Blog 23: Senior project reflection

(1) Positive Statement

What are you most proud of in your block presentation and/or your senior project? Why?

I am most proud of the fact I was able to make and carry out a presentation in which had both a Judo demonstration and a way of teaching. I was able to teach a topic that really relya on the type of character a person in Judo becomes. This was very challenging to me because my EQ and my three answers had to do with a way of thinking. While creating my presentation I was put up to the challenge of taking Judo which is very visual and explaining the spiritual aspect and creating an activity for it.


(2) Questions to Consider

a. What assessment would you give yourself on your block presentation (self-assessment)?

AE/P

b. What assessment would you give yourself on your overall senior project (self-assessment)?

P+

(3) What worked for you in your senior project?
What worked in my senior project was how it had me explore new feilds, I allowed for it to push me to almost an uncomfortable boundary for my independent component and my answers. That's what worked though, what really kept my interest this whole year was the push to find and explore new areas. It expanded my knowlege in Judo as well as honed my skills in being able to explore and face new areas in a certain feildor topic.

(4) (What didn't work) If you had a time machine, what would you have done differently to improve your senior project if you could go back in time?

If I could go back and do something differently I would work on discovering different answers in the beginning of the year. At least come up with things I think could possibly answer my EQ and begin my exploring from there. As I went on with my mentorship and finding of different answers I got new mentors new people to interview, that was great and all but it would have been nice to know then what I know now. I'm sure any senior would say that though.

(5) Finding Value

How has the senior project been helpful to you in your future endeavors? Be specific and use examples.
This senior project has allowed me yo look at my character within Judo and where it came from. It allowed me to examine the different aspects of Judo and what I need as a Judoka. By my second answer of networking I feel I have gained the most. The reason I feel I have gained the most is because my Judo through working at different places and with different people I am able to better myself and my Judo. I was also able to learn a life skill of cars on the way.

Blog 22: Mentorship

Content:

    Literal

·     Log of specific hours with a total and a description of your duties updated on the right hand side of your blog

       A log of my hours with Sensei Gary, Arvin Limen, Sensei OJ at Goltz Judo

    Interpretive

     What is the most important thing you gained from this experience? Why?

I gained a new way of thinking, a new way of not just looking at Judo but a new way of looking at everything I approach. This includes networking (My best answer), which I learned a new trade; working on cars.  Learning a life skill I feel this is the most important experience ive gained.

   Applied

     How has what you’ve done helped you to answer your EQ?  Please explain.

My mentor ship has helped me answer my EQ by giving me a place to experiment, try different aspects of Judo and how it shapes people, then experience these things on my own.

Exit Interview

My essential question: What is the best way a Judoka can use Judo on and off of the mat?

Answers: 1. Principles, focusing on the basics

                2. Networking, helping Judokas just as they would help you

                3. Practice, heard of the term "Practice makes perfect" in Judo and outside

These answers are all based on a way of thinking. Each of my answers go deaper then what is said which allows me to elaborate why Judo is so essential to each of them, and makes them so different than learning these skills from anywhere else. My second answer would have to be my best answer. Not for the reason, "well I feel its the best" or even "I think its the best", I believe my second answer is my best answer because this is what I have experienced in my mentorship. Over the course of a year I was determined to explore each of these answers and focus on each one of them for a certain time. Networking had to be the most helpful and the most useful in the long run!

To arrive at each one of my answers I had to work on exploring new aspects of Judo, I didn't know any of my answers when I first came up with my question, nor did I know any of my answers much after I came up with my question. To acheive each of my answers I had to work on having some what of an idea as to what I wanted my answer to be, then explore the feild. Networking, my best answer, I came about by reading an article that my Sensei recomended to me, writen by his son. I also read a presentation writen by him, binging me to the decision "is networking in Judo really that different" and it is.

Just like any experiment I did come on some problems, for one; during my mentorship at Judo I broke two little bones on the bottom of my food. Definitely not the most painful thing, but it made doing the most simple tasks difficult; walking, running, doing Judo. The way I worked though this problem was to just tape up my foot and ignore the pain. I couldn't let something so simple do something so drastic to me like a dislocated shoulder or sprained tendons in my hand, did last year. To this day the pain is still there, dull, but its still there. I believe I did the best for my project, because even though I had broken bones in my foot I was still able to practice and network, which lead me to be so involved with my mentor Arvin Limen.

The two most significant sources I used to answer my essential question, I did not find on my own. The first is the presentation I had read though that my Sensei Gary wrote, this is what ignited the spark to want to explore this answer. My next source would have to be my coach Arvin Limen, with out him I wouldn't have been able to experience the answer as I did. There obviously is other people, and other Judokas in other dojos, but none of them were there at the perfect time that I was trying to achieve my second answer to my essential question. If my mentorship with Arvin Limen does not justify a source (of experience), I would have to say the article that my mentor recommended to me, mentor Gary Goltz, Judo, business, and life written by Nathan Goltz.