Author: kataguruma

Registration for the Vernon Judo Club 2025-26 season is underway. The first night of classes is Monday September 4th (we’re downstairs for the first month or so, dependent on cultural centre renovations). Kata continues on Wednesdays.

For more information on the Fall Camp, featuring Joshiro Maruyama, click here.

Regular classes are Mondays and Thursdays, with some holiday Monday meetings held on the Tuesday. Kata to continue Wednesdays.

• 5-6 “Petit Samurai” TBA
• 7-12 6:30-7:30
• 13+ 7:30-9

Registration is done in 2 parts (Contact us before registering if unsure; the Judo BC/Judo Canada amounts are not refundable and we may only be able to refund a portion of club dues). You must be registered with Judo BC/Canada (excepting free-trials below) before coming on the mats!

1. Do your Vernon Judo Club registration with Judo Canada/Judo BC here [if you have registered previously anywhere in Canada, be sure to hit “returning member”].
2. Then e-Transfer your club dues (where we have kids and adults’ rates, plus family discounts). Contact us for rates [Adult 19+ is $450 for the season and kids 18 and under $390 (Petit Sam TBA). Do not use the contact-us email address for e-Transfers.

As before, we’re doing 2-week free trials for people who have not done judo before in Canada, but they need to contact us to coordinate timing and sign an adult 19+ waiver for minor waiver before going on the mats.

The Club ended our 2024-25 season with our BC Open Tournament April 25-26 at the Curling Rink, a regional kata clinic (nage-no-kata and katame-no-kata) May 3-4, and a pizza party May 12th .

The tournament was a good success. There were just under 100 participants but the number expanded to nearly 150 when considering that many were registered in 2 or sometimes 3 divisions. Rick Pollon assumed co-tournament director position with George Okazaki (as Donna Hanson and Sydney Grevatt were in Peru as referees for the Pam Ams). Our head referee was Bruce Figarson from Delta. Thanks to a grant from the BC Games Society, Brian and Aubrey were able to break in new equipment [including “new” (refurbished business) PCs, radios, monitor stands, and webcams used in the scoreboard and match replay systems]. Thanks also to the Kamloops Judo Club (who provided half of the competition mats), the Chidori Kai dancers, and Vernon “Oka” Taiko.

The tournament equipment arrived in the nick of time as we’d been using donated laptops for many years and their batteries are no longer good and they can’t be upgraded passed windows 10 (which goes off support this year).

We had four competitors (AJ Mizuyabu, Emily Harvey, Nolan Label, and Emilyn Pohl), two referees (Rick Pollon and Aubrey Comley), and one coach (Wade Harvey) at Provincials in Prince George, where Emily and Emilyn both took Silvers in their U14 divisions.

We are in summer slowdown mode now, working on kata (with four attending the June grading in Steveston: Brian Yakura for shodan (with Sydney and Aubrey working with him on kata and gokyo) and Aubrey and Donna as uke for Kathy Hubble of Lake Country as she goes for godan).

We hope to send two or more instructors to a Judo BC planning conference later in June.

Preparation is already underway for next season: (1) To host the interprovincial fall camp in September. Though the guest instructor hasn’t been announced yet, we have outgrown our venue and will be moving from the Seaton Secondary gym to the multiplex north end arena. (2) Run the head table/electronics/draws for the BC Winter Games in Trail in 2026. This will be a nostalgic event for Brian as he was there as an athlete back in 1982.

There is also some interest in getting kids out to other clubs over the summer and perhaps forming a kodomo-no-kata (kids’ kata) team.

Judo is well into our 2024-25 season, with competitors, coaches and referees at the Steveston tournament November 30th weekend. We have over 50 active members and are offering 2-week free trials for beginners who would like to try out the sport.

We had two competitors at the Burnaby Peak International event, where AJ Mizuyabu got silver in his
U16 division and Andrew Stevenson took bronze in U14.

Thanks to Ringo En Orchards, we are doing our Bella-Vista blend apple juice fundraiser again.

