by GregW Mon Dec 22, 2014 12:10 pm
I got choked out by a young woman the day I got my purple belt. I was 15 at the time. I thought I was done for the day because my division had been finished for over an hour and I was just waiting for the promotional part of the shiai to start after the senior division was finished. I was sitting outside eating some lunch when someone came running out to tell me that they had called my name and that I was on deck.
When I arrived, still crunching on some potato chips, there was this girl about 18 or 19 years old. She was wearing a white belt. I should have known something was up. The officials explained that she needed one more match to qualify for her promotion and that there were no more people for her to fight in her division. They picked me because I was about the same weight and that I was a blue belt. Again, I should have thought to ask what rank she was testing for.
The match began and I just played around some. I did a few attacks and blocked all of hers. I didn't want to make her look too bad since she was up for promotion, but i didn't want her to beat me. I looked at the clock about 20-30 seconds before the end of the match and decided to go ahead and finish her off with my drop-knee seoinage. When I dropped, she slid into a choke. The last thing I remember thinking before the lights went out was, "That's a good choke!" I woke up with an ammonia capsule under my nose wondering what all these people were doing in my bedroom. I thought I was waking up in the morning and I couldn't figure out why all these people were here.
At the end of the promotional part of the shiai, she was awarded her shodan. I don't underestimate women judoka since then.