Created in late 19th-century Japan, Judo is a combat sport based on using an opponent’s strength and momentum against them to pin them on the ground. Judo transcends the physical aspect of combat as all judokas must go through a training of the mind built upon the values of discipline, respect and restraint.
In Japanese, the word judo means “gentle way” which means that there is an emphasis on not hurting others. All novices in Judo are taught from their first day that if they do not respect their opponent and learn how to control themselves, there is a possibility of injuring their opponent, which is not the objective of Judo.
When I began practicing Judo, I never imagined that I would find a community that means everything to me. It is hard to imagine that there could be a sense of community in an intense combat sport like Judo. However, the values of respect and solidarity that connect all judokas from around the world create a strong of sense of solidarity and belonging within the international Judo Community.
Furthermore, this sense of community is present at a much smaller scale. In my local club, I trained 6 hours every week over three practice sessions, during which my fellow judokas and I practiced our techniques tediously and fought each other in Randori (free-style one-on-one practice).
In our dojo reigned a great feeling of solidarity as we would never hesitate to help each other whether it was in assisting one another in refining our techniques or helping our peers to better control their strength to avoid hurting an opponent. Beyond that, as a green-belt judoka I would often instruct my lower ranking peers within the dojo, helping them with techniques, ground grappling strategies, and teaching them how to fall safely so that they could be better prepared to compete in tournaments later on.
In addition to training , we also competed together when we represented our dojo in district and national tournaments where we fought individually against judokas from other dojos. The dojo that cumulated the most wins and medals was declared winner. These tournaments were a testament to how close we were. If one judoka lost their fight, they would not feel sad or frustrated; they would keep on encouraging their teammates with all their heart.
Over the 4 years I spent in the dojo, we won 3 tournaments. Each victory was a milestone where we could reflect on the intensive training we went through and appreciate what we were able to achieve together, which brought us even closer.