ALERT! Another Monster from the QPJC Factory
June 29, 2021: With all that’s been happening (or not) lately with respect to judo and to sport in general in T&T, I am always overjoyed to see my students continue with competition or just their training. Surprise, surprise – life is going on outside of this island and it’s not just Gabriella Wood’s groundbreaking achievement of Olympic qualification. On one end of the scale (training) our highly talented Luke Walker is keeping up with his studies at Harvard (on scholarship) and he has resumed his judo practice which I’m so happy to say is a big part of his life. On the other more competitive end I’ve been keeping a close eye on another former child-student who has been blazing a trail of his own on the US junior judo circuit – Aidan Greaves.
Over the years we have come to know Aidan as the high energy judoka whose throws always seem to be bigger than himself. You know it’s a good sign when someone throws big because I remember many high ranking judoka saying to “do your techniques big”, none more so than Kashiwazaki sensei (a former world champion) who told us exactly that at the Kodokan in 2012. Aidan was the most prolific male competitor under the age of 12 in T&T for 3 years in a row from 2016 to 2019 in terms of competition wins at the Schools Judo League (SJL), Inter-Club tournaments and National Championships. He represented T&T at the Barbados International Tournament in 2017 to win gold in his category. Aidan emigrated to the US in 2019 and continued his good form where he left off with his new club West Lake in Texas. His coaches there are doing good work with him. He was a regular at the top of the podium and is the Texas State Champion in his category. More recently he took fourth places at the top youth judo tournaments in the US - 2021 Youth National Championships (3 wins, 2 losses) and 2021 Junior Olympic National Championships (2 wins, 2 losses) and is effectively ranked 4th in Juvenile Male up to 48kg in the US. Not bad for a first-timer at this level at all. I’m having trouble keeping up with his achievements but at least his parents, his step-dad in particular, are keeping me informed. He’s been tagged by coaches there as one of the best in the country, and the boy even has fans! :-0
What’s next? He’s looking at the US Open Judo Championships, July 23-25 in Orlando, Florida. We are all looking forward to the live stream. I spoke with him recently and he is obviously sore from all the competitions and sounding more like a battle-hardened elite athlete on the world circuit than a 14-year old. But he is pumped and always looking to win every match even though I heard that a lot of his opponents are brown and black belts (last time I graded Aidan in December 2018 he got his green belt). Unfortunately for them rank means nothing in this age category and as a result Aidan is one of the most dangerous of the lot because he just thinks about getting the IPPON! It’s how you win that’s important. I always say that one of the marks of a great competitor has nothing to do with being afraid to lose but of being afraid to win with dishonour. He is also hungry for international competition and wants to represent TTO badly! The last time I was this excited about a youth competitor was when Gabby, Luke and Xavier (Jones) were on the Pan Am and International Circuits making us proud. Oh, and there is one thing four of these judoka have in common, and it’s not that they’re all from QPJC, but that they all came through our schools judo programme at Maria Regina.
Watch out, world! We have a little present for you now. He originally came from the QPJC Monster Factory – Aidan Greaves!
Mark Littrean
June 29, 2021
Over the years we have come to know Aidan as the high energy judoka whose throws always seem to be bigger than himself. You know it’s a good sign when someone throws big because I remember many high ranking judoka saying to “do your techniques big”, none more so than Kashiwazaki sensei (a former world champion) who told us exactly that at the Kodokan in 2012. Aidan was the most prolific male competitor under the age of 12 in T&T for 3 years in a row from 2016 to 2019 in terms of competition wins at the Schools Judo League (SJL), Inter-Club tournaments and National Championships. He represented T&T at the Barbados International Tournament in 2017 to win gold in his category. Aidan emigrated to the US in 2019 and continued his good form where he left off with his new club West Lake in Texas. His coaches there are doing good work with him. He was a regular at the top of the podium and is the Texas State Champion in his category. More recently he took fourth places at the top youth judo tournaments in the US - 2021 Youth National Championships (3 wins, 2 losses) and 2021 Junior Olympic National Championships (2 wins, 2 losses) and is effectively ranked 4th in Juvenile Male up to 48kg in the US. Not bad for a first-timer at this level at all. I’m having trouble keeping up with his achievements but at least his parents, his step-dad in particular, are keeping me informed. He’s been tagged by coaches there as one of the best in the country, and the boy even has fans! :-0
What’s next? He’s looking at the US Open Judo Championships, July 23-25 in Orlando, Florida. We are all looking forward to the live stream. I spoke with him recently and he is obviously sore from all the competitions and sounding more like a battle-hardened elite athlete on the world circuit than a 14-year old. But he is pumped and always looking to win every match even though I heard that a lot of his opponents are brown and black belts (last time I graded Aidan in December 2018 he got his green belt). Unfortunately for them rank means nothing in this age category and as a result Aidan is one of the most dangerous of the lot because he just thinks about getting the IPPON! It’s how you win that’s important. I always say that one of the marks of a great competitor has nothing to do with being afraid to lose but of being afraid to win with dishonour. He is also hungry for international competition and wants to represent TTO badly! The last time I was this excited about a youth competitor was when Gabby, Luke and Xavier (Jones) were on the Pan Am and International Circuits making us proud. Oh, and there is one thing four of these judoka have in common, and it’s not that they’re all from QPJC, but that they all came through our schools judo programme at Maria Regina.
Watch out, world! We have a little present for you now. He originally came from the QPJC Monster Factory – Aidan Greaves!
Mark Littrean
June 29, 2021