Shindo Kan School of Judo

MORE UPDATES
As I have mentioned I fully intended to re-open Shindo Kan. but in the ensuing years (?) years I have had some reservations about our location.
The park district directed everting; room location, day’s times and even fees. It was always difficult to plan lessons as different workouts may take more room. Also not every parent/child has she same time free.
So we have given consideration to a new dojo location.
There’s an old story about an old time baseball player, Ted Williams. Fantastic hitter in a game where batting 300 (only 3 out of 10 hit at bats) can make you tons of money. Williams hit 400, a great hitter since his youth. When he retired an expansion team hired him-“We can a whole roster of 400 hitters.”
But he was a natural. When asked by players what they were doing wrong, he basically showed them, “Just do it like this.” That offered little help. You can’t teach natural.
So any move, eventually, may cause prices to rise.
However, in the future we will not only have most often 3 black belt instructors, but black belts with over 150 of judo experience. Though we may not be Olympians as noted in the above story many champion are natural and that is hard to teach. In addition I have promoted a few very fine assistant coaches.
Also note as judoka we have a very short lineage. Judo began in Japan in the late 1800’s. It continued through the wars at which time some of our serviceman brought judo to the states settling on the West coast. Many of those judoka emigrated to the Midwest. Our Sensei learned from them and he handed it down to me. So we are only 2 or 3 generations removed from original judo.
I believe this gives us the ability to teach extraordinary judo.
If we make the move I will try to keep fees as low as possible. In the meantime WE WILL, when we can, continue at the park district.
MORE UPDATES
As I have mentioned I fully intended to re-open Shindo Kan. but in the ensuing years (?) years I have had some reservations about our location.
The park district directed everting; room location, day’s times and even fees. It was always difficult to plan lessons as different workouts may take more room. Also not every parent/child has she same time free.
So we have given consideration to a new dojo location.
There’s an old story about an old time baseball player, Ted Williams. Fantastic hitter in a game where batting 300 (only 3 out of 10 hit at bats) can make you tons of money. Williams hit 400, a great hitter since his youth. When he retired an expansion team hired him-“We can a whole roster of 400 hitters.”
But he was a natural. When asked by players what they were doing wrong, he basically showed them, “Just do it like this.” That offered little help. You can’t teach natural.
So any move, eventually, may cause prices to rise.
However, in the future we will not only have most often 3 black belt instructors, but black belts with over 150 of judo experience. Though we may not be Olympians as noted in the above story many champion are natural and that is hard to teach. In addition I have promoted a few very fine assistant coaches.
Also note as judoka we have a very short lineage. Judo began in Japan in the late 1800’s. It continued through the wars at which time some of our serviceman brought judo to the states settling on the West coast. Many of those judoka emigrated to the Midwest. Our Sensei learned from them and he handed it down to me. So we are only 2 or 3 generations removed from original judo.
I believe this gives us the ability to teach extraordinary judo.
If we make the move I will try to keep fees as low as possible. In the meantime WE WILL, when we can, continue at the park district.

You may have noticed it’s been a while since I’ve made any updates to this page. There is a reason for that.
For the better part of the first almost half of the year I’ve had some medical issues. Nothing tragic, but difficult. For more days than less I’ve been in the hospital. Not the best place to do updates.
If you are still a member of the Schaumburg Park district you’ve probably received their latest classes catalog. The Shindo Kan Judo class was not listed, though this seems to be the time where some places and events are reopening.
Please believe me I will re-open Shindo Kan. As of today, 5/19/21 I am still recovering. I will have to contact the Park District to get time and space-they may be different than before. In addition we will have to insure everyone’s safety to their satisfaction and comfort as regards the Covid virus.
There are some behind the scenes issues I have to take care of-insurance, certifications etc.
I hope to see you all in the not too distant future.

