Rising sons
BY ERIC E. HARRISON
Posted on Monday, September 17, 2007
“They kicked our butts for two weeks,” says Brandon Powell, one of four members of the Little Rock Judo Club who spent half a month in Japan this summer.
“But after we started getting used to it, we started doing a lot better.”
Brandon, who just turned 13, a student at the New Bethel Middle School in Bryant, was the youngest of the four youngsters who spent June 15-July 1 with their coach, Gary Norton, in the Land of the Rising Sun and the center of all things judo.
“I had told my students that if they got strong enough and good enough, technically and everything, that I would take them to Japan,” says Norton, a sixth-degree black belt who has been coaching judo for more than 30 years.
“I go to Japan a lot for the Olympic governing body for U. S. A. Judo” — he’s a member of the U. S. national team coaching staff — “and I have a lot of connections [there ].”
Two of his three fellows are of high school age — Aaron Butler, 17, who goes to Little Rock Central High, and Aleksey Boureiko, 17, a junior at Little Rock Catholic High School for Boys. The third, Spencer Smith, 18, a Parkview graduate, is a freshman at the University of Central Arkansas at Conway. Norton also took along two students from a sister club in Dallas.
The Americans spent two days in Tokyo, visiting Kodokan, where judo began, and spending the rest of the time in the city of Fukuoka, on the southernmost Japanese island of Kyushu. They lived with host families and attended local schools.
The idea, Norton says, was to show the students the Japanese approach to judo.
“Number one, the Japanese have a real passion for judo and they train with a great fervor, passion and drive,” Norton says. “It’s perhaps like an ordinary American might train for maybe baseball or basketball.”
Judo is a refinement of jujitsu, a Japanese weaponless martial art combining grappling and throwing techniques. Tossing an opponent on his back and pinning him is the best way to win. The closest Western equivalent, Norton says, would be Greco-Roman wrestling.
Competitors start as white belts, graduating up the scale to yellow, orange, green, blue, purple, brown and eventually black belts.
“It’s a Japanese sport,” Norton says. “They have a great love for it, and they dominate the Olympics. In the last Olympics, they [won ] seven gold medals in judo, and four or five other medals as well. That’s in 14 weight categories, male and female.
“ I wanted [the American students ] to capture the passion and the dedication that they have for their sport.”
Norton said the trip wasn’t about learning new techniques.
“They know nothing [in Japan ] that I don’t know,” he explains. “It’s not like ‘the mysterious East’ or that there must be some secrets over there. “ There’s no secrets over there. They just train very hard, they train to win, they train with a lot of spirit and drive.” The four students picked up “exactly what I wanted them to pick up,” Norton says. “And I also wanted them to be a part of Japanese culture for a couple of weeks. They lived in Japanese houses and went to Japanese schools every day.”
CAPTURING CULTURE They also ate Japanese food, says Butler. “We had rice with every meal,” he says. “I lost some weight.” Butler, a brown belt (“ Judo doesn’t give black belts to kids, ” Norton explains; “you have to be at least 16” ) who has been in judo for more than five years, started the sport because at the time, Arkansas high schools didn’t offer wrestling. Now that they do, “I’m doing both,” he says. He frequently dashes from wrestling practice at school to Norton’s Champions Martial Arts Academy on South University Avenue in Little Rock.
The first thing he noticed in Tokyo, Butler says, was that “you just walk down the streets and find dojos full of black belts.”
At first, Butler says, they were competing against advanced Japanese students who, as Brandon observed, kicked their butts. “But we beat the kids in average dojos pretty bad.”
Russian-born Boureiko got into judo a little later than Brandon, about 2 1 / 2 years ago, and already Boureiko has his brown belt. “I wanted to become stronger,” he explains.
What he got out of the trip to Japan, he says, was the chance to see how different people had different ways of fighting.
“Their techniques are basically perfect,” he says.
Smith, who is majoring in physics and mathematics on a full academic scholarship at UCA, says Norton, his history teacher at Horace Mann Magnet Middle School, got him into judo five years ago.
