Hi all, well 33 days till the World Masters and my training is going strong (this week anyway).

Last night I went up to Reading and trained with Dave and the guys again.
The exciting finale to the Tuesday session in Reading is what has been dubbed "The Devil Run" The run, is basically uchi komi plus running. And it kills!

What Dave does is setup a normal mat area, then lay a couple of "lanes" of mats laid lengthwise extending from the edge of the main area to the far wall of the hall. We then do say 20 uchi komi (I started with Ippon Seoi Nage) then you run to the end of the lane and back 5 or so times, give or take Dave's sadistic leanings.
Then you do more uchi Komi, this time I got Te Gurumu. So yup lift that 90kg bloke, put him down and repeat till Dave gets bored and sends you running again.

Once you have done some more running, yup more uchi komi (more seoi nage for me thanks), then more running, them more Te Guruma, then more running.

We only did one set of this, this week. We did two sets last week, but I think Dave took pity on me. Probably he took pity on everyone elses eardrums as I was screaming loud to get those pickups done. I don't think anyone else makes as much noise as me... it's probably embarrassing if I think about it long enough.

Anyway, thanks to Dave and the guys for working me hard. It exactly what I need building up to the World Masters. I am building the ability to fight fatigued and hopefully improving the time it takes for me to be fatigued too. ;-)

Lance.

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Please remember to pop over to www.teamnzjudo.com and get all the news in regard to the team, you can make a donation to the cause there as well.

Well, with the 2008 World Masters Judo Championships less than 2 months away it is good to have been back in the gym today.

I have joined a local Gym near where I live, I previous was a member of a small gym near the office, but am hoping that being closer to home it'll fit better with home life.

I haven't done any gym work since last year, so I am just doing a quite general programme for a few weeks to get the muscles back into the swing. I am focussing on upper body as that is where I am weakest. So only squats for the legs really, though I am doing some running and rowing also. Then for now it is simple lat pulldowns, chest press, shoulder press really. It's partially my wanting to start general and part the gym wanting to make sure everyone does a general programme. I'd love to argue the point, but I'm not in the shape to argue ;-)

I'd love to find a www.crossfit.com gym around here, but sadly none near by.

Anyway, my normal issues with blokes with big/massive biceps and delts and pot bellies. The downside of a general fitness gym. Sports gyms are so much better. If you are a body builder go to a body builders gym and leave the recreational gyms alone. You don't impress the ladies here sorry mate. And you don't impress anyone with a background in sport or training, if you want to do the big boy weights, and get the big body builder physique, go to a body builders gym and let them tear you apart.

Ah well, at least there was no one there who felt the need to wear a weights belt and gloves to work on the weights machines. ;-)

Finally, sorry to be such a begger, but it'd really appreciate it if you'd consider donating to the 2008 World Masters campaign. DONATE HERE Any donations go towards the whole team not just me. There are four of us going over and as you can imagine it is quite financially difficult to fly there, get accomodation, etc etc.

Better yet, we'd love to secure some corporate sponsors, if your firm would be interested please do contact me ( lw@judocoach.com ).

for more info on the team and to stay up to date with the latest news try our new website over at www.teamnzjudo.com

Thanks Lance

Hi everyone.
Well happily I completed the literature review for my Level 5 coaching / Bsc course this week.
many MANY late nights, haven't seen my bed before 2am all week. But in the end I think it came together into a coherent whole. My research project (which the literature review is the foundation for) is about the relationships between the number of attacks, the number of scores and the final result of a Judo fight.

The aim is to expand on my study from the 2006 Commonwealth Judo tournamentand to take advantage of all the support that doing this as a Bsc. research project provides me.

The downside of it however is that I have done no training at all this week.

In other news I launched http://www.teamnzjudo.com/ to support/promote our little team going to the World Masters. Please take a look at the site and please, if you can, consider donating via the paypal link.

Happily the www.judo4parents.com site is back online. The site is all about Judo for parents rather than for players/coaches. So take a look and let me know what you think.

This evening, I recorded the first half of a Podcast with Mike & Gene for www.thejudopodcast.com we are going to finish up on Sunday night. It is all about the lecture I did at University of Bath back in April about coaching Digital Natives. So far we have branched off into a general geek chat, but it is really fun.

Anyway...
totally exhausted after all the late nights. But happy to have got the work done and be free to concentrate on the World Masters preparation. This is both the Judo prep and getting all the details together. I really need to try and find some funds to pay for things as so far I am seriously out of pocket. :( Hopefully someone reading this knows someone who might finance the trip?

Talk soon everyone!

Lance.

Hi everyone,
I am really pleased to say that I have just got a site up for our adventure to the 2008 World Masters event in June. What started as a idea after training with Aaron has expanded into a 4 person team with a website/blog and everything.

http://www.teamnzjudo.com/

That is the url for the site, it is up and running now, if perhaps a little lacking in content so far. But it shall soon grow! And why a website? Becuase this little trip is getting financially painful for us, and me specifically.

I decided to take on the role as manager and book everything and try and make it a bit special for us all. So I booked flights together over, booked accomodation, entered us, even ordered team Judogi (care of www.toraki.com ) all out of my own pocket.

It's as you can imagine, getting kinda painful on the wallet now.

So... the begging begins!
I am now seeking sponsors,patrons, donors for out little campaign.
On the http://www.teamnzjudo.com/ there is a donate button and you can contact me direct if you our your business/employer would be willing to sponsor us. Obviously, I can offer any sponsor great publicity via this site, the team site, the podcast, planet Judo, all sorts!

The publicity engine is about to be started, so it'd be great to have some sponsors onboard prior to the "big push".

so please consider it, all donations welcomed large or small.

Please go talk to your sales guys, your PR people, your boss, that rich neighbour and please help us out, it'll be really appreciated I assure you.

If nothing else, please do visit the team site and let me know what you think.

Lance

I spotted this in a blog the other day, lost it and found it again today.

http://tinyurl.com/6jaw76


Awesome tale of sportsmanship, which I hope to we Judoka is much less amazing than other sports people. I HOPE that everyone reading this would have come up with a similar response to the situation.

If you are a coach, I hope your are coaching your players to have this sort of attitude.

Now Rhadi, given that podcast you were on, maybe this article might explain why Gene and people like me find some of the things you say horrific.

Lance.