Last Saturday, Sensei Lonnie Ross took three of his West Florida Budokan (WFB) students to compete in their first judo tournament, the Tenth Annual Gulf Coast Judo Tournament in Ocean Springs, MS. All three of his students, two juniors, Blakely Tyer and Sam Taylor, and a senior, Taylor Flocken, placed with Flocken taking first in both of his divisions.
Taylor was in the 9 to 11 year old lightweight division. He won his first match by ippon (a technical knockout). “Sam fought well the rest of his matches and gained a lot experience. He even played a golden score match. Sam ended the day with second place, silver.” Ross explained a golden score match is a zero to zero match necessitating a sudden death.
Tyer competed in the 9-11 year old heavyweight division. Ross said he also won his first match by ippon. “As a white belt, he fought against a division of green belts.” Ross said he demonstrated sound defense and “an effective newaza and tachiwaza offense. He ended the day with third place, bronze. He actually did really well. He fought kids that had 7 years of experience. Just minor mistakes were the reason he got beat.”
Flocken, a former MiltonHigh School wrestler, entered two senior divisions. In the men's senior novice heavyweight division, Ross said Taylor exploded thru with all ippon victories. “All his matches lasted less than one minute in the novice division.” He won first place, gold.
In the men's senior superweight, Flocken did the same thing to the competition. He won every match by ippon. “He executed excellent tachiwaza and finished with newaza for ippon,” Ross said and added, “All matches were won in less than 1 to 2 minutes.” Taylor finished day with a pair of first place trophies. Ross noted Flocken achieved his victories after school work at the University of West Florida shrank his training time.
Ross said these students enjoyed competing and are looking forward to doing so again. For now, it’s back to the mat. Ross said his class begins with various running and footwork exercises, then mat related exercises like bear crawls and tumbling, on to application of drills, then supervised free practice at the end. Ross said he typically ends the day with sporting games like tag while incorporating techniques. The person who’s “it,” he said, may have to move on their hands and feet or log roll to go after other players.
WFB takes students interested in any level of competency from recreational to Olympic. “Competition is optional but it helps with acceleration of progress because you get to compete against people you never train with so you’re able to determine your strengths and weaknesses then come back to gym to make your weaknesses your strength. Plus, you have the ability to interact with people from all over the world and make friends everywhere. One of the cool things is it's part of opening your eyes to a variety of different cultures and because you're entrusting someone with your safety, there's that respect.”
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: First timers shine in judo competition