An important step within my life looms steadily nearer. Both in terms of my personal growth and my growth as a judoka, training in Japan will be an incredible experience.
In just 11 days I am scheduled to fly to Osaka where I will journey on to Kyoto. From there I will be beaten, broken and will likely spend my days living on rice and poverty, getting beaten up by the Japanese. Sounds like something out of a wartime prison camp survivor novel, doesn't it?
I can't deny I am very nervous. In the past, simply attending training camps has entailed the need to push myself to the supposed limits of my mental and physical endurance. Such camps involve 4-6 hours of judo a day, for an average of 3 days. In Japan I will be training in this way for some months, with more skilled and conditioned people to train with. This is a scary thought.
A lot has happened to me in the last couple of years, from losing my Dad, to finishing school, to getting my shodan, my first real job and now my first taste of international judo training. This scholarship will hopefully allow me to come into my own a bit and find out who Hugo is when the facades of indulgent Western living are removed. I'm curious to see the result.
I'd like to thank Mr Rick Littlewood for this incredible opportunity and his immense generosity in providing it to me. The teams tournament you hosted was one of the happiest moments of my life and now I am again placed within a positive position thanks to your vision.
I'm eagerly awaiting this new step in my life journey, so thanks to those who enabled it, directly or inadvertently.
-Hugo
Why am I reading this great story on Judo Kong but there is no mention of it on the New Zealand Judo Federation website????
ReplyDeletewhat support unknowns?, even good ones who take national titles like Hugo?, if they're from Wellington, even if supported by Ricks kind offices, they don't exist..... Have you not visited NZ before?
ReplyDeleteEddy Saul