Kodokan Judo Tournament Victories

Another successful day at Judo competition.  Kodokan Judo went to Lakeland, Florida with 22 students to compete in the Imperial Dragon's Judo Challenge coached by Sensei John Paccione.  Mixing seasoned and first-time competitors*, they walked away with 8 Gold, 4 Silver and 3 Bronze medals.  Each student gave it 100% and Kodokan Judo is proud to have such dedicated Judoka.

Taking Gold:  Ryan Burns, Mackenzie More, Christina Paccione, Sloan Pinto, Caleb Russo, Rian Russo and Erica Paccione took 1st in two divisions.

Taking Silver:  Randy Gil, Anthony Setzer*, Kaitlin Weigelt and Sebastian Yamamoto

Taking Bronze:  Joseph Russo, Mark Tamulionis and Keegan Weigelt

Participation:  Kyle Camara*, Marcos Johnson*, GenCarlo Montane, Joe More, Alex Sacramento, Keegan Russo*, Jack Tellin* and Drew Weigelt

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Kodokan Judo marches at the Columbus Day Parade

In honor of Columbus Day, Kodokan Judo of Cape Coral rallied up on SE 47th Terrace to march in the parade hosted by the Sons of Italy.   The team came out sporting red, white and blue and waved American and Italian flags.  Unfortunately, there was a down pour as soon as they stepped off but the students, instructors and parents weathered the storm and marched with pride.  The students handed out candy and a free class pass to the children huddled under awnings trying to keep dry. 

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Black belt visitor from the Netherlands

Sensei Daniel, who is an instructor from the Netherlands, paid Kodokan Judo of Cape Coral a visit while on his honeymoon in Florida.  He trained in the dojo sharing his unique competitive style adding some additional depth of throwing, arm-locking and choking technique.  We were happy to have him as we often get Judoka from all over the world to pay us visits and he will stay in touch with us and hopefully we will be able to pay him a visit to his dojo in the future.

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THE RED SOX TRAIN AT KODOKAN JUDO

It all began when Pat Sandora, a trainer from the Boston Red Sox Organization called Sensei John Paccione, owner of Kodokan Judo of Cape Coral. Mr. Sandora wanted to set up a couple of sessions with the kickboxing class to give the guys some diversity in their training schedule. Welcoming the opportunity, Sensei Jennifer Paccione and her assistant instructors gave them training with the intensity they were looking for. The classes consisted of techniques and drills taken from judo, jujitsu, karate and boxing with a focus on speed, strength, agility, balance and coordination.

 

Among the players who were brought to the dojo was pro-pitcher, Daisuke Matsuzaka #18 who was accompanied by his translator and press team. While they were observing, they took note of a photo of Sensei John Paccione and Sensei Yasuhiro Yamashita, Olympic Gold Medalist and 4x World Champion. They were so impressed that they took pictures of our framed photograph and also noted other honored guests and dojo achievements.

 

Daisuke Matsuzaka adjusted quickly to the workout due to his martial arts training in Japan. Drake Britton, who is known for his fastball-power curve, partnered with Chris Hernandez and learned competitive jujitsu techniques. Chris Balcom-Miller was inspired to continue martial arts training in his spare time. While there were many other talented athletes who attended, there are just too many to list, however, each and every athlete gave it 110%! There was lots of sweat, battle cries and laughs.

 

Traditionally at the end of a martial art class you bow as a sign of respect. An exception was made and the dojo was happy to accommodate the baseball tradition of high-fives. Sensei Jennifer and her instructors could not have asked for a better crew to train and look forward to them coming back to visit when they are in SW Florida!

 

 

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Sensei John Paccione comes out of competitive retirement

On September  17, 2011 Sensei John Paccione,  the owner of Kodokan Judo of Cape Coral, came out of competitive retirement and entered the 45th and final East Coast Championship Juyukai held at the Institute of Technology in Newark New Jersey.

This tournament is one of the highest level competitions held by the United States Judo Federation on the East Coast. Sensei John, who is 46 years old, was the oldest person in his division which consisted of 7 competitors including the Australian National Champion.

Sensei John threw his first opponent twice scoring a half point which is called a wazari.  His opponent followed up with a turning throw to which Sensei John countered and scored an ippon, which is a full point, to win the match.  Sensei John won his second match which set the stage for him to fight the Australian who was 6’6”.  Sensei  John lost to the Australian eventually taking the bronze to be designated the third place East Coast Champion in his division.

 

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