judo

I found a judo class and showed up on saturday morning after the required asking ten people where to find the National Stadium. I walk in to find 15 little kids rolling around on the mats together watched by two guys in judo gis. I felt pretty out of place but the teachers run over to talk to me. Unfortunately, someone told me I didn't need a gi but they had no extra. I had to wear my new, too tight (Indian style) pants.

The teachers immediately ignore the students and spend the rest of the class teaching me the basic throws while occasionally scolding the kids for being noisy or restless. I felt bad hogging the teachers but they didn't seem to care at all. They seemed to like working with me and I felt good until I ripped out the entire crotch of my pants (15 Rs to fix, wonderful). They took pants of another kid and gave them to me.

At the end, they bought me an orange juice, told me to keep the pants and start coming on Sundays when the older kids attend. I'm pretty excited about this and even started working out before my morning bucket showers.

I can't wait for a competition because wrestlers kick ass. Judo concentrates on throwing. If you throw some directly to their back, you automatically win the match. You can pin people if you keep them on one shoulder blade for one second but they see it as dishonorable. Luckily, I don't worry about honor. This means that they have no experience wrestling on the mat and as a wrestler, I spent most of my time on the mat, usually on my back. We come to them with an attack that they almost never see. It makes us quite good and quite disliked. During practice, I want to learn more about throwing but when it comes to compeititon, we're heading to the mats.