Brown Belt Sneaks in Surprise Promotion Mid-Celebration
On Monday, December 30th, 2024, amid the fanfare surrounding Ryan Hanssen’s promotion to “Shodan” or blackbelt a smaller, but no less significant, promotion was issued.
John Long, the man who served as “uke” (the person upon whom a technique is performed; the fancy way of saying living throwing dummy) for the Nage-no-Kata (the performance of a pre-arranged sequence of techniques to demonstrate technical proficiency), was promoted from “Sankyu,” the first rank of brown belt, to “Nikyu,” the second rank of brown belt. Serving as uke for kata is one method of earning a promotion, as doing so properly demonstrates competence, if not mastery of several fundamental skills for any “judoka” (judo practitioner), most particularly “ukemi” (the skill of falling without harm or injury). Serving as uke for any kata requires extensive training prior to even undertake the weeks of practice necessary. It is also a substantial time commitment, as most judo kata are interactive, meaning the “tori” (person performing the technique) cannot practice without the uke being present.
John is an active and competitive judoka, maintaining a an extremely fit physique, in contrast to his laid back and easy going attitude. Outside of judo, he enjoys travel, often spending weeks at a time in Asia, craft beer, comedy shows, and somehow finding time to fit in anime and videogames. On the mat, John is known at the Des Moines Judo & Sambo Academy for his powerful “uchi-mata” or “inner thigh throw,” which can be described as both elegant and text book. Of late, he has been diversifying his arsenal by working on his “seoi-nage” (shoulder throw), and has recently been noticed dropping white belts with foot sweeps.
Mr. Long’s well earned promotion leaves only “Ikkyu,” the final brown belt rank, between him and a blackbelt.
(John is show wearing his brown belt in the associated picture, which is from when he received his Sankyu in April. This is because it appears John snuck out on Monday without getting his picture take. Bad John, old picture for you!)
