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My excuse is that it helps me recover from jet lag, but the truth is I like a little siesta ... just an hour is enough ... in the afternoon before I wrap things up work-wise and head to the dojo.
So it was yesterday when I was roused from a deep, sweaty slumber by the office phone. At first it was like all the others ... "I am in town for about a month, if not longer, may I visit your dojo, when is class?" And as I have many times when dead asleep I asked "have you done judo before." Not a strange question at all, I get plenty of calls from people who want to "jump right in" but as we segregate the more autonomous players who can already fall down and make others fall down without injury it's an important question to determine if they should attend the general skills class first.
So then ... and this is a condensed version of the conversation, the best I can remember ... the guy says "yes, I was German National Champion and German National Coach, and I have recently been coaching for Lufthansa ..." which of course woke me up a bit more. I told the gent that he should probably come down next Monday when our kancho will be back from Senior Nationals.
Somewhere in there I caught that his name was Piter or Peters or Pit(something) and that he was 67 years old ... rokudan I think he said. But he said goodbye and he would see me next Monday before I collected my senses. Awkward to use caller ID to call him back and ask "who the heck are you again?"
From those hazy clues, can anyone help me identify this gent? There are any number of national champions and national coaches among European judo orgs, so a quick search "auf English" got me nowhere. If he is an important guest and potential member, we probably won't change anything, but maybe Ernie will bring some sushi from the store ... it would be good manners to know.
He did say I'd find him on the internet ... so here we are ... on the internet ... asking.
Side note: Key question for me ... will he show up at the dojo (someone else's dojo other than his own) in a candy belt ... that will tell me much ... agree?
So it was yesterday when I was roused from a deep, sweaty slumber by the office phone. At first it was like all the others ... "I am in town for about a month, if not longer, may I visit your dojo, when is class?" And as I have many times when dead asleep I asked "have you done judo before." Not a strange question at all, I get plenty of calls from people who want to "jump right in" but as we segregate the more autonomous players who can already fall down and make others fall down without injury it's an important question to determine if they should attend the general skills class first.
So then ... and this is a condensed version of the conversation, the best I can remember ... the guy says "yes, I was German National Champion and German National Coach, and I have recently been coaching for Lufthansa ..." which of course woke me up a bit more. I told the gent that he should probably come down next Monday when our kancho will be back from Senior Nationals.
Somewhere in there I caught that his name was Piter or Peters or Pit(something) and that he was 67 years old ... rokudan I think he said. But he said goodbye and he would see me next Monday before I collected my senses. Awkward to use caller ID to call him back and ask "who the heck are you again?"
From those hazy clues, can anyone help me identify this gent? There are any number of national champions and national coaches among European judo orgs, so a quick search "auf English" got me nowhere. If he is an important guest and potential member, we probably won't change anything, but maybe Ernie will bring some sushi from the store ... it would be good manners to know.
He did say I'd find him on the internet ... so here we are ... on the internet ... asking.
Side note: Key question for me ... will he show up at the dojo (someone else's dojo other than his own) in a candy belt ... that will tell me much ... agree?
