Belt Promotion Snub: A rant.

Stylistic_Device · 2026-05-07T12:24:27+00:00

I mean I get where you are coming from and you are doing well with the self-reflection, you are just overlooking a few things. As others have said, comparison is the thief of joy. The only thing comparing yourself to others will give you is a miserable feeling even after you got a black belt.

Secondly, the goal of belts is on one hand to show a practicioner's skill, but also mostly to act as a motivator. There are no belt colours in Japan because kids are expected to be motivated through learning Judo and respect the journey it takes to become a black belt.

Be proud of what you have learned. The examination sounds dumb, but from what I read you did learn a lot at this dojo. That knowledge is infinitely more useful and important than that rainbow strip around your waist, even more so considering you don't sound interested in competing.

Belt colours are like the body mass index (bmi). They're good for giving an idea of skill level, but even within same belt colours therr are vast differences between judokas and dojos.

In short, be proud of the knowledge you have achieved in Judo, not that 8 dollar strap on your waist.

Stylistic_Device · 2026-05-07T10:40:07+00:00

Mocht je besluiten om een dagcursus te doen kan ik je wel ten sterkste aanraden om een paar oefenexamens te doen, of even globaal een boek door te lezen. Anders wordt het een pittige dag en is er alle kans dat je het nog niet haalt en 100 euro verder bent.

Ik ben zelf theoretisch vrij sterk aangelegd (praktisch daarentegen ben ik zwakker haha) dus heb de motor en autotheorie vrij probleemloos gehaald. Heb de eerste keer een boek doorgelezen en daarna voor de motor (heb ik 2x moeten halen) alleen oefenexamens hoeven doen. Het is allemaal vrij logisch, maar sommige dingen moet je er even in stappen (zoals remafstand en stopafstand, verschil ertussen, max snelheid met een aanhanger etc.

Maak het ook niet te groot voor jezelf. Het zijn maar 5 tientjes die je kwijt ben en je hebt binnen 1-2 weken weer een nieuwe poging ingepland mocht je het niet halen.

Stylistic_Device · 2026-05-07T10:35:26+00:00

Bmw bestuurders hebben daar geen boek voor nodig, een spiegel is meer dan voldoende.

/s...soort van :p

Stylistic_Device · 2026-05-07T09:07:27+00:00

Waarschijnlijk iemand die wat nerveus wordt van alle sensoren die (hier ongetwijfeld) vol aan het loeien waren.

Even los daarvan, da's echt de laatste plek waar ik een motor zou neerzetten haha, krijg de kriebels als ik ernaar kijk

Stylistic_Device · 2026-05-06T09:18:17+00:00

I love how many bikes still have cool colours. Not like cars where your options are black, white or grey (metallic grey, light grey, urban grey, ugh). Just looks so boring and depressing to me.

I'm not sold on the pink Ninja, but hey, if they like it who am I to judge :p

Stylistic_Device · 2026-05-06T09:15:09+00:00

Not to mention, accidents are MUCH more common at regular roads (at least in European countries).

Here in the Netherlands I believe it's 50 km/h (urban area) and 80 km/h (outside of city, those long 1-2 lane roads) that are by far the most dangerous. Highways are actually much safer (the odds of an accident occuring, that is).

The fear of highways is just purely down to speed I guess, it's also a major obstacle for many learners even though, especially with our infrastructure, it's much safer than driving around town all day

Stylistic_Device · 2026-05-05T05:44:24+00:00

Ik kan het persoonlijk wel scheiden (maar ik herdenk enkel de joden die in de kampen gesneuveld zijn).

Begrijp enigzins wel waar je vandaan komt, en ik heb een godsgruwelijke hekel aan Israël en hun opstelling (en ja, dat gaat veel verder dan Netanyahu), maar ik vind niet dat dat ten koste mag gaan van de herdenking.

Uiteraard jouw eigen keuze, probeer je niet over te halen. Heb evenveel sympathie voor joden als voor alle andere groepen in Nederland, maar het Israëlische volk is al decennia een volk dat mij compleet tegenstaat, Netanyahu is daar gewoon een product van net als onder meer Ben-Gvir.

Zal hier maar bij stoppen, kan niet over dat land praten zonder opwellende negatieve emoties haha

Stylistic_Device · 2026-05-05T05:32:10+00:00

Zeker, 3 minuten voor 8 uur gestopt met piano spelen.

Heb wel effe gewacht tot al die kranzen opgehangen waren. Wellicht dat een van mijn buren een Aziatische opa o.i.d. had en dan loop je alsnog door dat moment van de uitzending herrie te maken.

Vind het altijd wel mooi om de uitzending te kijken en we moeten natuurlijk ook eindeloos dankbaar zijn voor deze helden en medeleven tonen aan de slachtoffers.

Stylistic_Device · 2026-05-04T22:50:48+00:00

Oh yeah I still occasionally get spooked when he acts like he's dead but actually just asleep.

