He does that too?

The judo season is coming to an end, which means there won't be a lot of judo blogs to write upcoming weeks. Then I thought to myself: wait, this is A Typical Ginger Blog, and gingers can do more stuff than just judo (they really do, even without a soul). That is why I decided I could change my blog a little. Now I will write blogs/upload videos about more personal interests than just judo.

Besides judo, I love to play the piano. I have had an electrical piano for the last two months, and I try to play on it daily (this is not always working out, school is killing me with the amount of homework they give me :s)

For one or another reason I had an entire hour of free time today (I finished my homework because I planned ahead for once :)), so I decided to record myself playing 'River Flows In You' by Yiruma. I hope the sound is how it should be, and I hope you like it :)

If there is anything wrong with the video (the frames are horrible, the sound is hideous, just let me know in the comments, and I will do my best to change it).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0IfAUdb_Rc&feature=youtu.be

Little me :)

Sadly I have not planned any tournament for the next weeks, so I had to find something else to write about. When I was going through all my old photos and videos online, I found a lot of old judo videos, and I thought it would be fun to share one of them.

After watching some of the videos I became curious about how long I have actually be doing judo, and after some research I found that I have been doing judo since the age of 6, which is 10 years ago. It is awesome to see that I started at such a young age. If you would ask around you'll find out a lot of kids have actually been doing several sports, and only a few stick to their first sport for years. Apparently I'm one of them, and I don't even regret it a little bit.

The video I wanted to share is quite a short one. It was a tournament here in my home town Culemborg. In the video I still have the orange belt, which indicates it must have been around 6 years ago (don't laugh at my long hair, it would only grow longer in the 2 years after this video).

How I hurt my neck

My previous blogs have raised some questions. There was one question which really stood out: ''How did you hurt your neck?'' I'm going to try and answer this question as complete as a possibly can.

The exact injury in my neck was a twisted vertebra. Actually, I had three twisted vertebrae. It happened in one of my tournaments earlier this year. April, to be exact. I sounds incredibly cliché, but it was a regular tournament in Schiedam. I had done my warming-up, sweat running down my forehead, and was waiting to face my first opponent. The judoka I was placed against was the black-belted Mr. Meijers (I refuse to say his first name because of privacy reasons). Anyway, the match didn't last long. In the first 30 seconds Mr. Meijers tried to throw me on my back using ippon seoi otoshi (judo throw), and I dove head-first into the tatami (the mat). The clip below shows some different techniques of the ippon seoi otoshi, and the one which starts at 1:30 demonstrates the best what it looked like when I hurt my neck.

                           (1:30 - the throw looks a lot like the throw because of which I hurt my neck)

My recovery took approximately 8 months, in which my vertebrae were twisted in reverse four times, of which three ultimately failed (I fell on my neck again those three times, twisting the vertebrae again). After the fourth time I decided to stop my trainings for a couple of weeks, with a successful outcome.

Now I'm fully recovered, and once again I'm training 5-6 times a week (don't ask me where I got the time from, because I don't have that much time. It is really hard to combine sport and school, but I'm trying my best).

I'M BACK!

Saturday, November 29 2014

I'm back! I can't believe it, but it's true. I am fully recovered from the injury in my neck, that is wh
at the physiotherapist told me (for those of you who don't know what happened, I'll explain what happend in full detail next blog). Yesterday the chance was given to me to prove that the physiotherapist was right. My first tournament in 8 months. Opponents, be prepared :)

Hengelo is where the JTP autumn tournament would take place, so that was my destination. For some reason the organisation decided my group would be the first group, and we had to gather and weigh at 7:30 AM, which meant I had to get up at 5:30 AM. Ughh.

Waking up that morning was not that easy. In fact, I was dead tired. Luckily my father made me a cup of coffee. I now know why students appreciate caffeine in the morning. I felt a little better after a steaming cup of coffee. We left at 6:00 AM and we drove to Hengelo in the silence of the morning.

I'm glad my weight was correct, because if it wasn't, I would be forced to lose it by running laps around the building. Try running laps at 7:30 AM, and I'll promise you'll not enjoy it.

After an exhausting warming-up I was ready to start the tournament. I was the first of the judoka to start, and I had to fight a guy who was a little shorter than me. Unfortunately, in all my tiredness, I lost the first match in about 15 seconds. I was incredibly disappointed in myself, and I swore I would win the next match. I don't know how seriously I took my oath, but in the second match I knocked my opponent out when I threw him on the tatami (mat). He didn't move for about 15 seconds, and then he started hyperventilating. It was really scary.

I won the rest of my matches that day, and I ended up in 3rd place. I could've done better, but still I was proud of what I accomplished. I could now honestly say that I'm back!

What do you mean I need lessons?

Saturday, November 22 2014

Unfortunately I'm not fully recovered yet, despite all the hard work. The vertebrae in my neck are still crooked, and for now there is nothing I can do about it. It was a pity to see al my friends from judo school Anton Geesink on the tatami in their judo gi, but I had to accept it. Everyone was there: Sam, Steven, Rens, Thomas, Teun & Tjerk were all present today, and I felt a little bit left out because of my injury.

Luckily my sensei thought of something for me to do. I could be, I still can't really believe it, a referee. Normally it takes years to succeed in becoming a judo referee, and I have never taken a single lesson in my life, but my sensei was confident and he said that it would be good for me.           I could be a referee in the category under 12 years, and I did surprisingly well. I was a little shy at first, but over the course of time I became more confident and in the end it was me that had the authority. 

Besides my injury and the lack of activity I enjoyed this tournament to the fullest. I have had an experience that I will remember for the rest of my life, and I am proud this honor was given to me.