MADOC staff who participated in the competition, after the closing ceremony.
Judokas warming up and finishing the tatami.
Judo is a Japanese unarmed fighting system that was created by martial arts master Jigoro Kano. The word Judo can be translated from Japanese as “path of flexibility”, influencing intellectual, physical and emotional development through practice. Judo is a discipline of martial arts that has its highest expression in combat between two contestants whose objective is to knock down, immobilize or seek the submission of the rival, taking advantage of the strength and imbalance of the opponent on numerous occasions.
Last Wednesday, March 1, the first phase of the 60th Army Judo Championship took place, which consisted of a competition between judokas of the same category (taking weight and sex into account). The competition was qualifying for the Armed Forces championship. This was developed at the General Military Academy (Zaragoza). The competition was attended by soldiers from the most diverse units of the Spanish Army, who held the full range of possible jobs, as well as students in training. The next day, an “open” type competition was held, characterized by eliminating the weight categories and facing any two rivals. This left a great lesson learned: “never underestimate your rival regardless of their size being much smaller than yours”. In the open, an AGM cadet gentleman, who competed in the category of less than 66 kilograms, was able to face his adversary, who belonged to the category of more than 100 kilograms. In this way, the essential principles of judo of the use of the opponent’s force were demonstrated.
It should be noted that the level of the competition was very high, since the vast majority of the participants had a judo black belt (with personalities with a level of up to 4th Dan). This led to category bouts with sophisticated and complex executions of techniques and throws, which require a lot of training and hard work. At all times, the competition was characterized by respect for the opponent and camaraderie.
As for the facilities that were used in the General, the competition took place in the gym of the so-called “Historical Building”. A tatami was placed there and the necessary means were prepared for the live broadcast of the occasion. All this was possible with the collaboration of the Aragonese Judo Federation, which also provided the necessary referees for the competition. For the arbitration, a video assistance system was used that allowed to see the repetition of the actions.
Likewise, prizes were distributed to the most combative and most technical judokas, who received it:
– More combative: soldier S. Jiménez and knight lieutenant cadet R. Mier
– More technician: Private N. Aranda and Private P. Buendía
