Judo Adventures with Jenna

2024 was a roller coaster. Africa, Europe, South America, North America, Oceania, Asia. Hit every inhabited “continent” in the world for judo in one year. Made new friends, connected more deeply with old ones. Pruned the metaphorical friend tree to allow for bigger and better growth in the new year. Blessed beyond compare.

Thanks for joining me on these judo adventures. Looking forward to another adventure packed year in 2025! Come tag along!

あけおめことよろ

Photos from the 2024 Tahiti Oceania Open 😊

What a great opportunity this last PanAm Championships in Brazil 🇧🇷 was. I learned so much through conversations 🗣️, observations👀, and experiences🥋. Grateful for and to those at (thank you!) who helped me prep and that someone else was taking pictures 📸 so that I could have some too 😌

Grand Prix Upper Austria. 🇦🇹

It does bother me that the name is flipped compared to all the other Grand Prixs and Grand Slams.

I completed my main quest in Austria (acquiring a 🐮 bell), missed out on completing a few major side quests (🥋🏆😅), and found and completed additional pleasant surprise side quests (playgrounds and hole in the wall kebab shop I see you 👀).

This tournament was nice in that I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. Even still, defeats still stings, so I’ll be working hard toward the next competition. 💪

Thank you to all y’all for your support 🥰









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When I’m supposed to be training, but I got a fancy new lens for Christmas that I want to try out. Which one is your favorite pic? 1, 2, 3, or 4?

Souvenirs from 2023.

Seven international competitions, made it to the finals block at three of them, one medal. Second Pan-American Championships team invitation, first time to accept. First time to Australia, Canada, Taipei, and Colombia for Judo. Started the year with a world ranking of 131, ended the year ranked 101. First time Senior National Champion.

Pleased with my progress. Here’s to 2024 🥳

Bonus: which bronze medal is the new one? 😜

Thanks Torrance Training Lab for having me this week!

Yay 5am! 😄

“Kengaku” (見学) is “studying by observation”. I was lucky enough to be able to do that this week at the Tokyo Grand Slam and International Training Camp at the Kodokan.

Even when there is something preventing you from getting on the mat yourself, go to the dojo to watch and learn, literally.

(PS it’s why the mommies who always stay and watch their kids at the dojo are not half bad by the time they’re finally convinced to put on their own judogi.)

The Hong Kong 🇭🇰 Open has a special place in my heart ❤️ . Just over four years ago, there was an incident that made me rethink what in the world was I doing judo for 🤨. And it was at the Hong Kong Open 2019 that I decided that I would do judo because it’s fun and I love it, that winning would be a by-product not the goal, that I wouldn’t place so much pressure on myself that life felt not-worth-living if I lost and I wouldn’t let anyone else put that pressure on me either. The result was that HK 2019 was my first international medal 🥳.

It’s easy to get caught up in the hunt for points and ranking, so to remind myself of my promise, I put my hatt on. Even when people don’t want to associate with me because they think my frog hat is too silly or it makes me look “weak”.

I’m really glad that I could get my hands on a little bit of bling 🥉 here to end 2023. I’m glad that I have something to show for missing Thanksgiving 🦃 with the family. It’s just a tiny bit of validation that I’m doing what I’m supposed to be 😌. But there’s no substitute for hard work, and I got out what I put in🙃. I know I’m capable of more.

Thank you to everyone who supports me and follows me on these adventures, or even reads to the end of these long posts🥰. I hope that I can bring a smile to your face and be an encouragement to you in one way out another. 🙇‍♀️😘

Winning is fun 🤩. Knowing that I gave it my best is fun 😁. Deepening existing relationships and making new ones are fun😊. Getting help and helping others is fun😀. New experiences are fun😄. The verdict is in: I was able to have fun at the Montreal Pan American Open 🐸.

I got a little roughed up, which was not fun ☹️. Zero fun. I ended up with 5th, which was less than ideal 😔. Watching the videos to learn from my mistakes makes me think of “All [correction] for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields…” a little out of context, but still applicable.
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I’d like to thank Senseis Richie and Tyler for coaching me in my matches. They didn’t have to, but when they realized that most of us senior athletes were there on our own, they took it upon themselves to be our support. Thank you thank you thank you.

On to the next adventure: Hong Kong 🇭🇰

This is a reminder to myself:
That I am not here to be the strongest, fastest, or best.
That I don’t have to worry about what other people think.
That I am here to have fun.
That the day this becomes unenjoyable, I should stop wasting my and other people’s time, money, and air.
I am going to have fun today.

This past weekend, I competed in the Perth Oceania Open 🇦🇺. While the results were not what I wanted 🫠 (lost first round), it was a personal win 🏅 . Ever since I began thinking about competing internationally🌎 in 2014, the Continental Open in Australia had been a competition I wanted to attend. However, due to a variety of factors, it was only this year that I was finally able to go.

This was the first tournament that I had time for sightseeing 🦘🐨🐘🐊🐧 and was generally able to enjoy being in a foreign country, instead of just arriving, fighting, and leaving.

I’m looking forward to my next adventure in Montreal 🇨🇦 in…ack! Less than a week! 😖 Who is this crazy flying halfway around the world (literally) to compete in back-to-back tournaments??