If you haven’t read the news, you probably wouldn’t “hear” it in the US, a great judo champion Toshihiko Koga passed away recently at a very young age. After reading some of his biography two things came to mind Sensei Joe (my Dad) of the original Shindo Kan used to try to pound into us.
“Since then, the closest a -80kg player came was in 1990, when Toshihiko Koga made it to the finals in an unbelievable run that might have gone his way had he been competing in the current time limit. He went nearly 8 minutes (the final was 10 minutes back then) with Olympic Silver medalist, Naoya Ogawa who outweighed the 76kg Koga by 54kg!”
“the amazing final of the All Japan Open Weight Championships 1990 - weighing only 71Kgs he fights World Open Weight champion Naoya Ogawa!”
“In the open-weight category at the 1990 All-Japan Judo Championships, Koga obliterated larger judoka in succession. In the finals, Koga lost to Naoya Ogawa, who dominated the heavyweight division at the time, in a vigorously fought match that attracted widespread attention.”
It always amazed me how competitors would worry to death and work, overwork, tirelessly to lose ounces of weight to make “their” weight class. Joe always said a god judoka can beat a larger man. Here was a judoka “obliterating” the other contestants way out of his weight class. Now one could say that was because Koga was a superlative judoka. While that is undeniably true, you have to remember so were the judoka he was competing against. Especially in a self- defense situation you never know what size person may attack you.
“At that time, Yamash*ta had already won multiple World Championships and several All Japan Championships. The only title that had eluded him was the Olympic Gold, which he eventually wins in 1984. As fate will have it, we got onto a subject of kata. To my amazement, he practiced kata on a regular basis. Here’s a man who owns every judo title known to the judo world except the Olympic Gold and he practices kata? WOW! So I asked why? He said that it is one of the ways of ensuring his judo performance is the best possible. Also, when his techniques are not working precisely, he always goes back to practice kata religiously. WOW! By the way, he still practices kata today and can be seen judging at many kata events in Japan.”
We always practiced kata. We couldn’t go for promotion to black belt without knowing Nage No Kata. The local judo governing body required that kata for promotion. But I have heard of promotions without kata, kata being gemnerally useless and certainly useless for competition. Yet here was the greatest judoka of his generation, one of the greatest of all time, practicing kata to make all his judo better.
Gee, could it be Sensei Joe was right all those 50-60 years ago?

It was a difficult weekend for the Zorich family. So while I posted regarding February 3rd being St. Blaise day, and my Dad’s Sensei penchant for giving promotions on that day, I neglected that Friday February 5th is his birthday So you could expect your promotion, if earned, on one of those days, among others.
I have posted on his birthday in the past about what kind of father he was. This will be different; what kind of athlete he was. I may have posted in the past he was a Golden Gloves boxer, weightlifter and of course judoka.
What I am going to “post” today I’m going to guess most people won’t believe. But I saw him do it twice. He usually did it at the dojo early in the morning so I most often wasn’t present. He kept it up for somewhere between 5- 8 or so years. I imagine he built up to it over quite a bit of time.
As an aside, when he tasked his judoka to do exercises past single digits it was always repetitive numbers. We ran laps in the dojo not for 30 minutes, but 33. 111 pushups, 222 whatevers.
As a result, as I said, for 5 years plus Dad did 3,333 squats without stopping, every day. Amazing .

Long funny story. saw some guys on TV playing catch last night. Started to write memories of what we did at Shindo Kan. Some illnesses got in the way.
This story is not specifically SK but was probably a necessary connection. And it’s funny.
I can only guess to keep judoka from being bored Joe encourage other sports; even at SK as long as it was before or after the judo workout. To help this out he kept pieces of other sports equipment around-hockey sticks and goalie stick (we imagined length of mat was close to width of goal and used “air filled” plastic puck, football, various baseball equipment etc. This included a battered old catcher’s mitt.
Now we were also at the age where we believed we were invincible, could do anything. And of course we were quite good at each endeavor. We could throw hard catch anything etc.
Now it so happened my oldest sister was going out with a guy who had played baseball; high school. If I remember correctly he held some pitching records and had even been considered for the minor leagues work his way up.
Now as great as we were at SK I had never played with a real baseball player, but c’mon we were awesome. I had the catcher’s mitt at home so since I was awesome I asked him to throw mw a pitch. He begged off. I asked again, he begged off. I said its OK we throw the ball all the time I have the catcher’s mitt…. (I’m awesome). He finally said yes.
So we went out to the front sidewalk and stepped off something reasonably close to 60’ 6”. Just tossed the ball for a bit then……
I got into the squat put the mitt out for a target. He wound up and let go.
I don’t believe I’ve ever thought so quickly and moved so fast. I literally dove into the grass. I don’t how, the ball was coming so fast. For all I know the ball is still moving/rolling somewhere. It was so fast I was terrified. There wasn’t a snowballs chance I was going to try to catch that thing.

