East Freshmen Compete in National Judo Competition

Freshman Mike Bamford stands on mat two at the North Kansas City Community Center. His coach is in one chair, his opponent’s coach is in the other. As the referee yells Hajme, (“start” in Japanese) the final match of the AAU National Judo competition begins. Bamford is facing the same opponent he barely beat in the first match, and the only thing he wanted to do was prove himself.

Bamford’s friend and fellow freshman Wyatt Ohle is on mat one in the same community center, at the same competition. But for Ohle, it is just another tournament. Ohle’s match lasts the full five minutes allowed, when he finally beats his opponent. It’s just another medal to throw in his box. Just another match to learn from. After all, he plans on following in his father’s footsteps. He plans on becoming an Olympian.

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Ohle was new at Mission Valley Middle School in eighth grade. He had moved from Leawood Middle School and didn’t know anyone. That is until Bamford noticed the quiet kid who looked lonely in their Computer Dimensions class and went over and introduced himself. When Ohle invited Bamford to his Judo class, he had no idea he would actually show up.

“I thought he was a punk and that he wouldn’t last,” Ohle said. “Then he came to train with me one night and I destroyed him and I didn’t think he was going to come back. He ended up coming to class the next day and handed me a check for a membership to our gym.”

Soon after joining the gym, Bamford fell in love with Judo. According to Bamford, Judo is a sport that is founded on respect for the opponent. However, it is still a physical sport where the essential goal is to last longer and contain your opponent. In Bamford’s division, the junior division, a match lasts three minutes, during which points are scored for throwing your opponent on the ground or pinning them. At the end of the match, all of the points are totaled up and the winner is the one with the most points. But the match is ended in a split second if an opponent is thrown flat on their back, possibly ending the match in seconds.

“My first match lasted 37 seconds, and I got the throw and he landed on his back and I won. In my second match I did the same thing,” Ohle said.

While Judo is a physical sport that requires endurance, strength and speed, it also requires a certain amount of maturity and respect for the players. For Bamford, these elements have proved invaluable and have been the most important lessons he’s learned throughout the sport. But self-control is the aspect Bamford finds himself applying in the matches.

“You have to have self-control to do the sport, because when you’re fighting it’s like football, you don’t try to go give people concussions,” Bamford said. “In this you don’t try to break their arm, but the point is to get the person to tap out, so you can win the match.”

While the two both learned the sport at the same place, they have developed different approaches to Judo. For Ohle, Judo is all about the mindset he has, and the way he wants to dominate his opponents. He puts in too much time and trains too hard to accept losing and not being the best. Ohle has to believe he will win and his opponent has to believe he is going to lose before he ever steps on the mat.

“I think I have to impose my will on him and not just beat him but completely demoralize him,” Ohle said. “That’s how I think, and it works.”

Ohle is used to winning; he’s won seven AAU national titles alone, but it’s not everything to him. According to Ohle, when he wins, he has almost nothing to learn from. But when he loses he has something to improve on and something to give him motivation.

“Even if you win all the time, losing helps more than winning,” Ohle said. “Losing helps because you learn more from it.”

On March 30, Bamford and Ohle participated in the AAU National Championships. Ohle also competes on the USA circuit. There are two main categories in Judo in the US, AAU Judo and USA Judo. The AAU circuit has fewer competitors and is not as expansive as the USA circuit. According to Ohle, an AAU tournament could have 200 people competing, where a USA tournament would have 2,000.

For Ohle the last nationals were most likely his final AAU tournament. With plans of attending the Junior Olympics in Houston in June, he will be stepping up to the next level by only competing in the USA circuit, spending more time  lifting weights in the gym and perfecting his throws.

Judo has not only given Bamford and Ohle the knowledge of fighting, but also a second family.  Going out to dinner after tournaments and teammates giving Bamford a ride home have made him feel welcome and accepted. And for Bamford, working on a team where he’s the youngest has given him the opportunity to learn how to be accepting of everyone.

“If I’m immature around older people that just makes me look bad, so when I go to out-of-town tournaments with them, I can’t be the annoying 15-year-old,” Bamford said. “They have taught me how to be mature and respectful around all sorts of people no matter what they’re like.”

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On mat one the final match for the 81 kilogram weight class, Ohle’s class, the full five minutes elapsed before Ohle was declared champion. No match-ending throws, no debilitating pins, just a hard-fought match. An improvement on his loss in the finals last year. All Ohle had wanted to do was return to the competition, but this time win it.

In the other room, back on mat two, Bamford had thrown his best arm-bar (locking his opponent’s arm so he’s immobile) by far. He had his opponent pinned with his arm popping before the referees could declare him winner. The match only lasted about 30 seconds, and Bamford had accomplished what he had come to do.

“I actually never submitted anyone with an arm-bar  in a match,” Bamford said. “I was pretty pumped, I was screaming.”