October 2009
McCade Ho

In McCade Ho’s mind, it’s football season.

Maybe that’s why the seven-year old Ho was so quick to end his matches at the Aiea Hongwanji-hosted monthly tournament at Salt Lake District Park Sunday.

Ho, a second grader at Hongwanji Mission School and member of Salt Lake Judo Club, won by ippon in each of his three matches to win the bantam 2, under 51-pound division.

“I’m happy to win,” said Ho, who added the first-place finish gives more reason to work harder at practice.

Ho’s division was the largest of the day with eight competitors. A total of 160 judoka entered the tournament with 213 contested matches being held.

In his quarterfinal match, Ho pinned Cade Phillips with kesagatame about a minute in. He needed just three seconds in the semifinal round to dispatch Jordan Keliiaa with a left ouchi-gari for ippon and it was more of the same in the final. Ho used the same technique in a nine-second win over Brock Yashiro for first place.

“I wanted to circle around him and use my ouchi-gari,” said Ho, who began judo at age three.

Salt Lake instructor Brandon Maki praised his judoka.

“He practices really hard and he’s a real good-natured kid,” said Maki, who added Ho’s favorite throw is uchimata. “He uses the ouchi-gari well to set-up his uchimata, but the first throw was working today, so he stuck with it.”

Ho, who has an older sister who also participates in judo, has not yet entered any national tournaments, but according to Maki, it is within his reach.

“He’s definitely of that caliber,” Maki said. “He’s just a solid all-around player.”

Not bad for a kid who claims that judo isn’t even his favorite sport.

Ho also participates in football, basketball and baseball.

Said Ho: “But football is my favorite sport.”

November 2009
Tyler Allen

Tyler Allen understands the importance of patience.  The 11-year old judoka saved his best for last en route to a first-place finish at Sunday’s 50^th State Judo Association monthly tournament at Salt Lake District Park Gym.

Allen, a green belt at Shobukan Judo Club, went 3-0 to win the Intermediate 2, under 84-pound division, which contained six entrants.

“I’m glad that I won,” said Allen, who weighed in at 81 pounds. “It was good to fight early.”

Allen’s division was among the first played Sunday and wrapped up by 10:30 a.m.  He needed overtime to get past Pearl City Hongwanji’s Micah Tateyama in his first-round match.

“I’d rather have a quick match and end it quick so that I don’t use as much energy,” Allen said. “But, I thought that because I was attacking a lot and that I would get the decision if it went to flags.”

Allen nearly threw Tateyama with a leg pick about a minute into regulation, but neither judoka could muster any offense and they were forced to go into a golden-score, extra period.  It wasn’t until the clock showed 10 seconds remaining in overtime that Allen scored a yuko on a left leg pick to advance to the second round.

In his semifinal against Weston Kogachi, of Makiki Seidokan, Allen quickly got on the board with a left seio-nage for yuko 20 seconds in. He added another yuko on a left sore-tsurikomi goshi less than a minute later and just before time ran out, Allen added his third yuko on another sore.

“I practice my right side a lot at practice, but my opponents don’t give me my right side (grip), so I have to play left,” said Allen, who noted his favorite technique is a kouchi leg pick.

The final was between Allen and Kapolei’s Cole Kido and also went to overtime.  Neither judoka was able to score in regulation, but Allen scored a waza-ari off a left leg pick just 23 seconds into overtime to end it.  Allen started the throw inbounds, but his momentum took him near the safety border, where he finished the throw.

“I was focused on my opponent and not on what the referee would say,” Allen said. “I didn’t hear matte, so I just kept going.”

Allen, a sixth-grader at Mid-Pacific, began judo at age four — two months after his older brother, Trevor, took up the sport.

“I wanted to do what my brother was doing,” said Allen, who also plays forward for the Honolulu Bulls Soccer Club.

January 2010
Joshua Terao

It isn’t as easy as Joshua Terao makes it look.

The 13-year old Terao, a brown belt from Liliha’s Shobukan Judo Club, went 3-0 to capture the boys’ juvenile A, under 117-pound division at Sunday’s Sam Fujiyama Memorial Tournament. The tournament was hosted by Makiki Seidokan and held at Salt Lake District Park.

But, it was hardly anything new for Terao, who said he has not lost a match in Hawaii since December of 2008.

“I think about it sometimes,” said Terao, an eighth-grader at Lutheran School. “Losing is bad — I’ve experienced losing and losing hurts. I like winning basically and you have to train hard (to win).”

Terao said the loss over two years ago forced him to get serious about his training.

“It was a change in mentality,” he said. “That was before my Japan tournament, so I had to get serious about judo and I trained everyday for almost two hours.”

Terao spent a week in Japan in November of last year, which was sponsored by the 50th State.

“I was invited to train up there and I got to play in one of their tournament,” said Terao, who began judo at five.

At Sunday’s tournament, Terao won his first match before it began. He advanced to the second round after his opponent was given a hansokumake (disqualification) because of a non-regulation gi.

“It’s kind of a disappointment when someone gets hansokumake because of their gi,” Terao said. “I just stayed focused and worried about the next match.”

He bested Kapolei’s Kekua Marumoto in the second round after another hansokumake to move on to meet Hodokan’s Troy Enoka in the final.

Terao picked up a yuko 35 seconds into his match with Marumoto on a left uchimata before forcing four stalling penalties to end the match with 24 seconds to play.

“I was trying to keep up the intensity and stop him from attacking by being offensive,” said Terao, who weighed in at 108 pounds.

Terao scored on a right modified kouchi at the 2:03 mark to open the scoring against Enoka. The throw resulted in a waza-ari and Terao pressed Enoka with kameshiho-gatame soon after for his second waza-ari, which ended the match with 1:40 left.

“He was open so I faked the (seionage) forward and switched it back into kouchi,” said Terao, who began practicing with the Pac-5 wrestling team last month. “My brother (David) is the team captain so I practice with them sometimes. Since I’ve been wrestling, it’s easier for me to transition from standing to a pin.”

Shobukan instructor Lance Iida said Terao was far from his best Sunday.

“To me, he’s a little rusty because he’s not in competition mode,” Iida said. “His timing and his entries are not as clean, but he still can pull off wins because of his ability and experience.”

The next tournament will be the Tsuruo Fukushima Memorial Tournament, hosted by Leeward Judo Club on Feb. 14.