name of your sport even after hearing you say the name of it to them several times.
If you get very good, your name will be more known in Tokyo, Japan and San Paolo, Brazil than it will be in the town where you grew up.
Read the rest of the article here.
The Suzuran competition team has just returned from the 2010 Dallas Invitational Judo Championships where Dan, Thomas, and Emil represented the Suzuran colors. Our quest began at 5 AM Friday morning where the team met up for the 750 mile-long trip to Grapevine, Colorado. 13 hours later, the team arrived at the hotel for weigh-in and a well-deserved meal — Dan was cutting weight so he had nothing to eat or drink all the way down to the competition venue.
After dinner, the competitors spent some time relaxing in the pool after which is was sleep time. being Emil’s first night in a hotel room, he bounced around for a while stating how awesome everything was. Then, reality hit home making him miss his room, his mom, and dogs… it wasn’t easy to fall asleep for the little guy.
Emil was first out from the Suzuran team on Mat 4. Emil’s match was the fifth match of the day and he was visibly tired. Emil’s opponent threw Emil with a Tomoe Nage and that was it for the first match.
Jeff coached Emil before his second match and a different Emil entered the match. As the video shows, this was Emil’s best match to date even after biting his tongue. Emil fought through the tears but his opponent succeeded with a Yuko. One of the referees tried to wave the Yuko off but to no avail. Emil was thereby done for the day coming back to where the team sat with a bleeding nose.
After coming home, Emil told us that he was scared of fightning it Texas. The kids are better trained because “they had blue belts on.” Oops, no one explained to Emil about the use of white and blue belts in a real tournament. We’ll do better next time chalking this one up as experience on how to travel, how to sleep in a hotel room, and how bigger tournaments work.
Next up was Thomas on Mat 1 who has had a long wait due to a slow mat. His first opponent was Bobby Merriman from Becerra Judo (Garland, Texas) who was voted the Best Junior Player at the 2007 Dallas Invitational, 1st place winner at the 2008 USA Judo National Olympic Championships, 1st place winner of the 2010 USA Judo Youth and Scholastic National Championships, and so on. Alas, Thomas shows up in a similar mode as Emil and he gets thrown. Not the best start of the day for Thomas.
For his next match, Thomas show up to scrap. Unfortunately, this is just not Thomas’ day and he loses on point. Just one of these days and we’re sure that Thomas will come back to his old self the next time around.
Dan came to Dallas with one goal in mind: to win his third straight gold medal. Dan started out the day by saying “I smell gold in the air” and boy was he right.
As it turned out, Dan’s favorite throw of the day was Drop Seoinage, which he shows off in his first match; he throws so fast that the camera is not keeping up.
Dan’s second match was against the future second-place winner of the division. Dan was clearly taking the match to his opponent causing the opponent to receive several penalties. Another Drop Seoinage and Dan pins his opponent. Time runs out and Dan wins a well-deserved victory.
In the third match, Dan again surprised the camera with a quick win using — you guessed it — Seoinage.
Dan’s fourth and final match was the fight for the gold. Another drop throws moves the match to the ground for a good scramble. Back to standing, a quick foot sweep and the gold is Dan’s. Third gold in 3 years! Dan simply does not lose in Texas!
The day ended with Dan on the top of the podium saluting Uncle Scott who could not join the team on the road trip. Early that day, the team has decided to return back to Colorado as soon as possible so we pack up, endure another 13-14 hours in the car finally arriving back home a bit after 3:00 AM Sunday morning.
The trip was long and wearing but clearly worth it. The goal is now set on the 2011 USA Junior Olympic Judo Championships in July, 2011. With training and desire, the Suzuran team will do even better there
Dan has been promoted to a Suzuran Dojo brown belt. Let us be the first to congratulate Dan to this well-deserved promotion.
At the same time, Mitch finally walked through a belated birthday gauntlet.
