Riverside Youth Judo Club

09/04/2026

08/31/2026

Super Busy Judo Weekend!!!!

Happy Birthday to our student Jacob K and our club therapist Jarrod Guzman 🎂🎊🎉

Congratulations to Jacqlyn “JJ” for her promotion to Corporal in her High School USMC JROTC program!!! She was presented with an Academic Achievement Award in today’s class.

Congratulations to our student Joshua M for his promotion to Rokyu (yellow belt)!!!

Sensei Paul Ingram was promoted to Shodan at our UCR Judo class on Monday. We presented him with his club promotion certificate today!!!

We also had a promotion in our Mom’s Judo class!!! Congratulations to Fatima Campos on her promotion to Rokyu (yellow belt)!!!

Let’s keep up the awesome work everyone 🥋🥋🥋

08/29/2026

We held our 3rd “Inland Empire Development Judo Scrimmage” at the Riverside Youth Judo Club today.

This is a sanctioned scrimmage for our senior players. We had about 60 players with very good sized brackets. Hot dogs and sodas were on the menu!

No medals, no trophies. Just great judo with our local clubs. These sorts of club scrimmages were very popular many years ago.

We’ll keep trying to host these fun events as time goes on. Thank you to All the referees, senseis, coaches, competitors, volunteers, and families that came out today. We are very appreciative!

08/29/2026

It was a Super Special Day at our Inland Empire Development Scrimmage today at the Riverside Youth Judo Club.

We had the Honor and Privilege of presenting Brad Karmann Sensei with his Hachidan (8th Degree Black Belt) promotion!!! We kept it very quiet so it could be a surprise to him.

Sensei Brad is an Amazing Judo man with more experience and knowledge than I can ever put into words. We were all so proud of our Sensei and his well-deserved promotion!!!

Thank You Brad Karmann Sensei for all that you give to our judo club and so many others!!!!

08/25/2026

We hope to see everyone at this year’s “Fight for the Cure” All Women’s Charity Breast Cancer Tournament on Sunday, October 11, 2026 in Riverside, CA!!!The medals will Honor the Great Rusty Kanokogi!!!

Rena "Rusty" Kanokogi was born on July 30, 1935. She was the first woman allowed to train with male judo students at the Kodokan in Japan. Rusty Kanokogi pioneered women’s judo as an Olympic sport. She was raised in a very tough part of Coney Island (next to the park), where she befriended the local side show attractions. She also led a girl's gang called the "Apaches." This is the same neighborhood that was featured in the 1979 cult classic movie "The Warriors." In 1955, a male friend showed her a judo throw. Rusty was hooked. She joined a judo class and in 1959 Rusty entered the YMCA Judo Championships disguised as a man because women were barred from competition. She won the Gold Medal only to be forced to give it back when officials learned she was a woman. That injustice became a defining moment in her life and ignited her relentless fight for equality in Women's Judo. In 1962, she travelled to Japan, where she earned a second-degree black belt and met her future husband, Ryohei Kanokogi. A driving force behind the fight for Title IX, she spent decades fighting for public recognition of women’s judo, mortgaging her house to sponsor the first women’s judo championship at Madison Square Garden in 1980 and threatening to sue the Olympic Committee in 1988 to force them to include women’s judo. She went on to coach the U.S. Women’s Olympic Judo team that year. She was the first woman to earn a seventh–degree black belt in judo and she was awarded Japan's prestigious Emperor's award the "Order of the Rising Sun" in 2008. She passed away on November 21, 2009, from cancer of her plasma cells (multiple myeloma). Rusty Kanokogi was buried in the Kanokogi clan’s tomb in Japan with the epitaph “American Samurai."

100% of ALL funds raised will be donated to The Pink Ribbon Place and The CARE Project, Inc.

You can sign up for this charity judo tournament on Smoothcomp. Please see the 1st comment for the link!

08/25/2026

08/24/2026

Happy Birthday to our students Andre W, and Aubree C 🎂🎉


Congratulations to Cassidy E, Isaiah R & Isabella R on their promotions to Rokyu (Yellow belt))!!!

08/23/2026

It was a Great day of judo at the Nanka Katame no Kata clinic held at the Riverside Youth Judo Club!!!

We were tremendously fortunate to have Kenji Osugi Sensei and Mary Wakabayashi Sensei as our instructors. They are both International Kata Judges and Amazing teachers!!!

We had a full house all day with about 32 kata students. This kata (along with others) is so beneficial to improving overall judo technique.

Thank you again to our awesome instructors and the judokas and their families who
Participated today.

08/21/2026

Big News!!!

In one more month, we will take the very first U.S. Team to the Worlds Special Olympics Judo event in Sarajevo!!!

The event will be held concurrently with the Worlds Veterans and Worlds Kata Championships.

Congratulations to our Special Olympics Judokas, Kevin Lopez, Meilene Tsai, and Heidi Romero 🥋🥋🥋

08/17/2026

Big classes this weekend!!!

Let’s wish a Happy Birthday to Mateo A 🎂🎉

Don’t forget to register for the 9th Annual Fight for the Cure All Womens Charity Judo Tournament!!!!