On September 15th we connected Colorado Springs and Chicago to have a web meeting with Keith Bryant, Chairman of USA Judo and Eddie Liddie, Director. The original intent was to thank the invitation to the USA and to discuss plans going forward. I have noted in my past reports, but acquiring a US Visa for work for an individual that does not belong to a corporation is very very difficult. Using the human network, I have found my way to USA JUDO who sponsored me on the O-1 Athlete VISA as the Youth Development Coach. It took me 1 year and 9 months to get to where I am today. (This I will mention on another episode – I even thought of coming to school here and took a challenge on TOEFL…)
During the interview, Keith had thanked me for coming the US. He has high hopes in me in the development of JUDO in the US where there is a lot of room for improvement. We discussed about the schedules, and decided that the inaugural event would be the Presidents Cup scheduled for November 20~21st in Irving, Texas. Then the USA Championship scheduled in March, April and July to follow, also including Junior Kids Judo Clinics all around the United States. This became the outline of my activities for 2022.
COVID is still in existence in the US where events within the year may be canceled. However, I personally have a lot of things I need to do, so this would give me time to prepare. I need to think how to payback to USA Judo, how can I contribute? How can I tie this with the activities of GKJN? I have no examples, so everything is in its discovery phase. I say to myself “That’s why this activity has value” and do things one at a time.
