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Nolan Morris may not be able to see his opponent, but the feeling he gets from competing on the judo mat is filled with passion for the sport he took up just 18 months ago.<\/p>\n
The eight-year-old from Dawson Creek, B.C., who was born without sight, competed in his very first judo tournament this weekend at the Edmonton International Judo tournament and earned a gold medal after winning all three of his matches in the U-10 category.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the best feeling in the world. I did all the hard work as a white belt, got my yellow belt and worked so hard for this day to finally compete in a tournament,\u201d said Morris, who was born with Libras Congenital Fibrosis.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen someone grabs a hold of me, I can feel them moving, and I just tell myself that they\u2019re not going to knock me down.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Nolan stepped out on to the mat Saturday morning his father Myles, mother Jennifer, brother Liam and sister Iya looked on with great joy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he first walked on to the mat, I had tears in my eyes, I was so proud,\u201d said his father Myles.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was diagnosed at four months old, after we started to notice he had no light perception and no vision. It\u2019s been a learning experience for us every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite his disability, Nolan was eager to learn and play a sport that he could compete in against able-bodied kids his own age. His parents tried him in various sports, but couldn\u2019t find a fit.<\/p>\n
One day at the local recreation centre in Dawson Creek, they met sensei Bruce Sydnam, a long-time judo instructor at Norther Warrior Academy, who encouraged them to give judo a try.<\/p>\n
Now you can\u2019t keep Nolan off the mat.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be able to bring an opportunity like this to a young man who is visually impaired is quite an honour \u2026 it\u2019s a real gift and a shining moment in my near 50 years of teaching judo,\u201d said Sydnam.<\/p>\n
\u201cCompetition can help us define who we are and where we stand if not within society, but within ourselves and this gives him a chance to fight one-on-one with visually intact people, and he\u2019s been absolutely incredible to teach.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a tremendous opportunity to teach him drive, worth ethic, how to handle adversity, get thrown and get back up, because he\u2019s done that his whole life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Training in judo can become a person\u2019s lifestyle. It\u2019s a form a martial art that people of all ages can learn and compete in well into their adult life.<\/p>\n
For Nolan, it\u2019s also helped him live a more stable life.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had pretty poor balance and body movement in tight spaces and it\u2019s improved leaps and bounds in terms of stability and his ability to move through the world,\u201d said Myles.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been remarkable to see. This has been the best therapy he could\u2019ve ever had. Judo\u2019s meant a lot to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nolan won\u2019t be the only member of his family competing this weekend. After seeing how much fun his son was having, Myles decided to take up the sport as well, taking part in the adult classes after Nolan\u2019s finished training. Both he and Nolan are making their tournament debuts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is something we can do together all throughout life,\u201d said Myles, who will compete in the adult division on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know without a doubt, I\u2019m the more nervous one competing this weekend \u2026 not even close. But this whole weekend has given me a huge amount of pride. This experience for him has been everything we could\u2019ve imagined and more.\u201d<\/p>\n
SOURCE OF GROWTH<\/p>\n
The Edmonton International Judo Championships has grown to become a global event and it\u2019s one of the largest judo competitions of its kind.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is our 11th year,\u201d said tournament director Mark Hicks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have 740 competitors and 112 black belts competing (this year). It\u2019s a big tournament we have people from all over North America and Japan competing. This is three times the size of the Pan-American championships, so it gives you an idea how big this tournament has become.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tournament is held at West Edmonton Mall, and that allows the event to be showcased in a different setting in hopes of growing the sport.<\/p>\n
Judo has become a very popular sport in Canada. Competitors from nine different provinces and two territories are taking part this weekend.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also used as a training ground for coaches, referees and volunteers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s almost become a judo symposium,\u201d said Hicks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe run seminars on coaching, refereeing and how to run the computer software for tournaments. This tournament has almost become a strong educational tool for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the years, the tournament has had many former national and world champions compete, so the competition is strong, but it also has young athletes just learning the sport taking part, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a full skill tournament. Some places only hold tournaments for kids, or just adults. We cover all the bases. It\u2019s a tournament for all ages,\u201d said Hicks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a lot of family involvement where we get generations of families competing and this is very much a family sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
@hillsyjay<\/p>\n
jason.hills77@yahoo.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nolan Morris may not be able to see his opponent, but the feeling he gets from competing on the judo mat is filled with passion for the sport he took up just 18 months ago. The eight-year-old from Dawson Creek, B.C., who was born without sight, competed in his very first judo tournament this weekend(…)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/judoalberta.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/judoalberta.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/judoalberta.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/judoalberta.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/judoalberta.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3033"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/judoalberta.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3048,"href":"https:\/\/judoalberta.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3033\/revisions\/3048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/judoalberta.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/judoalberta.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/judoalberta.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}