This is a fantastic opportunity over the Easter break for our juniors to experience training with judo players from Tahiti (and to make some international judo friends).

Tahiti Poster

Mike Griffiths competed in the 2012 Commonwealth Championships under 66kg Masters division in Cardiff. He won two of his matches and secured a silver medal.

Congratulations, Mike!

One of Woy Woy Judo Club Instructors, twenty six year old Daniel Simmons, will be among a contingent of seventy team members consisting of men and women from all states selected to represent Australia at the 2011 Oceania Judo Union World Judo Cup in Apia, Samoa in November.

This Olympic Qualifying Event will take place over three days from November 11th followed by a four day International Training Camp.

Simmons secured his spot on the National ladder in the Men’s u73kg division, after achieving 2nd place at the 2011 Victorian International Open In late August and a 3rd place two weeks later at the NSW International Open. The NSW International Open is a heavily contested tournament with many National and International Competitors from New Caledonia, Japan & France taking part.

Simmons said “I was very excited to be named in the team, I’ve worked hard this year, dedicating all my spare time to training and I am very proud to represent my country. I was fortunate to compete internationally for the first time in July at the World Cups in Miami, Venezuela & El Salvador. There I watched the World’s Elite Judo players vying for points to make the Olympic Team and although I am not yet at Olympic contention it inspired me take my judo to the next level”.

From October 24th to 29th Daniel, with his fellow team mates will travel to the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra to attend the National Elite Training Camp. It is here they will physically prepare for the World Cup by partaking in daily High Endurance & Cardio workouts followed by four hours of judo.

Simmons said “The Olympic Qualifying Competitions are so wide spread that players barely have time to acclimatize before they’re off to the next event. Samoa will be no exception with very strong Judo expected from Russia, USA, Canada, Korea and Switzerland. I am very happy with my results so far, but there is always room for improvement; u73kgs has a lot of good players and good depth, I’m definitely looking at building on a my techniques before Samoa”

Woy Woy Judo Club Chief Instructor Danny Simmons [ 5th Dan ] is aware of what his son will be up against in Samoa, himself an Australian Representative and Silver Medallist at the 1968 Oceania Championships in New Zealand.

“I’m very proud of Daniel’s selection.” Danny said. “As he knows, being an Olympic qualifying event the competition will be very tough, but hopefully all his hard work will see him win a few fights and maybe a medal. Either way just being there is a reward in itself, the experience stays with you forever so good luck to all of them”.

Congratulations to our little monsters at the Budokan Monsters Tournament.

Under 31KG 8 Years and under Novice Division (Yellow Belts)

Sean – Gold
Ori – Silver

Under 31/35KG Combined Weight 8 Years and under Novice Division (Yellow Belts)

Ori – Silver
Sean – Bronze

Under 38KG 11 Years and under Novice Division (Yellow Belts)

Steven – Gold

Under 38/42KG Combined 11 Years and under Novice Division (Yellow Belts)

Steven – Bronze

Congratulations to Kieren Handley for his performance at Sunday’s Kyu Grades Tournament.

Kieren won Gold in his under 73kg division and went on to take Silver in the Open division.

Well done!

10th – 12th June 2011

The long weekend of June saw Woy Woy Judo Club take flight to Perth for the 2011 National Judo Competition.

Saturday saw Jordan Smith take on Australia’s best Junior Men in the U81Kg event. He was unbeaten in all his matches and received Gold for the national title. He is now looking to attend the Junior World Championships in Cape Town, South Africa (3rd to 6th
November 2011).

On Sunday Kayla Wells (Senior Women U73Kg), Mike Griffiths (Nage-no-kata), Jordan Smith (Senior Men U81Kg) and Danny Simmons (Senior Men U73Kg) took to the mats.

Danny was unfortunate to have a bad run and was unplaced on this occasion. However he will be setting off to Miami, USA for the 1st and 2nd July 2011, then on to Isla de Margarita, Venezuela on the 9th and 10th July 2011 to represent Australia in the World Cup events.
Kayla Wells produced the “Woy Woy Judo Club Throw Of The Day” (Ouchi-gari) along her way to a very creditable 5th place, just missing out in the fight for the bronze medal.

Mike Griffiths produced an outstanding performance in the Nage-no-kata to walk away with a silver medal along with his partner, Rod.

This left Jordan Smith to rise to the occasion of Senior mens U81Kg category. Not satisfied with Gold the day before, Jordan pulled out all the stops and went on undefeated through to the final, where he gave a credible fight against the vastly experienced Brent Iverson. He took silver medal in this category and is now hoping for selection for the Senior World Championships in Paris later this year.

To top off the weekend Danny Simmons Snr was being judged for International Grades Examiner status while judging the Nage-no-kata.

So Woy Woy took 1 Gold, 2 silvers and a 5th place at this prestigious National event. All who attended were mighty proud.

Photos will hopefully be uploaded here soon.

All Clubs & Members

This is to advise that the following Club tournaments planned for this Sunday 26 June 20, 2011 have been cancelled.

Monster League Blacktown PCYC
Lake Macquarie PCYC Games

Judo NSW would like to apologize on behalf of Blacktown PCYC and Samurai Judo Clubs for any inconvenience these cancellations cause.

Regards,
Phil McDermott
Sport Development
Judo NSW

This year the Australian National Judo Championships will be broadcast live online. Watch out for Jordan, Kayla, Daniel and Mike.

The broadcast will start Saturday 11th, 9.00am.

Watch it below or click here to go to the site


Streaming .TV shows by Ustream

Daniel will represent Australia in the men’s u73kg div at the World Cup in Miami Florida U.S.A. July 2nd U.S. Open and 3rd, Miami Open.
Financial support via a donation to WWJC would be appreciated.

For information, please look here.

KINGS OF KATA
Woy Woy Judo Club Instructor Mike Griffiths (Shodan) partnered Rodney Moulder (Shodan) from Western Warriors Judo Club, Penrith to perform the Nage-no-kata at the Judo Black Belt Register of N.S.W. annual Kata Competion, Olympic Park on Sunday May 22nd.

Kata is a synchronized demonstration of techniques, judged by more advanced Kata specialist of higher grades.
Judo has several kata, mostly created in the late 19th century by Jigoro Kano, the founder of judo. Judo kata preserve a number of techniques that are not permitted in competition or in randori (free play) including punches, kicks, and the use of the weapons.

Due to the distance of Penrith to Woy Woy, Mike & Rodney have been training every Saturday at Homebush, somewhat central, in order to perfect their movements of the Nage-no-kata.

The Nage-no-kata is a throwing kata in judo.
This kata is composed of 3 techniques from each of the five throw groups in judo: hand techniques (Te waza), hip techniques (goshi waza), foot techniques (ashi waza), rear sacrifice techniques (ma sutemi waza) and side sacrifice techniques (Yoko sutemi waza).Each of these 15 techniques is performed twice in the specified order, once with kumi-kata (grip style) to the right and once to the left.

Demonstration of this kata as Tori (the thrower) is often included in tests for the Shodan (1st Black Belt) rank. The role of Uke (the throwee) requires being thrown 30 times, and is traditionally filled by the more senior partner.

Their practice made perfect by winning the best Kata of the day.
They will now have their names engraved on the trophy, a Samurai sword and represent the State of N.S.W. at the Australian National Judo Titles in Perth on the June long weekend.