Recently, members of the Cobar Judo Club held a weekend training camp with long-time friend of the Cobar Dojo, Shihan Denis Byrnes (Roku-dan/6th Degree Black Belt) in attendance.
Shihan Byrnes took the opportunity to bring with him the Principle Instructor of Western Warriors Martial Arts of Mt Druitt, Sensei Rodney Moulder (San-dan/3rd Degree Black Belt) to show him ‘how the bush’ does Judo.
With major Covid 19 restrictions and lock-downs, and only tentative opportunities to travel to and train in Cobar last year, Shihan Byrnes was determined to make Cobar his first port of call when time, scheduling and travel restrictions allowed this year.
“I love coming to Cobar and training with the Cobar Dojo,” Shihan Byrnes said.
“Where a lot of the city Dojos haven’t yet fully recovered (or at all) since the lockdown, or at the start of conditional regular training in 2021, Cobar Judo seems to be going from strength to strength with the number of people in attendance in 2021.”
Sensei Moulder agrees and said the Cobar Judo-ka (students of Judo) didn’t disappoint.
“What Sensei Ray Chandler has managed to do with his students, juniors and seniors, with very limited resources, and kept his Dojo run-ning for the past 20+ years speaks volumes about him and his students that keep coming back.
“A lot of city clubs that are given or have all the opportunities with resources or high rank-ing instructors, still fail. It’s just amazing,” Sensei Moulder said.
It’s partly for that reason that Shihan Byrnes comes to Cobar, to pass on techniques that may have changed, or been modified or re-moved from the Kodokan Judo curriculum.
“The Kodokan in Japan has entered the 21st century by now having their own Youtube channel and posting videos of the old tech-niques, as well as video of modified tech-niques, but you can only learn so much from a video (or books or a phone app for that mat-ter), and there’s no guarantee you will get the little nuances that are required to do techniques properly without proper instruction,” Shihan Byrnes said.
He said the Cobar Dojo standard is already so high, it doesn’t take much for them to grasp changes or modifications.
Shihan Byrnes plans to return to Cobar later in the year
