On 1st of May 2022,  Orkney Judo had 2 of our coaching team travel south to Livingston to join about 70 others attend a Masters Dan grading. Everyone in attendance was looking for promotion in their Dan or Black belt advancement. To qualify as a master you must be 1st Kyu brown belt aged 30 years old and over.

To gain the promotion you have to complete both theory and competitive requirements.  For theory firstly you have to be able to demonstrate a selection of throws, pins and hold downs, stangles or chokes and jointlocks of the examiners choice from their list of 67 possible techniques. Next comes 3 sets of throwing techniques the candidates get to choose from a list of 36 combination of throws and counterattacks to throws. After that comes a demonstration of groundwork knowledge where they demonstrate changing your method of pinning and moving into a submission from a jointlock. Finally for the theory section comes the Kata which encompasses the essence of judo. This is very formal with points being scored or lost for even small details like toe position in the kneeling and bowing ceremonies. They demonstrate 3 techniques to both the right and left hand side to demonstrate proficiency and understanding of the mechanics behind the techniques.

For the competitive side you can get promoted in 2 ways Quickest option is win 2 out of 3 preliminarily fights upon which you get awarded a lineup  which entails 3 back to back fights. Win those 3 and you have successesd. If you don’t win all 3 even if there is a draw you fail. The lineup consists of 3 opponents you didn’t fight against in the preliminarily stages who are also trying to score their 10 points for a win for the second option of promotion, attaining 100 points at recognised points scoring events. These events can be recognised points scoring competition or national grading events.

We are proud to say that both Orkney Judo coaches performed well on the day and successfully passed their Theory exam set by a 6th Dan and 8th Dan examiner with combined judo experience of over 110 years. On the competitive aspect 20 points were scored with 2 wins. Our coaches don’t have the same player pool available for training so did well. Importantly there was a wealth of knowledge and experience gained and new friendships built and existing ones strengthened. Yes judo is a fighting sport and as such there is a respect amongst its community when the fighting is finished.

On behalf of Orkney Judo we would like to thank Pentland Ferries for travel sponsorship once again. We are truly grateful for your continued support enabling our coaches and competitors to travel to these and similar events.

Niall Allison (secretary and assistant coach UKCC Level 2 at Orkney Judo)