With the greatly appreciated help - heck he did it all - of one of our core judoka, Shindo Kan now has a real, updated website. Truly it couldn’t have been done without him.

For the most current web info and the story of Shindo Kan our webpresence is now on Word Press.

Re-opening of Shindo Kan
Student, Parents, Teachers
Over the course of the pandemic I have thought about ways re-opening could be accomplished.
First our location. At various times the park district scheduled times for their facility to be open along with procedures and restrictions. In that case we would have had to change our hours of operation. Secondly the guidelines for cleaning the workout area were costly and recommended cleaning solutions I could not get a hold of regardless which stores I had gone to.
Secondly the restrictions on masks and social distancing do not allow for the full practice of judo. For the amount of labor we’d have to put in to prep the dojo area, only to result in months of masked shadow uchikomi didn’t balance.
Finally, depending on how bad and what stage the pandemic was in buildings have been completely shut down , re-opened with restrictions only to be shut down again.
I did not feel this was a legitimate way, or the way I wanted to teach judo or to treat my students.
I felt the only recourse was to wait until the whole issue came under better control and we could have the freedom to practice the best way.
I miss all of you and I miss teaching. I love the concepts of judo, I always felt it was what I was meant to do.
Thank you all,
David Zorich
Shindo Kan Judo, Sensei

12/16/20
My main website has been, as near as this non-computer guy can tell, has been irreparably damaged. Even help from their helpdesk was useless/confusing to me.
I have found snapshots of it's content.
I will try to figure out a place to put information soon.
I'm very sorry

The park district, in line with state guidelines is reopening. Judo will be included beginning July 10th. Classes will be Friday evenings 6-7 P.M. However, in accordance with those guidelines there will be restrictions:
- 6' distance will be required. This of course means no contact. Practice will be form and technique
- given the six foot restriction, we will not be able to practice any matwork
- masks will be required.
- You may think a mask will inhibit your ability to breathe/exercise. However since workouts will be individual it shouldn't be that difficult.
- Shindo Kan will have disinfectant and wipes available.
- my assistants and I are working on variations on individual workouts
- we are looking at possible affordable "crash dummies."

Please advise as to whether these restrictions are enough for you or your children to begin classes again.

Thank you
David Zorich
Shindo Kan Judo

As most of you know Shindo Kan was started in the late ‘50’s by my father, Blaise “Joe” Zorich. Over the years many sho dans or higher took part in our dojo or were promoted by Shindo Kan. It was an honor to be associated with them all. It was a tradition of great judo I felt should be continued.
Sadly it took many years for me to (be able) to start my own dojo; what I like to call Shindo Kan 2.0. My classes began mostly with youth judoka and judo has pretty specific requirements for the black belt journey. I just wanted to help someone on that journey like he did. It just seemed with the youth it was going to take a very long time.
But I got lucky. A gentleman who had begun his judo career overseas found our dojo and decided to continue his judo journey. Then a friend whose journey was interrupted decided since he finally had a place to work on his judo he also wanted to finish where he had always wanted to go. They are both adults.
I would like to thank Mr. Henrik Dall and Mr. Reggie Montgomery for letting me assist them in reaching their goals-sho dan. It was an important and rewarding experience for me to be able to continue the Shindo Kan tradition.
On the other hand there was disappointment. I had hoped to mark the occasion. Their exam had taken place April 28, 2019. Due to the stay at home policy we were unable to get together to remember the occasion. Hopefully, in the not too distant future, we can mark the day. But it won’t be the actual day.
Regardless, thank you – belatedly- Henrik and Reg for allowing me to achieve my dream.

Not mine but love he sentiment. Hope we can get back together sooner than later.

