Indiana Championship took place at Portland Indiana on Saturday, June 5th. I visited together with Doug Tono, the owner of Tohkon Judo Academy. It was a 4.5 hour drive from Chicago. In a fully chartered gymnasium, 300 participants gathered together!!
We hauled TATAMI on the previous day (June 4th) and spent 2 hours setting up the event site. It was the first time for me to setup a competition site, and now understood how tough a job the supporting staff are going through. I didn’t even think about this before I retired as a competitor.
In the competition 16 kids participated and the results were great. 11 Gold, 3 Silver and 2 Bronze. Different than in Japan, the tournaments in the US are more segmented based on age and weight – and you can enter in 2 classes. Also, even if you lose once, everyone goes to the consolation tournament – more opportunities.
With a lot of categories, many people can win medals. This is good for kids.
On the other hand, participants need to participate in more matches – schedule management is key to avoid kids being exhausted. Win or lose, all kids need to finish with a positive mind. This, also different in Japan, after the match and after the “REI” (bowing) kids shake their hands and honor each other – wow a great atmosphere!!
The smiles of kids with medals and the crying faces of kids who lost are all there for the future. The most important thing is the process of working hard. When I saw Judo was contributing to this value, I was proud of the sport.
I had a great experience learning about the setup and cleanup of the site, and event management. Also looking at the kids fighting hard, I picked up a lot of things. This will be an asset for me managing these types of events going forward.
For the bright future of kids and their smiles…
