October 1st ~ 3rd, I was invited to the Veteran’s Training Camp and travelled to the dead hot Las Vegas (4 hour flight from Chicago)
What is “Veteran’s Training Camp?” I had no idea until I got there.
30 adults ranging from their 30s to 60s together with 10 girls totaling 40 participants. The objective for the adults were the training aimed for the World Veterans Championship scheduled for October 21~24th in Portugal. What surprised me is that the girls came all the way from Oklahoma having mom drive 17 hours!! Their passion and the toughness of the moms just surprised me. Everything here has a different scale!!
Following is my trip report. Please enjoy the experience I had over the 3 days.
(1) Arrival
Arrived at Las Vegas as the place everyone knows. Casinos, Shows and the place of Ocean’s 11…
I was filled with dreams at this point, still.
(2) Site Location
The site for this event was RYUKO DOJO which is 5 miles from downtown Las Vegas. This facility is a Total Martial Arts Center which has rings and classes for Boxing, Karate and Taekwondo. Just by seeing this, the warm feeling I had of “a fun trip” just had blown away.
(3) Training Session
1. Warm Up and Strength & Conditioning Drills
After assembly at Friday noon, there are 4 sessions of this training (Friday PM, Saturday AM, Saturday PM, Sunday AM) and its really filled. 2 hours per session, with all 40 participants really serious. This is a borderless feeling where we all felt like a “team” The above photograph is from the Warm Up and Strength & Conditioning Drills
2. Techniques and Sparring (with my broken English…)
After the 30 Second Drills×3Minutes we now go into Technique Review. I explained my strength NEWAZA (Hold Down Technique) with my broken English. Sports is great as even if words don’t get through, Body Language works!! I wish everyone can get it.
Then comes Randori (Sparring) – 3 min x 4 of Standing Techniques, 3 min x 4 of Hold Down Techniques, then again 3 min x 4 of Standing Techniques. 40 consecutive minutes of hard training. Everyone had high objectives, and really serious. I felt like I was back in my competition days.
3. Cool Down with Photos
Cooling Down, the best part of this Camp. Everyone has great smiles!!
With all the comrades around the United States together in one photo. Here, there are no borders, difference in age, gender, religion, everyone unites. And then some beer (not for girls though)
(4) Night in Vegas
This…is Las Vegas…the nights are glorious, and all the
restaurants are a lot “flashier” than in Chicago. I had basically no private time, but after day 2, American Judokas took me out to the Casino. I won $425 in Black Jack!! – Maybe the dealer gave me a good hand.
Although it was a short time, I went through my first clinic, leading the Warm Up session, but most of all, meeting the Veteran Judokas in the United States was great for me. I understood the environment for Judo in US more than ever.
Also the girls from Oklahoma Karlee was strong, here sense of Judo is superb and was surprised that such a kid exists in the United States. I wondered what would happen if I trained her for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics – very excited.
I was impressed that everyone had high objectives, very serious in all the sessions, but mostly they are all enjoying the experience – WOW. I wish to someday take them to Japan and show them a different world.
The 3 day trip gave me power and motivation – Girls – let’s rev it up together!!
Thank you for great experience for me!!!