Donna Hanson and daughter Sydney Grevatt represented BC as referees at the Quebec Open, where Sydney was certified for a higher national-level certification, including newaza randori, with Donna staying on to chair a Judo Canada meeting.

We are doing kata Wednesdays. As of a certification clinic/testing at the beginning of November we now have two instructors certified as kata judges in 4 out of the 5 kata categories.

It’s sizing up to be a busy 8-month season, which we are planning to wrap up with our annual BC Open tournament in April 25-26, 2025 at the curling rink.

We are also hosting the Judo BC Fall Camp here in Vernon September 27-29 with Olympian Naohisa Takato! We’ve also received word that—at the camp awards Ceremony—Judo BC will be recognizing some VJC members as the JBC 2024 Volunteers of the Year.

Registration for the Vernon Judo Club 2024-25 season is underway. The first night of classes is Monday September 16th (later than first posted due to changes in the cultural centre renovations schedule).

Note the changed class times and age ranges from last season:

Upcoming, we are set to host the judo venue for the 2023 BC Winter Games (at Fulton, Mar 23-26) and our own BC Open event (at the Rec Centre Apr 21-22).

We received a new batch of fresh-pressed “Bella Vista Blend” apple juice (this year it’s about 80% Aurora—in a new 3L box).  This is our Parents’Association fundraiser to support athletes and we thank Tom Ouchi at Ringo En his support.  Contact the club for details, including eTransfer or pick-up arrangements.

Finally, the Vernon Judo Club (known as Canada’s longest continuously running Judo Club, established in 1944) gratefully acknowledges the contribution of two men, both in their 90s now, who are retiring from the club’s koenkai but have consistently worked to ensure the club’s longevity and meant a huge difference to generations of judoka:  Tosh Yakura and Yosh Ouchi.  We thank you for your decades of dedication.

Sensei, otsukaresama. Kore kara mo, yoroshiku onegaishimasu.

Congratulations to AJ (gold in his U14 division) and Lachin (bronze in U16-50) for their success at the Peak tournament in Burnaby. We would like to send even more competitors to the Steveston event in November!

Note that there will be no judo on Halloween but we’ll have classes at their regular time times Tuesday November 1st.

Also, mark your calendars (and email the club to get on the volunteers’ list) for events in 2023: BC Winter Games March 23-26 and our own BC Open Tourney April 21-22.

Welcome to athletes, coaches, and our special guest Darcel Yandzi!

Here’s the tentative schedule for the weekend (see info from Judo BC for any revisions, but note that this is an update from the link sent out at registration time—where there’s an earlier start now for Friday). All sessions, except the coaches’ social, are at the W. L. Seaton Secondary gymnasium, 2701-41 Ave:

Groups:
Group 1: U14/U16 & U18 -50kg (Male & Female)
Group 2: U18+ (50+ kg) Male & Female

Friday, September 30th
4-6 Teams arrive

5:30 – 7:00 pm Judo Group 1
7:00 – 8:30 pm Judo Group 2

Saturday, October 1st
8 – 9 am Physical Training Everyone
9:30 – 11:00 am Judo Group 1
11 am – 12:30 pm Judo Group 2
2:00-3:30 pm Workshop
3:30 – 5:30 pm Judo Group 1
5:30 – 7:30 pm Judo Group 2
8:00 Coaches Social

Sunday, October 2nd
8:30 – 10 am Judo Group 1
10 – 11:30 am Judo Group 2

Classes have started for the new season. It was great to see so many back from over the summer and some new faces.

Spaces remain at all age levels. Hit the CONTACT US link on the webpage banner for more information or to arrange a free trial.

In particular, since we had no entrants at the 5-6 level, we have decided to try a new initiative “Parent and Petit Samurai” for boys and girls 4-6. If we have a minimum of 4 kids sign up, we’ll open up this new class in the 5:45-6:30 time slot. This group (like all U12 Judo BC members) could participate in Petit Sam events throughout the season.

Where did you get to over the summer? Hopefully everyone got to enjoy a well-deserved break and is eager to get back to judo!