Parents and students:
I am sorry it took me so long to get in contact with you. In all my years of judo I’ve never encountered anything like this. I was having difficulty putting together a response.
I know these are challenging times. Not only is everyone trying to avoid sickness but many are working reduced hours, furloughed or out of work. As you all know as with most facilities now the park district has been closed to all activities. And of course our governing bodies have asked/ordered us to stay home and social distance from each other.
I really miss teaching the classes. I was brought up in judo and it’s pretty much who I am. I can only hope you miss taking the classes and learning as much as I miss teaching them.
Interestingly we were looking for another location. Given the fact that we would have no incoming stream to pay rent I can be grateful we are still at the park district with the students we have.
I have been in contact with my representative at the park district. There will be no classes for the month of April. There is a tentative date to begin again early May. I certainly hope so. But as I’ve been following this situation I don’t think we can be sure of the date. They seem to keep extending it.
Please check these sites and I’ll keep you as up to date as I am informed. Please make sure to contact me when classes begin. any issue can be worked out
Hope to see everyone soon. But first and foremost stay well and stay safe.

David Zorich, Sensei
Shindo Kan Judo

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Parents and students,
I was told a mailing was sent out but please note the following from the Schaumburg Park District:

Classes have been cancelled tonight-through March 29th at a minimum.

We will re-evaluate everything in two weeks.

We sent a mass email to every participant with an email on file.

We also posted on our parkfun.com website and social media pages.
I am truly sorry for the delay but it is understandable. Please stay well. Hopefully the postponement won't be too long

Thank you for participating
Sensei David zorich

Parents
We will have an laptop at class Wednesday
If you come in after class we will help with tournament registration

2020 Illinois State Judo Championships | Illinois Judo State Championships

Parents and Students
Our next tournament is this sunday March 8, 2020. Registration is on line only; must be completed by Wednesday evening 3-4-2020

Here is the link
https://iljudo.sicreative.com/il-registration/?fbclid=IwAR2gFx194GBt678XI-Wt60eF_2mnkuV3bXHv8NkNcoNAEWIb68f6TQ21SYI

2020 Illinois State Judo Championships | Illinois Judo State Championships 2020 Illinois State Judo Championships MARCH 8, 2020 Trinity International University Meyer Sports Complex 2065 Half Day Road, Deerfield, IL 60015 Tournament Director: Aaron Cohen, [email protected] Head Referee: Kevin Pittman On-line registration ONLY! No day-of registration. Registration...

REMEMBER: Next session starts tomorrow January 6 2020.

My annual one of my favorite if not the favorite Christmas long memory.
When I was in junior high, maybe it started even a little earlier, I was in the church choir. Of course if you mention that now to my wife who has heard me sing in the car you’ll get a strange look.
Not only did we sing every Sunday but we sang Midnight Mass on Easter and Christmas. Mr. James Neville was our choir director. For Christmas he would pick selections from The Messiah. And he was VERY particular.
For weeks before Christmas we were required to attend practice every Wednesday night, I think around 7. And even though it was the holidays and people would be away from home, if you missed one of those practices you wouldn’t be allowed to sing at Christmas. That wasn’t the worst. You have to remember he had some young boys in his choir.
By this time my parents were separated though Mom didn’t seem to have trouble with Dad coming home for dinners, Sunday and holidays.
Now as particular as Mr. Neville was about practices there was more thing you had to do as a youth. I guess we were pretty good. I remember parents of friends mentioning they would come and tape our practices. So if we were that close to really good nothing was going tp mess up Mr. Neville’s Midnight Mass.
If you were a youth you were required to take, at least an hour nap Christmas Eve. Your changing voice was going to be rested. And when you came to the church that Christmas Eve you had to bring a signed note from your parents saying you took the nap. In case any enterprising youth thought he could make his handwriting look adult, your parent had to bring you and the note to the church that night,
God bless diversity but if in the 60’s you lived two blocks from the church like I did within those blocks every house was decorated for Christmas.
I was in the choir for a number of years so in my “old age” I’m sure the memories are all shmushed together. And if you read my posts often you know how I felt about my Dad.
I remember waiting for him to come home, my nap note in my hand. and though I’m pretty sure it didn’t snow every year the main memory has just enough snow on the ground to crunch when you walked. And it feels like I remember every walk. The crunching snow, the thousands of Christmas lights lighting the way and Dad walking me to my important night.
So from my Dad and I to all my friends, their family and my family-Merry Christmas.

I’m sorry this is late. We are in between judo sessions. Our next session begins January 6, 2020 (through March 25, 2020).
I thought we had a good session. We did some promotions last session, so this session was more of a technical session; learning techniques to use and that will be on their next exam.

