May 2008

What's wrong with this picture?

Take a look at the picture below and tell us what is wrong with it? Answers on the back of an envelope please. ;-)

Yup, the first of our back patches for the 2008 World Masters arrived today here at team HQ (Lance's House). Apparently one member of our team has a confession to make, he has changed nationality whilst we were not looking!

It appears (and I was made aware of it earlier in the week), that as we have been using a English postal address, we have been entered as English fighters. DOH! Hopefully, there are shiny new patches on the way to us with NZL on them, we have let them know of the error.

Facebook Group

Hi Everyone,

We now have a Facebook group ( Facebook Group ) so if you are on Facebook, please join up.

In other news, it looks like our meal/meetup will be on Saturday night of 8th June 2008, in London somewhere. Mike R is sorting out a venue. If you are interested in coming along, let us know.

It's offical we have a team of five!

As of this evening we have a fifth member to the team, another fighter and Kiwi.

Mike Sexton, has entered and shall be coming to Brussels in June with us! Excellent!

Upcoming things to watch for are:

1. A London meetup/meal - plans are just starting for the whole team to meet inLondon for a meal and so those who don't know each other to meet. And for those of us who have not seen one another for a while to catch up. (it might also be cool to have you, dear reader, attend. the more the merrier) If that sounds like fun or better yet you are a rich millionaire wanting to put some money towards a good cause, drop us an email ( lw@ judocoach.com ).

2. A podcast - planning is starting to get us all together via phone/computer to have a chat and record some of it so that we can post it as a podcast. It'll be pretty Kiwi accent heavy, so be prepared. That said... Kiwis at home might think we sound like Brits.

Please consider clicking that buttom to the right, and do say hello via the comments thing at the bottom of the page.

The team may grow...

Sshhhh....

Don't tell anyone, but our little team may become one man stronger!
Another ex-pat Kiwi contacted us today saying that he might be coming to Brussels.
It would be really great to have another player, so stay tuned.

Exciting... T-Shirt design is in the works.

This evening we heard that Mike Darter of www.thejudopodcast.com might be able to find some time to design a T-Shirt for us! Which is really awesome as Mike's designs for the Podcast and for his OKCDT club are really nice!

All you other budding designers, please let us know if you are working on something or have a design in mind.

We need a T-Shirt

Right, here is one for all the artistic types out there.

We would love to have an awesome T-Shirt for our team and more importantly for those people who are supporting us by travelling over to watch us or are supporting in otherways.

Now us guys, we are fighters not artists. ;-)

So anyone out there got a good idea for a T-Shirt design?

Supporters, come with us!

Our little team is getting some supporters as we get closer and closer to the competition. Within hours of launching this site we had our first donation through via that PayPal button over there on the righthand side! Thanks so much Mike!!

We also have a small but growing number of people coming to watch us fight.

For those of you considering a weekend away, please consider coming to Brussels with us and watching our little Kiwi team battle it out. The World Masters are being held at Centre Sportif, Kinetix Brussels, Belgiumand we fight on the Friday and Saturday.

We are staying about 10-15 minutes away from the venue, so if you want to meet up with us in the evenings we will be around that area, email us if you'd like to meet up. If you are looking for travel help or somewhere to stay, talk to Joe (or anyone) at Year Round Travel. Joe helped us book our accomodation and we are sure will be able to help you too, although its getting busy over there now.

Finally if you would like to support us financially please do click the donate button or (and this would REALLY help) contact someone you know who might consider sponsoring our team.

Impressed by Toraki

As we close in on the competition, we are trying to get all the big details finished off.
One of which is obtaining team Judogi.

We have been talking to Toraki (www.toraki.com) on and off for several months, but we have finally decided they are the one for us. And are we ever impressed, and we havn't even got the suits yet!

Not only did they agree to go the extra mile to get the Silver fern embroidered on the suits along with our names, but the lengths they are going to make sure each of our suits is just the right size is awesome. None of this, pick a size and hope stuff, they made us take measurements and send them over to Canada, and since then we have been getting emails querying how we prefer the fit to be. We are really impressed and can't wait to get our hands on these suits!

A little about the team.

One of the reasons we decided to fight in the 2008 World Masters Judo competition is the fact that the team has actually known one another for a long time.

Mike & Lance met as kids just starting Judo for the first time in Massey, Auckland, New Zealand. They started about 2 weeks apart (Mike first) and have been banging heads ever since, they competed together both nationally and even on New Zealand Judo Federation teams internationally. They are so close in fact that Mike is godfather to Lance's daughter.

Aaron & Lance were team members also, not for New Zealand but for their High School (Massey High School) in Auckland, New Zealand. Aaron was (I think) in his last year at high school when Lance was in his first year. The school team was quite successful although that was down to Aaron more than Lance "Spirit of Judo award AKA didn't win a fight" Wicks. ;-)

Aaron & Mike met as adults really and are presently training together regularly at the club where Aaron coaches (Busen).

Peter (our coach) and Lance have known one another for about six or seven years. They met through the Royal Navy Judo Team, which Peter coaches and Lance has helped him with. When Lance decided to start training for the World Masters he started training at HMS Sultan with Peter and Peter is still shouting at him at Gosport Judo Kwai.

So there is a small overview of how the team fits together, hopefully you know us a little better now.

Lance

Seeking Sponsors

Hi everyone,

So we have a team, we are entered, we have accomodation and flights.
We even have custom sized Judogi with our names and the silver fern on coming. Thanks to the good folks at www.toraki.com

What we don't have yet is sponsors. :-(

Mainly this is because we have not started looking properly yet, this site is one of the key elements in getting the ball rolling in that area.

As you can imagine, getting four people to Brussels fit and ready to fight is not cheap. We have to fly there, stay there, eat and compete. We have entries to pay, hotel bills, tickets to buy, Judo suits to buy, it never ends.

So we are seeking sponsors, donors, to help support the team.
We have a bunch of activities planned to promote ourselves and the team, and want to include our sponsors in this.

So, any support large or small is appreciated, be it a donation via the PayPal link or a cheque for naming rights to our team. We'd welcome merchandise without cash too. So please consider asking your boss, your PR/sales department, your club, your wife to support us finanically.

Many Thanks in advance.

The guyz.

Our Team.

Our team to the World Masters Judo Competition consists of:

Aaron Scott -100kg
Lance Wicks -90kg
Mike Ritson -81kg

Peter Powell - Coach.

Welcome!

Hi everyone and welcome to this site!

The site has just been registered, but thanks for popping by!

This is the site for the team of New Zealander Judo athletes competing at the 2008 World Masters Judo Tournament, in Belgium from June 27th-29th.

Blog of Lance's training.

H everyone,

You might be interested in checking out JudoCoach.com which is team member Lance Wicks' web log (Blog), where along with other things he has been summarising his training successes (and failures). You can also Click Here to skip direct to the entries about the 2008 Judo World Masters training.

Let us know what you think.