You guys know I returned to Judo this year.

Tonight I had my grading for 5th Kyu and it went very well!

Only another small step but I'm a tiny bit closer to my goal - 1st Dan - the holy black belt.

The BJA examinor laughed when I told him I clearly remembered the last time I had earned that eqivelant grade....

Easter 1982 - the Argies had just invaded the Falkland Islands!

I stayed on to watch my friend Tara take her theory for 2nd Dan, HOLY shit the BJA guy had a list of over 200 techniques and went through the list picking out several from each section. She also passed with flying colours - she now has to rack up 100 points in fight wins against 1st Dan and above to get her belt.

Does it still score as double points for international competitions? I got a lot of points that way for 2nd dan as it was either that or go to London gradings. There are / were plenty of 1st Kyu's going for 1st dan at county gradings but never many active 1st dans.

That must take years of training, obedience, patience, practice to get to the level of 1st Dan

About 3 years is realistic for most seniors, maybe a bit quicker if you have previous experience or a background in similar sport, Ju Jitsu or BJJ. It used to expected that you would remain at 1st Kyu for a year before going for your Dan grade but many didnt. I was already a 1st dan in BJC and had been a junior black belt in both BJC mac, BJC Otani and IBF( eqiv 18th mon BJA?) but I used to do a LOT of Judo as a kid.

When I started with Alan Roberts at Kent Invicta the plan as to start again as a senior novice at a county grading but stop at blue belt. So my first grading with BJA I ended up a 3rd Kyu. This meant I could enter the Kent Open in the Kyu grades (as brown belts were lumped into the Dan grade competition) We thought this was a certain gold in u71kg and it should have been...except I managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and lost a decision to a guy I had beaten several times before. So I got a bronze.

Did win the open though. The guy I fought in the 1st round had just taken silver in the 095kgs. He saw he had drawn little old me and looked to the heavens and said ' thank you'.
'cheeky cunt' thought I so I kept out of trouble, kept moving and picked up loads of kokas for little knockdowns. Wouldnt go do to the ground though, not that stupid.
I was well up at the finish and the lump wasnt saying thank you anymore. My ex coach, Keith Widden was one of the line judges and he fell off his chair laughing at the end.

I thought the BJA line up was a soft option as it was only 5 fights. BJC Dan grade was 10 guys in the line. So I threw my points card away and won the first dan on the day in 1986. I kept the points card for 2nd dan though as there were less guys to fight and it was harder to score ippon on the ones there were.

Congratulations Pete, at our age you progress is determined more by avoiding injury than natural ability so keep training and keep healthy and you will be there in no time.

Thanks for the encouragement Luke.

After last night I have one finger bigger than it's mate and it seems to be a fetching purple colour!

Nice one Pete, keep up the good work, looking forward to hearing more of your exploits, it gives me hope for myself if an old fella like you can still get back into something