On the other hand we were weak in terms of competition. There are a couple of reasons for that. First there were very few local tournaments; I don’t remember exactly but I don’t think there was more than four. With 52 weekends per year I would have thought we could have made a couple of them.
When I announce upcoming tournaments in class almost everyone seems to want to go. But when the day comes most often it’s the same two (families) who attend.
As I tell the students judo, a “martial art” is safe grappling/competing. We do spar in class but as I tell the students grappling with someone you’ve has class with for years-or even go to school with-is different than competing with someone you don’t know, who thinks you’re between them and a trophy/medal.
I’m hoping we can improve on that area in the upcoming year. See you all in 2020 !

Have a great holiday/ Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year.

David Zorich, Sensei
Shindo Kan School of Judo

As many of you know my Dad started the dojo in the late '50's through most of the 80's.

From the start Dad was a great judoka, but a poor businessman. He just wanted to teach judo. I don't even know if he had a billing system. It was more he would teach and then say, "You owe me $_ _ - 's.

Sometimes people paid, sometimes they would just quit without paying, some would say the couldn't at that time.

A woman joined the dojo and worked her way through the ranks. She became friends with my Dad and noticed the haphazard payment system she decided to help the dojo.

She instituted student records, a billing system etc. As much as anyone she was integral to the success of Shindo Kan during that time.

In the meantime she became one of the first, if not the first, female black belts in the Midwest. In an era when women were not athletic as they are now this was a singular major achievement.

Her name, at that time, was Carole Wolken. Over the years I kept in touch with her sporadically-certainly not as much as I should have.

It is with great sadness I now tell all was informed today Ms. Carole passed away this morning.

She was a great close friend and as I remember an outstanding judoka.

Because of her help those many years ago and her great friendship I will miss her in many ways.

Cleaning up around house found this. Talk about Chicago judo history. Don't remember participating but I was only 10 years old.

This would have been very hard for me to do yesterday. Most of you know I’m doing judo because my Dad did and I’m carrying it on. Dad was many things to me
You see he taught me judo. In the dojo with others, or after they left. We talked judo on the ride from home to the dojo. So he was my teacher
Of course I competed. Back then there were a lot more shiais every year. So he was my coach.
During my school years during summer vacation when others were getting jobs at McDonalds, Baskin Robbins etc. I taught judo at the dojo and he would give me money whenever I wanted to go out. So he was my employee.
But mostly he was my Dad.
He passed away September 23, 2002. I still miss him every day

Earlier post recounted current Shindo Kan first exam for promotions to Sho Dan-first degree black belt. In our excitement we neglected to take a photo. This corrects that error.
Standing L-R: Mr. Henrik Dall promoted to Sho Dan, Dr. Scott Multack Sho Dan/Board Member,Sensei David Zorich, Mr. Reginald Montgomery promoted to Sho Dan
Kneeling L-R: Ukes Steve Yeung, Ed "joe" Fox

Remember next session begins JULY 8, 2019
SEE YOU ALL THEN

Next week June 24th and 26th is the last week of this session.
Dont forget to sign up for our next session.
You can do it online

Over the years I have had both adults and even more youth taking judo from Shindo Kan at the park district. Hundreds more at the original Shindo Kan.
Happy Fathers Day to all those men from my Dad and myself.

PLEASE REMEMBER: No judo class tomorrow May 27, 2019. The park district closes at 5 PM for Memorial Day. See everyone Wednesday

