by Richard Riehle Wed Aug 14, 2013 2:43 pm
Many thanks to all my Judo friends, those who I get to train with in person, as well as those from whom I have learned so much over the many decades I have enjoyed Judo.
It is strange, I suppose that someone as old as I would still be on the mat leaning, practicing, sometimes competing (but not since 2009), and taking falls. In a little over two years, I will turn 80. My hope is to be able to continue an active life in Judo well into my eighties.
There is an old saying that, "It is not about the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog.". I like to think it is not about the age of the participant in the training but the age of the experience of training in the participant.
Judo, for me, has never been about acquiring rank, but Gary and others have encouraged me to accept another promotion for the benefit of my students and the the alleged credibility it gives me as a teacher. I owe so much to the great teachers in my own past, many of whom have long since gone to the great dojo somewhere in the hereafter. Fortunately, some of them are still alive and training, even some of them in Japan. Of special importance is my early teacher and Sensei, Jim Troutman, with whom I remain in touch as former student, and as my cherished friend. Jim, fresh out of the USMC and a student at Albright College not far from where I lived as a teen, took the trouble to teach me, not only the techniques of Judo, but also the deeper principles that have guided me for over sixty years in my own Judo practice.
Thank you all, dear friends. For those who have shared the tatami with me, I give special gratitude. For those I have yet to meet in person, I still hope to have that privilege someday. To all of you, we are colleagues with a special set of shared experiences, and I hope your experience of Judo during your lifetime will be as rewarding as mine has been.