Spent the morning at the Coventry Arena watching the Judo as part of the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
The Arena itself had been ‘curtained down’ to a smaller venue meaning that the seating packed tightly around the two mats. The big overhead screens meant there was no straining to see the contests and the venue felt full and engaged with the action. The organisation was simply amazing, it felt like they could have handled 10 times the visitors.
After a quick explanation of Judo rules including the fact Judo might be one of the few sports where you can get penalised for not being aggressive enough the bouts proceeded in an efficient pipeline, referee and fighters using the mat and as they completed the next pairing was already walking out. Normally a Judo bout doesn’t take long, 5 minutes or shorter but at this level of competition it wasn’t uncommon for the result to be a draw leading to the tense ‘golden score’ where the winner is the first to score anything.
I’d done a spell of Judo as child so it was fun to see the sport again and understand the techniques and tactics even if they were well beyond my achievements. Reflecting back I think learning Judo made me more confident with moving my own body, I never seemed to have gawky or coordination issues (apart from catching cricket balls) and made me wish I’d continued it for longer. Now I’d just break a hip.