Sunday May 5th, 2019 was Shindo Kan (2.0) first black belt exam. It was held at the Illinois Martial Arts Academy. I would like to thank Mr. Chuck Masny for the use of his dojo.
The candidates were Mr. Reggie Montgomery and Mr. Henrik Dall. The partners / ukes were Mr. Ed Fox and Mr. Steve Yeung. In addition because there would be so many takedowns Mr. Masny volunteered his services as an uke. As it turned out his services were used.
The exam consisted of a form (kata), the original 40 throws, matwork and general knowledge of judo, its processes and language. The exam lasted approximately 2 ½ hours.
Both candidates were very strong in the kata and the Go Kyo No Waza (original 40 throws). There were minor errors in the language of the chokes and arm locks, but nothing that would prevent promotion. The demonstrations of those techniques were correct and effective.
Due to an injury concerns randori/sparring had to be taken out. To assess their endurance and their resolve to finish strong, instead the judoka were required to go through all 40 techniques, again, without rest in between. Any stopping would be counted against them. Though their fatigue was obvious, both judoka made it through with proficiency and completion of the technique-especially as they got to the last 8-10 techniques.
A couple of more thank yous. Dr. Scott Multack who sat on the board with me allowing me to watch the techniques, not just listening to the answers about the names etc of the techniques.
Also to Mr. Fox and Mr.Yeung. As much as the candidates need to know their techniques, your partners can make you look good-make or break your test. In addition they withstand an exorbitant amount of falling. And as I told them, nearing the end of the exam, it’s not the falling that gets you; it’s the getting back up.
Sadly due to our excitement and fatigue no pictures were taken. We’ll try to post them in the near future.
So once again congratulations to two new judo Sho Dans:
Mr. Henrik Dall
Mr. Reggie Montgomery

UPCOMING SHINDO KAN EVENT
Black Belt Exam
DATE: Sunday May 5, 2019
TIME: 1 P.M.
LOCATION:Illinois Martial Arts Academy
210 Dowdle Road Unit 3
Algonquin, Il

On March 29, 2019 Shindo Kan held a promotion event. The candidates were Denis Ikovic, Natalia Tomaka, Erdembileg “Alex” Munkhsaikhan, and Yodai Kawasaki. Sempai Henrik Dall and myself conducted the exam.
Sadly Yodai who was testing for his yellow / go kyu, got sick and had a temperature. He wasn’t able to make the test. We will test him during the next session.
Denis was testing for his orange / yon kyu, Alex for his yellow / go kyu and Natalia for her jukyu / white-yellow belt.
As always the judoka (students) were well prepared. This is a credit to both the judoka and their parents who I hoped helped them study.
All of the judoka passed. There are always some minor technical errors at this level. But everyone knew all the techniques they were supposed to know when asked, and some of the throws were exceptional

Congratulations to all

I thought Wednesday 2/13/19 was one of our better workouts.
We try for the most part to keep time on Wednesday nights for sparring(randori). The kids call it Fight Night. Mondays we try to concentrate on technique.
There is a certain principle of movement we teach early on that makes the actual takedown of your opponent easier. It’s easy to explain, a little more difficult to put into practice. That’s what we work on.
All of our students can memorize the movements for the techniques-right foot here, left there, pull with this hand etc. and that is how every student begins.
But Wednesday during fight night almost every student, started doing judo. Not just moving to their memorization, but obviously thinking, “If my opponent does A, or moves this certain way, then I should do this technique.”

In the past most students just thought “I want to do Seoi Nage and I’m doing it now.” Wednesday they seemed to be saying, “Hey when he moves that when sensei said Seoi nage should knock them down.”
Believe me it’s harder than it sounds and it’s a huge leap in their learning curve. I was proud of all of them

Just a reminder current and potential new students:
The next class begins 1/7/19

The winter judo session was completed last night 12-12. I thought we had a great session. We have a good mix of judoka, experienced and "rookies", the sizes are matching up well and we even had a number of promotions.
The next session begins January 7, 2019. I know that seems like a long break but it is already mid-December and due to the holidays the park district would be closed for two of our Monday classes.
I hope to see you all back in January.
Have a great holiday / Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year.

November 16, 2018 -

Shindo Kan Under Black (Kyu) Belt Exam

SENIORS

Ed Magerl- Promoted to San Kyu

Steve Yeung-Promoted to Go Kyu

Edward "Joe" Fox- Promoted to Go Kyu

JUNIORS

Madhav Manesh-Promoted to Junior San Kyu

Justin Thorson-Promoted to Yon Kyu

Ethan Fox-Promoted to Go Kyu

Matthew Colby-Promoted to Go Kyu

Sam Yeung-Promoted to Go Kyu

Nomin Ganbold-Promoted to Go Kyu

Tengis Ganbold-Promoted to Go Kyu

The exam was administered by Sensei David Zorich, Sempai Henrik Dall, Scott Multack and Reg Montgomery. Every judoka who was eligible passed. Some were exceptional, but no one performed in a manner which would have prevented them from passing.

This is a credit to the judokas hard work and the dedication of the parents who find a way to get their children to the park district twice a week. Thank you to the parents.