I was blessed to have had an authentic Japanese sensei, a 5th dan from the Kodokan, sensei Takashi Yamaguchi. This was to change my life and make me into the person I am today.

I did not have a bad or poor childhood, but my mother and stepfather were alcoholics. I could not stand staying at home, so I ended up spending a lot of my time as a young boy and teenager at the Judo school. I think that had this not been the case, I would have been a serious delinquent. At that age, with nothing to keep you grounded, and no supervision, that is what happens in many cases. But Judo steadied me! If I close my eyes, I can still smell the raw canvas gi, the smell of the canvas mats and rice straw underneath! In our modern world we have forgotten these!

The school was a very simple building. But the spirit was undeniable. There were no glass window panes. If it was cold, you trained in the cold, if it was hot, you trained in the heat! As Sensei taught us, the dojo was a place to come and evolve.

I remember my first class, my first classes…Judo was difficult! And trying to understand what Sensei Yamagushi wanted you to do made it even harder! His Portuguese was hard to understand: ”No No No, other things, other things ! You must hang backwards, Hang Neh? Yes, better, now 1000 times!

In the western world, we do not really get the systematic approach to learning and teaching of the Orient, as much as we glorify it. In Judo, you seek Ippon, which is not only to win, but to win by perfection. “ To tend to perfection is the art of Judo” Jigoro Kano

This attitude is as constructive as an attitude one can find, it is life changing! If you take this attitude to anything you do in life, you will be better at it!
Sensei would always tell me: What I teach you, cannot be learned through videos or books, only from person to person. What I teach you, you must pass on.

So my mission at Davis Judo & Jiu Jitsu, is to do exactly this, to pass this knowledge on, to help change lives as mine was changed! We focus both on Nage Waza (throws) or Judo, and Ne Waza (ground grappling) or what today is called Jiu Jitsu. They are really 2 parts of same art, night and day of the same 24 hours! One just focuses more on the stand up and throwing part, while the other focuses more on the grappling and ground part. At our school, we teach both. We want our students to be complete.

We follow what the creator of Judo , Jigoro Kano proposed. A Discipline that’s objective is the benefit of mankind.

I myself am an example of how this can be accomplished, and our mission is to benefit all the kids that enroll in our school and step on our mats! We hope to bring positive changes into their lives, in a world that so sorely needs it!