Clan-Members » e searching for after their recent run of outs, and Stev

RIO DE JANIERO -- Each night before she goes to bed, Marti Malloy closes her eyes and settles deeply into herself. She sees it happen.She is standing tall on a mat at the Carioca Arena after beating her last opponent. The Olympic gold medal, so tantalizingly close at the London games four years ago, is finally hers. She searches the crowd for a small, white-haired man, almost a century old. He is her mentor and confidant -- the father of U.S. judo.If I can win, it will be bigger than just being about me and what I accomplished, Malloy says, her deep green eyes growing large at the thought. Hopefully it will help give a big boost to American judo. And it will be a sign to Mr. Uchida, thanking him for standing behind me all these years.And for everything else he has done.This past weekend, Yoshihiro Uchida embarked on an interminable journey from California to the Olympic Games in Rio. His flight ran into a storm, was diverted to land and refuel, then missed its connection. No matter his age, he was not about to turn back. This probably will be his protégés last Olympics. He might live long enough to watch the 2020 games on TV, but given the difficulties of travel, he almost certainly wont be there. Mr. Uchida is 96 years old.He has toiled for years at a sport which, for all its popularity worldwide, is obscure in America. His first Olympics were the 1964 games in Tokyo, where he coached the U.S. team. From scratch, he has built San Jose State into the preeminent judo power in the United States. Without fail, he still oversees practice every day.Yoshihiro Uchida is extraordinary. His life collided with one of the most shameful moments in American history, and that experience informs his supervision of Malloy and others, including Colton Brown, another San Jose State judoka who will fight in Rio this week. He has taught me to keep going, says Malloy, who at 30 is the third seed in Rios 57 kilogram weight division, a competition set to unfold on Monday. If you have a goal, stay at it, because nothing is impossible if you go about it the right way.Its a way of looking at life that comes from what hes been through.Born in a Calexico, California, on April 1, 1920, Uchida was raised near Anaheim by parents who had immigrated from Japan. They encouraged him to learn judo as a way of connecting with his roots.In December of 1941, he was a student at San Jose State and teaching judo when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He was drafted into the Army and was in uniform when President Franklin Roosevelt signed the executive order that sent nearly 120,000 Japanese and Japanese-Americans on the West Coast into internment camps. There I was, an American citizen, set on defending my country, while at the same time our lives at home are being torn apart, Uchida told me before he set out to Rio. Were being sent from our homes and farms to the camps. For what? Because of being Japanese. My parents, and so many of my family members ...His voice fades. Uchida is a proud man. If he sees a flaw in technique, he lectures Malloy and the other judoka in his charge, but it is not easy for him to talk about his parents, his brothers and his sister, imprisoned in Poston, Arizona, behind barbed wire.Back then, despite the pain, Uchida managed to tamp down his anger and focus on making it through World War II. Afterward, he returned to San Jose State, a campus with a permanent reminder of life upended: The gymnasium had been a processing center that sent thousands to the camps.Unwilling to let go of his dreams, Uchida earned a degree in biological science. He revived the schools judo program, and began teaching judo to police cadets. Many were war veterans, and their views had been shaped by virulent racism.The prejudice, Uchida says, shaking his head. Theyd just finished fighting the Japanese. They would say, We are not going to learn anything from a Jap instructor! Or, Hey, Jap, what are you going to teach me? Their ignorance was hard to take.Life wasnt any easier away from the judo mats. Jobs were hard to find; Uchidas time in the Army and his college degree did not lessen the stigma of being Japanese. He eventually got work in an overnight laboratory at a local hospital. In the mid-1950s, he borrowed money to buy a medical lab of his own. Over the years, he bought more, then sold them to a company called Unilab in the late 1980s for $30 million.All the while, he crusaded for judo. It was a way to teach character and discipline so students could make it through tough times. He worked incessantly to move the deeply traditional martial art, with its connection to the Samurai, into the realm of competitive sports. He led the effort to make competition fair by creating weight divisions, and he pushed to have judo sanctioned by the AAU.He helped organize the first collegiate judo championship, held in 1962 at the Air Force Academy. His San Jose State squad won it -- the first of 50 titles the school has earned. (Judo has yet to be recognized by the NCAA, so it remains a club sport on college campuses.) Uchida campaigned to make judo an Olympic event. The team he took to Tokyo in 1964 was the first Olympic squad fielded by the United States.It felt like I was the envy of many in the Japanese-American community, he says. Uchida was 44 at the time. Heres a guy whose parents were interned and everything that came with that, and now he is representing the United States as coach? And in Japan of all places. It was something many people took as a sign of progress. ? I have had quite a journey in this sport.Nearly 30 years after Tokyo, Marti Malloy began a journey of her own. She fought on judo mats at a little dojo in Oak Harbor, Washington, where she was born. Oak Harbor is a military town, a ferry ride plus an hours drive from Seattle. Her father, an aircraft technician in the Navy, was often deployed, and Malloy says her mother stuck her in judo to keep her occupied.From the very start, she possessed unusual strength. I could always just move in there and use my muscle, says Malloy, who stands 5-foot-3 and has brown hair that falls to her shoulders. But thats not judo. Judo is also about technique.She won multiple junior national titles and quickly made a name for herself. She left home at 16 and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, where she lived with a family she barely knew so she could be closer to top training. She fought fierce matches against her friend Ronda Rousey, the