I survived Judo!

It was quite fun actually. I joined my favourite third-grade class for Judo during their PE lesson. The girls helped to dress me before class and called my judo pants "sexy" cos it was a little too short, ending above my ankles.

At the start of class, everyone sits in the seiza position (the Japanese way of folding your legs under you when you sit) facing the teacher (black belt!). We bow to the teacher. The class representative reports the class number and number of students. He added "maybe" after saying the number cos he wasn't quite sure how to categorise me.

Then, we all rise for warm-ups. The Japanese have a set warm-up routine that everyone knows (unlike us where the PE teacher says ok, neck rotation then we do it.). They repeat one action to the chant ich, ni, san, shi, go, rok, shich, hach (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8) then move on to the next action without stopping. The students had a good laugh at me trying to copy their actions (doesn't help that they all seem to be doing different actions!).

Next, we practice falling in different ways. First, from a squatting position, you fall on your back and smack both arms against the ground (the entire judo room is lined with gymnastic-type rubber mats so you don't hurt from falling, only from smacking your arms). They say that smacking your arm against the floor helps to absorb the impact of your fall. I say it hurts! Then you repeat, but from a standing position. Next, from a standing position, you kind of roll over one shoulder and smack your free arm against the floor as you flip over. This was a little difficult to perform correctly. One student rolled over on her side like a dog, and another simply did tumbleturns. Very funny to watch! My students said that I was "a sight to behold" when I asked if I was doing it right. Sometimes I wish their English wasn't quite so good.

By the time we're done, half an hour has passed. For the remaining 15 mins, we practised 3 strategies to throw your opponent over in pairs. They started off simple (2 leg movements) and ended with a complicated 6-step movement before throwing your opponent. We didn't properly throw each other over though. We took turns being "thrown" over and just flipped ourselves over when the opponent tugged at our shirts.

The PE teacher ended class a couple of minutes early and corrected my falling movements which the students helped translate. For example, the arm that smacks the floor should be held at a 30-degree angle to your body.

P.S. Sorry, no photos. I didn't think it would send the right message if I brought a camera in for the first class. Next time... :)