Tomodachi Judo Club History
(and my Judo Diary, it seems ...)
You can contact Stephen C. Locke at
e-mail
.
and the
Tomodachi Judo Club
I started Judo in September 1968 when a new club was formed in
Bramalea,
Ontario,
by Bob Anderson. There were thirty students,
all of us white belt, except one orange belt.
On May 12, 1969, I received my yellow belt (Gokyu),
and on April 27, 1970, orange belt (Yonkyu).
In September 1971, I left for the
University of Waterloo
and
interrupted my study of Judo.
University life provided enough other
distractions that I did not go back to Judo until early 1980,
when I
joined Wayne Erdman's club that practised at
Waterloo
Square. I think John Hatashita owned
the dojo and he did teach once or twice.
Bob Zettl, who now runs
Asahi
(this link may be incorrect now)
Judo Club in
Kitchener-Waterloo
was a frequent assistant to Wayne.
Wayne gave me my green belt (sankyu) in April 1980 and
blue belt (nikyu) in November 1980.
In September 1981, I finally moved away from the University and got a job
in
Boca Raton, Florida.
However, I couldn't find a Judo club down here.
I looked in the Yellow Pages, called the Community Center
and thought I'd tried all of the possibilities.
After breaking a bone in my foot delayed me some more, I
finally decided to attend a 6-week Karate course
offered two evenings a week at a local middle school.
My first night, the instructor told me there was a Judo club
at the YMCA, and I found Peter Lacroix's club.
Pete promoted me to brown belt (ikkyu) in May 1983,
just after my son Jeff was born and 1st degree black belt (shodan)
on August 23, 1984. After a few years, Pete moved south to Hollywood
and I took over what was left of his club at the YMCA, eventually moving it
to
Florida Atlantic University.
In 1989 Pete moved to
Colorado Springs to teach at the
National
Judo Institute.
Just before leaving, he promoted me to 2nd degree
black belt (nidan) on May 14, 1989.
I continued the club at
FAU
for while, but attendance was
very low. With one of my students, Angelo Trento, then a brown belt,
I started a children's class at the
Boca Raton
Community Center in
January 1990.
We renamed our club Tomodachi Judo Club. (Tomodachi means Friend.)
Our first class was eight students, including my son, Angelo's
nephew, and two children of one of our friends.
The Community Center would only let us have one hour once a week.
As the club grew, we added additional hours.
Phil Porter, then president of the
United States Judo Association,
awarded me my 3rd degree black belt (sandan),
January 30, 1992,
just after my son Daniel was born. I thought that would be
my last Judo promotion for many, many years.
In September 1992, after 11 years of trying to get FAU to offer a
credit class in Judo, they finally let me teach one (for free).
The last two years there has been money to pay an instructor
and Angelo has been teaching that class.
He has also been teaching for the DARE program (a police
sponsored drug-awarenes program that runs activities for
middle chool children).
Angelo has also been teaching for the Community Center's
summer camp program.
Another student, James DiGeorgia has started classes at the Weiss
School for the Gifted in West Palm Beach. The focus of those classes is
Ju Jitsu. (James started Judo under Jerry Kunsman.)
I was also studying Ju Jitsu. I also attended several clinics conducted by Wally Jay.
On April 25, 1993, Mike Cobb promoted me to sandan in Ju Jitsu.
In September 1993, our club had over 50 members listed with the
USJA and was about the 75th largest
USJA club.
We picked up a new member who has helped us move to the
next rung on the ladder. Mike Szrejter was a sandan who
had started Judo back in the 1950s and had been a top level
competitor in Europe and in the U.S.
His father, Ed Szrejter, is currently
Managing Director of the
USJA.
Under Mike's guidance, we have started organizing
tournaments, that now have over 100 competitors.
We also have a major clinic set up for next year.
Our
USJA
membership has recently topped 100.
We have 6 black belts in the club, with 6 students
who could earn their black belts within a year.
We are just about to start a branch at Congress Middle
School in
Boynton Beach..
M.S. was promoted to yondan in 1994, and I was surprised
on January 23, 1995, with my promotion to yondan.
The
USJA
had a review of the rank histories
of its active members. [And has put the point system back in place.]
On May 24, 1995, Ed Szrejter, recently promoted to hachidan,
visited our club and announced a slate of promotions that had been
approved by the national promotion board.
I was promoted to godan,
M.S.'s previous promotion to godan was announced to the club,
Angelo Trento and Pat Shelow were promoted to sandan,
and James DiGeorgia to nidan.
Now we all have to work even harder!
Sometime in the next few months, Angelo Trento left the club.
At the December 17, 1995, clinic, Ed Szrejter, hachidan,
awarded two promotions: Williams Vasallo, Ikkyu,
and Tony Santana, Shodan. Tony splits his time
between our club and the Hollywood YMCA.
