David started Judo in 1972 when his parents decided that he had to 'learn how to defend himself'. Initially reluctant, as it interfered with watching 'Tomorrow's World' in the days prior to VHS or DVD he nevertheless, as an obedient son, did as he was told.
The style of teaching was rather different in those days and for several months, all he was allowed to do was practice breakfalls until they were of a standard that allowed him to move on to greater things.
At this point he discovered that he rather enjoyed throwing people around and progressed quite rapidly whereupon by his teens, he started to enter various competitions. Unfortunately, there are no pictures of him in action from those days because his parents never came to watch citing that "it causes to much pain to see my baby in a fight" which was palpable nonsense as he usually returned with a trophy or two in his hands.
David enjoyed success in competition at county, area and national level, twice gaining Gold in the National Championships. However, upon becoming a senior he found the going rather harder and it took him two years to gain his 2nd Kyu (Blue belt).
Distracted by other activities and the closure of the club he then attended (Yoshinkwai in Northwood) David left the Judo world in 1982.
However, in 2004 his children joined the local Karate club and David was not terribly happy about that. First of all he had to prove himself to Roy Sensei and was then eventually allowed to join the Chalfont club where he set about recollecting his skills. It then took a year to convince his children to switch their allegiance but now there was no looking back. David gained 1st Kyu (Brown belt) in 2007 and after a lot of work on improving his coaching ability he obtained the coveted promotion to Black belt 1st Dan at the BJC 2009 Summer School in Bognor.
Much to his patient wifes frustration, it does not end here however. He has his sight on the next coaching awards and further promotion which undoubtably will require a lot more work on Kata as well as general study and application. Lorraine comments "I am now a Judo widow" and has immersed herself with an interest in mosaics and glass cutting.
David was promoted to 2nd Dan on the 17th November 2013 by Robin Otani, President of the BJC and then to 3rd Dan on the 17th November 2019.
In June of 2009 David took the BJC Referee exam and became a registered BJC Referee. His first outing was at the BJC Senior Nationals in 2009 and he has continued with roughly a dozen events per year. Now promoted to National level, David regularly officiates at National and International events and is recognised as possessing the best quality blazer within the BJC.
David also holds the Shudoshaidai Ni (second level of three) award for Technical Judo Excellence.
Serving on the BJC Headquarters Committee as well as the BJC Bucks Area Chairman and Area Rep. David keeps himself busy through coming up with more mad ways to demonstrate Judo including a range of Kata performed in a swimming pool.
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