DJC @ The Dream Team Meet and Greet in Cardiff

On the 12th of May 2018, Alanna and I, had a two and half hour journey up to Cardiff in Wales for the Jamie MacDonald Brain tumour charity Dream Team meet and greet. This was so everyone on the Dream Team had a chance to meet each and train together before the main event in July.

When we arrived we were met by Deryn and her family, and

also Luke (Jamie’s brother). They were very nice and welcoming. Then we were given a special Brain Tumour T-shirt to wear and shown were the Dojo was.

When I first had a look around, the mat area was double the size of ours at DJC so I thought there must be a lot of people coming. Before you knew it, people were flooding through the doors and Alanna, Deryn and I lined up with nearly one hundred other Judo Players in front of 14 Black belt coaches! The lead Coach, who was Jamie's coach, made us feel welcome which was very nice after a long journey.

The first training session we had was about techniques, both standing and groundwork. After the warm up the whole Dream Team got a photo together, and then we joined in with the rest of the class for some Judo. I enjoyed working with different people and they were all friendly. The session flew by and then it was time for lunch.

Next up was a Randori session. We were split into two groups with one fighting it out for their places on the Welsh squad, and the other group (which we were in) were Randoring for fun! Although the Randori was hard, I also found it fun as there were lots of changes and plenty of partners to practise with. The Tachi waza (standing) work was first, then after a quick drink, there was plenty of Ne waza (groundwork). Then it was all over, and time to go home.

I am really looking forward to coming up to the Dream team event in July. Alanna currently trying to raise as much money as possible for the charity, so please dig deep. There are still spaces available at the Brain tumour Charity competition in July so feel free to come and join us!

Overall it was an amazing experience and a good day, special thanks to Deryn and her mum, Wendy and my Dad for driving us up.