We now have nine black belts,
with five
brown belts who could make black belt within one year.
Wednesday and Saturday classes at the Boca Raton Community Center
are up around 25 or 30 students,
but smaller on Monday and Thursday when we also run classes at
Congress Middle School.
May 25-26, 1996, we held our first
United States Judo Association
Florida State Championship.
From July 7 to July 13, 1996, we hosted
a major clinic,
Camp Tomodachi.
Mark Gilston was promoted to Sandan;
Dr. Aaron Applebaum,
Daniel Laporta,
Mindy Szrejter,
Williams Vasallo, and Hans Vogt were
promoted to shodan.
Our club now has 14 black belts.
Mindy and Williams
also received "A" level (examiner) certification in
nage-no-kata. Several others, including
juniors and members of other clubs
were also promoted and/or kata certified.
My Senior Examiner status was renewed.
Camp Tomdachi 1997 should be even bigger.
Our next big event was the
Ladder tournament
on the labour day weekend.
There were 131 competitors,
competition began at 9 am. and didn't end until 7:30 pm.
but everything went quite smoothly
(the AC worked in the cafeteria).
We gave a half hour demonstration at the Community Center, September 7, 1996.
This is the third year that the clubs gave demonstrations there.
We filled the mat area. We even had time at the end for Mindy and Williams to do
the first three sets (both sides) of nage-no-kata.
Latest figures show our club as the seventeenth largest
USJA club. (This figure fluctuates.)
As we open open new centers, we
have tried to make sure that we get exclusive
rights to Judo and Ju Jitsu at the facilty.
October 14, 1996: Tomodachi became a non-profit organization officially.
October 19, 1996: Tony Bardaji, Nidan, merged his Coral Springs YMCA club into Tomodachi.
November 2, 1996: Pat Shelow opens up a branch at Coral Springs Aquatic Center.
November 3, 1996: demonstration at Boynton Beach Mall.
December 7, 1996: In-club sanctioned tournament. 42
competitors. We repeated this Candy Cane Classic in 1997 and 1998.
Fall 1998, Coral Springs YMCA has split off, leaving us with sites in Boca Raton and Boynton Beach.
November 13-14, 1998: USJA national Team Championships. Connecticut A won on points, although Florida did win all of it's matches (so I'm a bit biased). Local tournament schedule for 1998-1999 school year cut back to accomodate the big tournament. Club has bought its third mat area, and now has 300 square meters of mats.
December 1998: Latest report is that the club now has 28 black belts members.
July 31 to August 4, 1999: The fourth annual Camp Tomodachi was held at Congress Middle School in Boynton Beach. Highlights: 33 people earned a total of 77 kata certification. J. Dewey set a record by earning A or B level in 5 separate kata forms: Katame No Kata, Ju No Kata, Kime No Kata, Goshin Jitsu No Kata and Nage No Kata. Jeff Miller picked up four A or B kata levels. [Me: I was happy to get four kata certifications also, at B or C level, and referee, coach and examiner certifications. I'll improve some of them next camp.] Virgil J. Bowles was there to teach Kime No Kata and to gave a lot of help on Goshin Jitsu No Kata. He studied Goshin Jitsu No Kata under Kotani, who developed the kata.
Four Tomodachi students were awarded their Shodan: Sergio Catenazzo, Garth Hinckle, Ernest Ojito, Matthew Szrejter.
Hans Vogt and Mindy Szrejter [and J. Dewey from Missippi] were presented with their Sandan promotions.
November 13-14, 1999: Second annual USJA Team Championships.
July 2002: We held the U.S.J.A. Junior Nationals.
July 2002: Camp Tomodachi was honored to be the site of Ed Szrejter's promotion to Kudan. Club members promoted to Shodan:
Michael Ferrazoli, Andrew Borsage. Also, three students are now at the Ikkyu (or Junior 12) rank: N.A., D.H., K.H. --
so there will no doubt be more shodan promotions over the next few years.
June 2008: I see it has been quite a while since I entered anything here. Twenty members of our club just got back from the
"Greatest Training Camp on Earth" in North Carolina.
We went to this one, as after seven years of running Camp Tomodachi, usually with 60 to 100 partipants, we decided to drop our camp in favour of promoting this camp with stronger attendance.
Over the years, we've had several promotions. Tomodachi yudansha camp attendees in 2008 were Mike (shichidan), me (godan), Mindy, Hans, Rick and Scott (yondan), and Randy (sandan).
We still run four to six tournaments a year, including one at Disney. Mindy has moved up through the ranks to the National Referee level (and possibly soon to be PJU).
October 18, 2008: Promoted to Rokudan and Master Examiner.
Office: Room 286, Science & Engineering
Phone: (561) 297-3350
Fax: (561) 297-2436
Email: e-mail
URL: http://math.fau.edu/locke/judo/tomohist.htm
Last modified March 27, 2009, by S.C. Locke.