楢崎教子

Having fun though JUDO

March 23, 2008
Noriko Narazaki

　
Do you think you can dramatically change your life through judo? Personally, I haven’t found an answer to this question yet. I started learning judo when I was four years old and judo has always been part of my life. Since judo is always close by me I cannot express the benefits of learning judo easily. When I was a competitor, I received a lot of benefits through judo. I practiced hard, but I didn’t think seriously about the benefits of judo.
　
I would like to introduce one of my judo students, Terry Fairbanks, who started learning judo when he was 44 years old. Through judo he has changed his life style as well as his whole life. In the US, there is alot of encouragement for people who want to challenge themselves. I have learned that a ‘challange’ can be different things for different people. For people who want to, or are considering challenging themselves I’m going to introduce a two part essay written by Terry about his challenge and how he changed his life through judo.
　

Motivation for starting, and continuing judo
Terry Fairbanks

　　
I took my first Judo class in July of 2007. I have never been what I would　consider to be athletic. Also, since I was a child I’ve always had a slow　metabolism. When I was high school, I never participated in any school sports.　However, since I did not have a car and there was no public transportation, I　used my bicycle to go everywhere. Later when I was in college, I continued to　bicycle and I also enjoyed recreational sports such as inline skating, skiing and hiking.
　
After graduating from college I got my first professional job. My financial obligations also increased. I also purchased a house and needed to pay my student loans. My home was far from the office so I commuted by car every day and I stopped bicycling. For other reasons I also stopped skating and skiing. However, I did continue to hike (occasionally). My activity levels were low and my eating habits were bad so I started gaining weight. My stress levels were also high because of work. I am sure that I also had low self-esteem. I became easily irritated and overly critical. This situation continued for more than 10 years.
　
For the sake of my family (Motivator #1) I visited my doctor and told him about my situation. My blood pressure was also very high (~150 / 90 – Motivator #2). He said “you’re going to think that I’m a little crazy but I suggest that you start taking a martial art”. Actually, I thought his suggestion was very practical. My main concern was that I was so physically out of shape that I didn’t know if I could do it.
　
As I left the doctor’s office, I thought about the different martial arts. The only ones that I knew anything about were aikido, karate, and judo. Having had some exposure to martial arts, I knew that having a good teacher was critical. I knew of a karate instructor that I trusted, but the classes were in another city. There is also an aikido dojo in Boulder, but I didn’t know any of the instructors. Then I thought about Judo and I thought of Noriko-san.
　

　
By this time I had known Noriko-san for several years. I did not know anything about Norko-san’s teaching ability, however, I knew that I liked her and that I trusted her. I also knew that if I started judo that I would not want to disappoint her (Motivator #3). Literally, within 5 minutes of leaving the doctor’s office I called Noriko-san and asked her to meet me for lunch.
　
Over lunch, I told Noriko-san about my situation. After listening to my story, she told me that there was a new adult beginner class starting at the dojo that evening. At that moment I decided that I would attend. This was essentially a do-or-die situation for me so after my first class I signed a contract for 6 months of Judo classes (Motivator #4).
　
The first several weeks were very difficult for me. Classes met Monday and Wednesday. I was so overweight and out-of-shape that after the Monday class my legs hurt so much that it took a week to recover. After several weeks, my strength increased to the point where I could attend two classes per week.

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Tags: coach, fun, japan, judo, Noriko Narazaki, 指導者, 柔道, 楢崎教子, 楽しむ

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