who is going to the nationals?!?

Underground Train Judo Ground
1

just wondering who is going.. who is competing who is coaching/reffing whatever?

this will be my first nationals and im really excited! I will be competing as a brown belt most likely at 143

I just started to ramp up my training. I currently train with a club 2x a week and privately with my sensei 1x a week.. I will try to add 2 more sessions in a week

im doing 1000 foot sweeps a day on my own.

i will work up to do at least 1200 body weight squats in a row with no rest

not sure what else my coach has in mind but im very excited!!!

2

When are the Nationals?

3

april 21-24 I think.

4

A... what is a body weight squat? have 140 pounds on your back and do 1200???? I don't think that is possible sport :P. Even without weight i don't see where you would be able to.... and even if you could, how would this prepare yourself for nationals??? why not focus your energy on something more relevant to judo? just moho

5

Hey Judok@....What's going on?
Will you be going to the nationals?

6

I'll be there. I've already reserved a hotel room.

7

a body weight squat is just a squat with no weight..

last year when some guys from my club were training for the nationals they worked up to 1,111 in a row with no breaks..

it definately will help endurance/strength/toughness its a thing with my sensei so why not..

i will of course be doing a lot more to get prepared

any suggestions would be very welcomed like what i could do in the gym what i could do on the mat and what i could do at home to help prepare me..

like how much time per day per week should i be spending..

again i only work out formally 3x a week and i feel i need about 5 mat days to really really be effective

thanks!

8

Stay away from doing 1200 body-weight squats at one time. It will destroy your knees. I run into so many people who have destroyed their knees from stairmasters, let alone high-rep squats.

9

What RickyMMA said.

If you dont do interval training thats regularly posted on strength/conditioning forum, I'd highly recommend to use your energy towards that to improve your cardio.

10

Does anyone know what city you fly into to get to Virginia Beach and
further why the hell are we going to a non-major market city? I am an
advocate of only major market places for nationals. That means there
must be a majr airport within 15-20 minutes from the tourny airport.
Athletes, coaches, officials, and fans must be allowed to flyin and that
is it if we are to survive in the future. Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Chicago,
New York, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, San Francisco Area, Los Angeles,
Philadephia, Denver - these are all major markets that people can fly
into and make it work for getting people to get into the sport.

David

11

Dave,

Norfolk is very close. Not a huge city, but there is a huge military base. I think it may double as the city airport. I know Charleston works that way. DC is at least a few hours a way. Richmond is a couple, although that is hardly a large city. Charlotte is about 5.5.

Pete Pelter

12

Norfolk Int. is the closest to VB. The airport is about 20 - 30 mins. from the venue. The Cavilier Hotel is very nice and there are about 20 different Hotels mins. from the venue. (usually the higher the street # the better the Hotel i.e. - 17th St = dump and 31st St. = better.

13

Dave, fly into Cleveland and I'll give you a ride!

14

I kinda agree with USAJUDODAVE about trying to hold the Sr. Nationals in major cities, simply for convenience sake, but I was surprised to see what the total number of participants were for Sr. Nationals held from 1990-2001.

Only 3 times were there more than 700 contestants.

1992--707 contestants--held in Pittsburgh.

1995--751 contestants--held in Indianapolis--the all time record.

1998--746 contestants--held in Villa Park, IL.

Hardly major market cities, but somehow they got people to come.

During that time period they were held 3 times in California and had 687,680, and 622 contestants respectively in San Diego, Irvine and San Jose (who would have thought San Jose would have the worst attendance out of the 3 nationals in California?)

Florida held them twice and drew 682 and 692 contestants in Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando.

Houston only had 640 contestants at their nationals.

2002-2004 Looks like Cleveland only had 600 contestants , Vegas looks like about 745 contestants and San Diego about 700 contestants. But they don't have the official tally up yet.

So who knows? Even though its being held in Virginia Beach, it might draw alot more people than you think if history is any guide.

15

It isn't a matter of numbers nor timing. We are talking about helping
the financials of those athletes having to attend the events.
Indianapolis is a major city, so are Pitt and the Illinios was actually Chi-
town. These places are also in the midwest and sure you will get more
people because there is no criteria to qualify to fight anyone and their
mom can show up and fight. These same people that are not so good
may not be willing to jump in the car and drive to the coast just to try.

The lower numbers events are also post Olympic Team selection,
except for Pitt, and a lot of times these events have lower numbers - I
fought in all of those events and they were all wonderful, well except
for 98, 99 or course.

The numbers game is getting non-judo people in to watch. The trials
out here in San Jose were great because fully half of the people in the
packed house were non-Judo people. This is what we need as a sport
folks - We have a tremendus sport with tremendus athletes (some
divisions) who derserve to be seen. Expect more of ourselves and we
will do the job.

David

16

I'm flying into Newport News, Va. About 40 mins away. Staying at the DoubleTree (next door to the Convention Center)

17

"So who knows? Even though its being held in Virginia Beach, it might draw alot more people than you think if history is any guide."

I agree. Va Bch is not as expensive as some of the other places. Hopefully it will be a great turn out regardless of venue location.

18

JG is dead on.

19

'95 nationals in Indy were awesome. So many people were trying to get points to get into the top five to be invited to the '96 Olympic trials. The most exciting match IMO was Clay Sunada beating John Matsuoka @60kg (or was it Cliff?). Anyway, most exciting nationals I ever saw.

20

Well, I went back to the figures and checked masters divisions figures.

The top 3 Masters division for Men were as follows for 1991-2001.

1992--Pittsburgh---220 male competitors

1995--Indianapolis--210 male competitors

1998--Villa Park--215 male competitors

Results were consistent with Sr. Male competition and Masters divisions wouldn't be affected by competitors wanting to get roster points.

Masters divisions for California were

1990--San Diego 204 competitors

1994--Irvine 173 competitors

1996--San Jose 166 competitors

Personally, I'm with USAJUDODAVE. If I'm gonna go watch the nationals, I want it to be in a place I can get to cheaply on a direct flight and I want the weather to be nice. I don't own a real coat anymore, and don't want to ever have to wear one again. I've gone to the California and Florida events; and would have gone to Vegas but I had other commitments.

Seems like common sense to me, but when I checked the figures, it proved to be a false assumption on my part. Whether its a major market or not, doesn't seem to have any bearing on number of competitors.

As for spectators, I dunno. Pretty much the stands are filled with people who are involved in judo, or involved with people in judo. I don't think that changes much at any of the nationals.

Here might be a better explanation.

It is a map I found of USJA clubs on their webpage. You can see it here.

http://www.usja-judo.org/usjamap/usjaclubssept2003_files/usjaclubssept2003.htm

When you consider that JF is pretty strong on the east coast as well, might give a better reason for the turnout. If this assumption is correct, Virginia Beach could very well put up some impressive numbers for competitors.