“I had never been interested in any sports,” he says. Judo, he adds, has taught him “good principles as well as techniques.”
The trip to Japan showed him “a connected-ness to other people, how they do things, and insight into how to perfect something.”
Brandon says he became interested in martial arts when he was 6 or 7 and started with karate, “but I didn’t like it that much.” Judo, he says, keeps him in better physical shape “and I enjoy it more.”
He’s also a two-sport athlete; he runs cross country “to help me get into better condition.” Brandon has already earned his purple belt. Norton says one of the reasons he had a tough time early on in Japan was that he had to compete against older students. “The Japanese senseis [judo masters ] spoke very highly of him,” Norton says. The youngster has already placed highly in three national competitions in the 12-yearold bracket and taken silver medals in international events, Norton says. “He has as much talent as any athlete I ever had, plus something a lot of athletes don’t have — heart and passion.”
CHAMPIONS’ CHAMPIONS Norton should know talent. “I’ve had five in the Olympic trials before and I’ve have a few hundred national champions,” he says. “I haven’t quite made it past that to the Olympics yet.” However, Scott Jones, one of his students, now a coach, a first-degree black belt, just earned a place on the U. S. Paralympics team — he’s partially blind — that will go to the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Champions is a nonprofit establishment; Norton and his coaches aren’t paid, and the studio is, he acknowledges, struggling a bit financially. Nancy Butler, Aaron’s mother, notes the studio has been holding yard sales and other fund-raisers to help keep it afloat.
Norton says at least two of the four students he took to Japan — he wouldn’t name names on the record (“ I don’t want them to think I don’t care about the other ones, ” he says ) — got something extra out of the trip.
“Two of those four boys train with a lot of passion. They’re just very determined and very passionate about what they do,” he says.
“They’re all a lot more spirited and passionate [now ]. They train harder. It has made a good impression on them. I think it has changed their lives.”
FONTE: Arkansas Democrat Gazette - AR, USA
Posted on Monday, September 17, 2007
“They kicked our butts for two weeks,” says Brandon Powell, one of four members of the Little Rock Judo Club who spent half a month in Japan this summer.
“But after we started getting used to it, we started doing a lot better.”
Brandon, who just turned 13, a student at the New Bethel Middle School in Bryant, was the youngest of the four youngsters who spent June 15-July 1 with their coach, Gary Norton, in the Land of the Rising Sun and the center of all things judo.
“I had told my students that if they got strong enough and good enough, technically and everything, that I would take them to Japan,” says Norton, a sixth-degree black belt who has been coaching judo for more than 30 years.
“I go to Japan a lot for the Olympic governing body for U. S. A. Judo” — he’s a member of the U. S. national team coaching staff — “and I have a lot of connections [there ].”
Two of his three fellows are of high school age — Aaron Butler, 17, who goes to Little Rock Central High, and Aleksey Boureiko, 17, a junior at Little Rock Catholic High School for Boys. The third, Spencer Smith, 18, a Parkview graduate, is a freshman at the University of Central Arkansas at Conway. Norton also took along two students from a sister club in Dallas.
The Americans spent two days in Tokyo, visiting Kodokan, where judo began, and spending the rest of the time in the city of Fukuoka, on the southernmost Japanese island of Kyushu. They lived with host families and attended local schools.
The idea, Norton says, was to show the students the Japanese approach to judo.
“Number one, the Japanese have a real passion for judo and they train with a great fervor, passion and drive,” Norton says. “It’s perhaps like an ordinary American might train for maybe baseball or basketball.”
Judo is a refinement of jujitsu, a Japanese weaponless martial art combining grappling and throwing techniques. Tossing an opponent on his back and pinning him is the best way to win. The closest Western equivalent, Norton says, would be Greco-Roman wrestling.
Competitors start as white belts, graduating up the scale to yellow, orange, green, blue, purple, brown and eventually black belts.
