Mary's a Yellow Belt!

Mary is about to throw Jackson!

Last night, Mary took her first Judo promotional exam and she passed!  She is now a yellow belt!!!  First, Tyler led the group in warm-up exercises.  Then, each person asked the person next to him or her a question about the history of Judo and terminology used in the sport.  After that, the group practiced forward rolls, backward rolls, forward falls, backward falls, and sideways falls.

Then, the difficult part began.  Mary had to first name a throw and then use it on Jackson.  She had to do this for a few different throws she has learned.  Then, she had to do the same with hold-downs that she has learned.  Lastly, she had to perform a few counters on Jackson. 

She says her favorite counter is the valley drop.  "Someone comes in to do some Japanese throw (sounds like tie a koshi??) and then you pull them in tight and sit down being careful not to pull them down on top of you!"

After everyone completed their test, there was still time for some practice matches! 

Mary is preparing for a hold-down!

After the match, one of Mary's fellow Judoers told me that if I didn't want to purchase a yellow belt, I could do what his mom did and "put the belts in the washing machine with some yellow stuff so that they come out yellow."  I have yet to talk to her about what exactly she did, but I'm imagining putting the belt in the washing machine with some Rit dye.  Ingenious!

Mary is trying to tackle Jackson in their match.

Here's a picture of my sleepless sickies, who came along in their jammies to cheer Mary on!  What supportive little brothers!

Maggie had a lot of fun running laps in the hall barefoot!