Fall 2011 Judo Sign-ups

We’re going to be very busy this semester. We have four classes, three of which are at the Yucca Center and one is for the cadets at New Mexico Military Institute. So far we have right around 50 students signed up, a little over half of whom are at the Yucca Center.

This semester the college class doubled in size with about four students returning for the class, but most all of them returning for judo. We have a lot of brand new people to martial arts, one with some experience in Brazilian JiuJitsu (and Gracie Combatives), and so far, after four classes, they are all having a great time.

The youth classes are growing slowly and steadily with about half of them being new to judo, although one of the new ones has had a little bit of experience. The others are continuing through, we should have our first Junior 4^th in December as well as a couple of new Junior 3^rd’s. It looks to be a lively time with them.

Our adult classes are growing as well with a healthy dose of brand new students and students mixing in from the college class. We should have a quite a few gaining ranks by the end of the semester, especially considering the amount of hard work they’re putting in.

The NMMI class has a lot of returning cadets, thankfully enough it’s not an exclusively Sunday class this year, instead it’s on Tuesdays and Thursdays (3:30pm to 5:00pm). They should all do nicely. We have a few more sign-ups than the facilities will allow, but we’ll make it work somehow.

Competitively, I don’t expect we’ll send very many to tournament in the fall, but we will probably be sending a few in the spring. I’m hoping to take a few to Dallas in January/February for the Okuri Judo Club’s Lone Star Classic. I’m also hearing tales of NMSU’s Judo Club sponsoring a tournament with the City of Las Cruces in the spring which would be a great place to send students for tournaments, from all four classes!

As for what we’re planning, I’m hoping to hold a coaching clinic, maybe with clinicians that will teach the ever-elusive “Kelly’s Capers,” to bring at least two of my students into the certified coaching fold. Our last clinic, the one in June, brought in 20 participants and was quite well received. (I’m still working on the DVD’s for that, but it turns out that the HD DVD program I have burns Blu-Rays, not DVD’s.) So I expect that the spring clinic should be quite well received.

We’re also looking for a volunteer willing to coordinate fundraising efforts for the club. We still need new mats and if we can come up with the funding for the mats, I’d like to put in a spring loaded floor and have tentative approval for all of that.

And one final announcement, for parents or adults over 16 years old, if you would like to learn Gracie Combatives with us, I’m willing to run the program (no cost) on Tuesdays and Thursday evenings from 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm as long as you’re willing to make a commitment until May to come to practice. The only catch is that I need six people to make that commitment.