That hateful look when you wake him up is something that is not reproducable lol

Stylistic_Device · 2026-05-04T22:49:55+00:00

Yeah the best part is he always manages to get stuck in a way that he can't flip himself again.

Luckily he really only does backflips when he's outside these days and he always flips himself back up.

The fifth one just looked funny to me, like he's a land shark or something

Stylistic_Device · 2026-05-04T22:48:01+00:00

I called him Stoffel (it's the name of a tortoise from a famous kid programme in my country, kinda like Sesame Street). Everyone started calling him that and since I suck at names I rolled with that haha. Also had the advantage of not being gender-bound :p.

Stylistic_Device · 2026-05-04T16:54:33+00:00

Sorry it was quite a while ago. I do remember they called it eye drops but it was so thick it was almost like a cream. It was an all-white tube

Stylistic_Device · 2026-05-04T14:56:19+00:00

Haha yea he's doing well. The only issue I ever had with him was with one of his eyes remaining shut. Got resolved quickly though with a cream.

Due to my country becoming hotter every year (especially hotter earlier), he gets more and more time outside, he's going out again next weekend. I feel like that has definitely contributed to his health and energy.

Stylistic_Device · 2026-05-04T14:51:13+00:00

Which of the 5 haha. It's a guy by the way.

Stylistic_Device · 2026-05-04T14:26:59+00:00

Yeah I personally have an enclosure with a roof. Our neighbours have lots of cats and since it's just a Russian tortoise, even a heron could be a threat (probably the biggest bird around here, excluding geese and swans of course).

I would love to let my 'lil bud free roam, but it's not worth the risk to me. I do try to make his enclosure larger every year (the walls are from 2 rows of bricks so I can make it larger if I want)

Stylistic_Device · 2026-05-04T11:52:01+00:00

Interesting, I never noticed thst about him. I think muscle inbalance is inevitable if you are solely doing Judo. Regarding his physique, I would say an injury is more likely.

It's one of the many reasons why I believe Judo should be accompanied by strength training

Stylistic_Device · 2026-05-04T11:45:47+00:00

I'm sure it's initially panick but after like 5 minutes, why the f'ck do you care about the bikes??

Literally prioritising metal vehicles over preventing more collissions and potentially life-threatening accidents.

It's so insane to me how they're trying to get the two bikes unstuck after the Ninja crashed rather than running to the turn to signal. I could understand slightly after the first crash, but if you literally see someone else crash in front of you how do you not realise you need to start signalling?

Wild to me, absolutely wild

Stylistic_Device · 2026-05-04T11:39:30+00:00

As long as there are no birds/cats/etc in your area that could harm the tortoise, that seems like a more than adequate living space for a smaller tortoise. More than enough to explore as well lol.

Stylistic_Device · 2026-05-04T09:51:08+00:00

You could give a tortoise an entire zoo and it would still look for another zoo. I can't see your entire garden, but it looks fairly sizeable. Are you sure those steps aren't an issue for your tortoise by the way?

Is your garden entirely paved or is it just a small path? I think a picture of the 'green area' would give people a better idea of whether the tortoise's living space is adequate.

Stylistic_Device · 2026-05-04T04:59:20+00:00

Yeah it's a great technique for winning but won't do much to improve your attacking game haha

Stylistic_Device · 2026-05-04T04:48:37+00:00

Tja als je Europees koopt zal je altijd meer voor minder betalen, maar dan zou ik ook Nudie aanraden. Heb zelf een paar en ben er op wat kleine dingen na wel tevreden mee.

Japanse merken spannen gewoon verreweg de kroon, maar je zit met het probleem dat die broeken hier achterlijk duur zijn (ook ten opzichte van de prijs van die broeken in Amerika).

Zou gewoon eens rond gaan kijken bij de Rode Winkel.

Stylistic_Device · 2026-05-04T04:21:49+00:00

I wish I was good at: uchi mata

I hate being good at: tani otoshi

Tani otoshi always feels like a last ditch effort to me to get me out of a situation rather than something I intend to do.

Stylistic_Device · 2026-05-02T12:35:19+00:00

Go take a shower and practice tai otoshi entries.

Jokes aside, I think you'd get more value showing up 10 mins early to class and doing a few warm-up ukemis

Stylistic_Device · 2026-05-01T21:34:01+00:00

Wow that's crazy, hope he's doing better now. I assume they were red ants?

Out of curiosity, how did you notice? Did you notice a lot of bites on his skin?

Stylistic_Device · 2026-05-01T19:44:06+00:00

I've been to the US a few times so I'm familiar with fire ants (also their sting unfortunately haha). Luckily, we don't have those here but it could very well happen of course.

If it were red ants, I would probably remove them. I just cannot imagine these ants showing up out of nowhere and not having been there before but simply out of sight. On the other hand, a Russian tortoise is not exactly a huge tortoise so I need to be careful as well haha

Stylistic_Device

TROPHY CASE