Young Talent Masters U13 in Rodewisch am 08.10.2022

On Saturday morning, much too early, six U13ers met to make their way to Rodewisch and to compete with the best in the country at the sighting tournament under the eyes of the state coach. were there Elisa, Emilia, Finn, Arthur, Linus and Liam as well as a good entourage of fans and supervisors.

With 2 attendants for 6 fighters, we were supposedly very comfortable, but we were challenged right from the start when a Weixdorfer was called up on almost all 3 mats at the same time.

Finn started in the weight class up -31 kg, which had a total of 11 participants. Actually, Finn was highly motivated to the tips of his hair, but somehow not really awake in the first fight. So it happened that the first fight was over before it even got started. What happened? After the referee released the fight, both opponents approached each other, but only one of them sought a direct grip on the judo jacket. And so came what had to come. Finn’s opponent (Lüdicke, Merseburg, orange) grabbed it bravely, turned to the o-goshi and scored an ippon. In the second fight, Finn had done his homework. Finn was wide awake and tried to grab his opponent’s jacket from the start (Höll, Bienne/Switzerland, orange-green) enforce. Both opponents developed throwing techniques in standing combat, with none of these leading to a score. Höll, probably not the first time at the competition with orange-green, used his experience in the transition standing floor and attacked Finn on the floor after failed standing techniques, whereby Finn defended them well and was able to free himself from tricky situations by simply “standing up”. About halfway through the fight, Höll used his orange-green technical knowledge and surprised Finn with a foot sweep (De-ashi-barai). Finn couldn’t avoid it and fell onto Ippon.

Arthur went -37 kg (12 participants) at the start. For Arthur it was the very first judo competition ever. Judges, scores, commands and quick actions on the judo mat. All of this was on the agenda for the first time today. Arthur fought the first fight against Franze from the Holzhausen judo club. Franze, an orange-green belt with competition experience, put Arthur under pressure from the start and was able to immediately score (waza-ari) with a throwing technique. In the subsequent transition from standing to ground, Franze took Arthur into the kesa gatame (hold on). Arthur tried to free himself from this and roll over onto his stomach from his supine position. However, Franz fought back and was able to hold the hold for 10 seconds, earning another waza-ari and winning the fight. Arthur was more “relaxed” about the second fight. Now he knew how competition works and even the initial nervousness was put aside. Opponent in the second fight was Wanke, a yellow belt from Halle. After the referee gave the go-ahead, both opponents went straight into the hold fight and Arthur initially held his opponent Wanke in check with his sleeve/reverse hold. However, Wanke took advantage of Arthur’s inattentiveness, used the throwing technique and scored Waza-ari as a score. Just like in the first fight, Arthur got into a hold (Kesa gatame) immediately after the throw and unfortunately couldn’t free himself from it. Ultimately, both fights ended in similar fashion with throw-preceding holds, with Arthur clearly showing more aggressive grapple fighting and improving overall in the second fight. Cheer up, every beginning is difficult, we continue to practice diligently in training.

Linus had it in the -40 kg with a total of 14 participants and started against Sievert from Halle (orange), who finally wasn’t two heads taller. Linus managed the grip well and tried to determine the direction while standing. He was briefly inattentive on the ground and got into a bombproof variant of Yoko-shio-gatame, from which there was unfortunately no escape despite strong resistance. In the consolation round it was now up against the orange belt Adam from Rodewisch, who unfortunately was huge again. Linus was at a disadvantage in terms of grip, but he got better and better at it during the fight and got better and better at it. Unfortunately, the Rodewischer with his long legs used a throw by Linus that was not quite consistently turned in to counterattack. With that, Linus was eliminated.

Liam entered the weight class -43 kg (10 participants) and to his chagrin was once again very late. Unfortunately, against the yellow-orange belt Müller (Halle), he fell to Waza-Ari much too quickly, but was able to free himself from the following arrest with a lot of effort. In the further course of the fight, however, he was not attentive in the transition from standing to ground and too carelessly invited his opponent to hold on. In fight 2 it was against Richter (yellow-orange, Chemnitz), whom Liam was able to defeat with an aggressive grip, strong pull and O-goshi. In the 3rd fight he faced Plauner Kabazov (white-yellow). The grip fight was extremely tough, but Liam patiently took his chance. Unfortunately, he was arrested again in a similar situation as in the first fight. You learn from mistakes – and the mistake will never happen again. Unfortunately, Liam was also eliminated from the competition.

The girls didn’t split up so well: Emilia and Elisa went both -33 kg (9 participants) at the start, but fortunately didn’t meet each other.

Elisa started against the yellow-orange belt Poppe from Rodewisch and was surprised by an O-Goshi. The 2nd fight against the white-yellow belt Weigelt from Motor-Mickten went the whole time without anyone being able to score, so that it came to a judge’s decision (Hantei). Unfortunately, the judges decided for Elisa’s opponent and so Elisa was also eliminated from the competition.

Fought the first fight Emilia against the white-yellow Gurtin Pittag from Rodewisch and after a short scramble she threw it onto O-Soto-Otoshi. Unfortunately, that was the end of the fight. In the second fight against Vogel from Plauen (yellow belt), Emilia went to work concentrated and showed one or the other throwing approach with O-soto-otoshi or Tai-otoshi. Unfortunately, there was no evaluation by the referee. On the ground, Emilia showed fighting spirit and twice freed herself from the pin (Tate Shiho Gatame) by pinching her opponent’s leg, breaking the pin. The fight went over the full time and since neither of the two opponents could score, it came to a referee decision (Hantei). Unfortunately, the judges declared Emilia’s opponent to be the winner of the fight, whereby the two worked out restraints, from which Emilia was able to free herself, were certainly the decisive factor for the opponent.

In summary, it can be said that the competition was of a high standard and the grapes hung very high today. Everyone was able to improve in their second fight, which in turn also means that there could have been more in the first fights. Take this experience with you into the next competition and attack courageously and combatively from the start and determine the fight. Take as many competitions as there are, then you can constantly improve.

At home we treated ourselves to a reward/consolation ice cream. Then we parted ways.

Sandro & Antje

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