“It’s a Japanese sport,” Norton says. “They have a great love for it, and they dominate the Olympics. In the last Olympics, they [won ] seven gold medals in judo, and four or five other medals as well. That’s in 14 weight categories, male and female.
“ I wanted [the American students ] to capture the passion and the dedication that they have for their sport.”
Norton said the trip wasn’t about learning new techniques.
“They know nothing [in Japan ] that I don’t know,” he explains. “It’s not like ‘the mysterious East’ or that there must be some secrets over there. “ There’s no secrets over there. They just train very hard, they train to win, they train with a lot of spirit and drive.” The four students picked up “exactly what I wanted them to pick up,” Norton says. “And I also wanted them to be a part of Japanese culture for a couple of weeks. They lived in Japanese houses and went to Japanese schools every day.”
CAPTURING CULTURE They also ate Japanese food, says Butler. “We had rice with every meal,” he says. “I lost some weight.” Butler, a brown belt (“ Judo doesn’t give black belts to kids, ” Norton explains; “you have to be at least 16” ) who has been in judo for more than five years, started the sport because at the time, Arkansas high schools didn’t offer wrestling. Now that they do, “I’m doing both,” he says. He frequently dashes from wrestling practice at school to Norton’s Champions Martial Arts Academy on South University Avenue in Little Rock.
The first thing he noticed in Tokyo, Butler says, was that “you just walk down the streets and find dojos full of black belts.”
At first, Butler says, they were competing against advanced Japanese students who, as Brandon observed, kicked their butts. “But we beat the kids in average dojos pretty bad.”
Russian-born Boureiko got into judo a little later than Brandon, about 2 1 / 2 years ago, and already Boureiko has his brown belt. “I wanted to become stronger,” he explains.
What he got out of the trip to Japan, he says, was the chance to see how different people had different ways of fighting.
“Their techniques are basically perfect,” he says.
Smith, who is majoring in physics and mathematics on a full academic scholarship at UCA, says Norton, his history teacher at Horace Mann Magnet Middle School, got him into judo five years ago.
“I had never been interested in any sports,” he says. Judo, he adds, has taught him “good principles as well as techniques.”
The trip to Japan showed him “a connected-ness to other people, how they do things, and insight into how to perfect something.”
Brandon says he became interested in martial arts when he was 6 or 7 and started with karate, “but I didn’t like it that much.” Judo, he says, keeps him in better physical shape “and I enjoy it more.”
He’s also a two-sport athlete; he runs cross country “to help me get into better condition.” Brandon has already earned his purple belt. Norton says one of the reasons he had a tough time early on in Japan was that he had to compete against older students. “The Japanese senseis [judo masters ] spoke very highly of him,” Norton says. The youngster has already placed highly in three national competitions in the 12-yearold bracket and taken silver medals in international events, Norton says. “He has as much talent as any athlete I ever had, plus something a lot of athletes don’t have — heart and passion.”
CHAMPIONS’ CHAMPIONS Norton should know talent. “I’ve had five in the Olympic trials before and I’ve have a few hundred national champions,” he says. “I haven’t quite made it past that to the Olympics yet.” However, Scott Jones, one of his students, now a coach, a first-degree black belt, just earned a place on the U. S. Paralympics team — he’s partially blind — that will go to the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Champions is a nonprofit establishment; Norton and his coaches aren’t paid, and the studio is, he acknowledges, struggling a bit financially. Nancy Butler, Aaron’s mother, notes the studio has been holding yard sales and other fund-raisers to help keep it afloat.
Norton says at least two of the four students he took to Japan — he wouldn’t name names on the record (“ I don’t want them to think I don’t care about the other ones, ” he says ) — got something extra out of the trip.
“Two of those four boys train with a lot of passion. They’re just very determined and very passionate about what they do,” he says.
“They’re all a lot more spirited and passionate [now ]. They train harder. It has made a good impression on them. I think it has changed their lives.”
FONTE: Arkansas Democrat Gazette - AR, USA
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