MMA superstar who grew up in judo and won a bronze medal at the Beijing games in 2008. She worked for a while with a coach who was so merciless that she became anxious and depressed.For a brief time, she quit.That was the low point, she says. The high point was going to San Jose State, and finding Mr. Uchida.He was held in such awe that he seemed impossible to know. He was a task-master who focused on the tough, unglamorous skills of grappling. But he spoke just as much about the importance of good character and about being highly educated. He said that he wanted his judoka to contribute positively to society.What made him this way? Malloy wondered.So I tried to push past the barrier. I would ask about his day, and that opened things up to get to know him better, little by little. Eventually he became more than a coach. He became a friend. I found out things like the fact he wants us to be smart and well educated so nothing happens again like the crap that happened in the 40s. I found out there was more to what he was aiming for than just judo.When he was 92, Uchida flew to the London Olympics and watched Malloy charge into the semifinals. Then, near the end of a close match, she was caught off guard by a Romanian who drove her to the mat for a last-second victory. She still had a chance at bronze, but there were only 90 minutes to put the stunning loss behind her. She doesnt know how she did it, but says part of it was her awareness that Mr. Uchida was watching.In the consolation match, she tried a deceptive move, the Ko-Ichi. It sent Italys Giulia Quintvalles back to the mat. She was the defending Olympic champion. Malloy had her bronze -- only the second medal won by an American woman in Olympic judo.I looked up in the stands and saw Mr. Uchida smiling, Malloy recalls. I didnt want to cry because I was so happy, but my emotion ... They locked eyes, she remembers, and tears streamed down her cheeks.After London, Marti Malloy could have retired. She held not only the bronze medal, but a degree in advertising. Shed been on the deans list. She was 26, when many high-level judo players quit. Training is brutal, injuries are frequent, and the pay isnt great.But she did not stop. Going for the gold in Rio, where she has gotten a first-round draw, is a testament to her coach. I remember him saying, Why would you give up? Of course you are going to try for Rio. You have the ability to go down there and win the gold. You know, I have always believed that.Earlier this summer, the two went off to their monthly dinner at Kubota, a Japanese restaurant not far from downtown San Jose. They took me along. I listened to their easy, light-hearted banter. Yoshihiro Uchida sounded like a proud grandfather chatting with a much-favored granddaughter.They laughed about his diet: sashimi, salad and a glass of scotch. They talked about prospects for American judo. They spoke of the symbolic power of the San Jose State gym, where the judo team trains. The internment processing center is now Yoshihiro Uchida Hall.You did something so good, she said, speaking of all that he has accomplished. Not only for the United States but for the world to see. ... Perseverance.What about Rio? Uchida stopped the conversation for a moment to remind both of us that winning is vitally important, but not everything.Marti is already a champion, he said. The way she carries herself, like a leader, smart and honest, in a way that gets respect. She is a champion human being.Terrell Davis Youth Jersey . -- Teemu Selanne scored the first goal of his 22nd NHL season, and the Anaheim Ducks extended the best start in franchise history with their fifth straight victory, 3-2 over the Calgary Flames on Wednesday night. Dalton Risner Broncos Jersey . -- Jacksonville wide receiver Cecil Shorts will likely be a game-time decision whether hell play Sunday in the Jaguars home game against the San Diego Chargers. http://www.thebroncosstoreonline.com/Youth-Dennis-Smith-Broncos-Jerseys/ . -- The Portland Timbers and Real Salt Lake played to a 0-0 tie Saturday night that left the top of the Western Conference standings unchanged. Dennis Smith Broncos Jersey .C. - The Carolina Hurricanes have placed backup goalie Anton Khudobin on injured reserve with an unspecified lower-body injury. Tom Jackson Broncos Jersey . Irving scored 23 points, Tristan Thompson had 20 points and 10 rebounds and the Cavaliers beat the Denver Nuggets 117-109 on Friday night.Steven Smiths captaincy starts here. If there was any doubt over control of the Australian team and its selection, the XI unveiled for the day-night Test in Adelaide sets those aside.Having pleaded for a group of players he can take into battle with him after the innings defeat in Hobart, Steve appears to have got his wish. He has a bat-all-day opener in the 20-year-old Matt Renshaw, an adaptable and capable middle-order player in Peter Handscomb, a potential match-winner at No. 6 in Nic Maddinson, and a proven fighter with the gloves or the bat in Matthew Wade.The decision to move on from Peter Nevill and back to Wade will have been a particularly tough one for Steve and the coach Darren Lehmann. Nev is a terrific team man and a wonderful character, so an asset to any dressing room. He certainly has not been dropped for reasons relating to character or anything like that. It is more a case of sacrificing a gloveman in the search for more runs from Wade and the lower order alongside him.Whatever you may think about how tidy or otherwise Wade can be behind the stumps, his enjoyment of a scrap down the batting order is obvious. The two Test hundreds he has made, in Dominica against West Indies and at the SCG against Sri Lanka, were fantastic rearguard innings in conditions other batsmen found difficult. On both occasions he was able to build partnerships with the tail to help set up a winning position. Australia have lacked that lately.Something that has changed about Wade since he was last in the Australian Test side is that he has taken up the captaincy of Victoria with plenty of success - the last two Sheffield Shields, in fact. By all accounts captaincy has not overly changed his aggressive demeanour on the field, but it has enhanced his appreciation for all the roles in the team. Hes had good results, too, from using spin bowlers like Fawad Ahmed and Jon Holland, so Im hopeful he will be able to work productively with Nathan Lyon this time around. There is actually potential for a really damaging partnership to be set up between Wade and Maddinson, who is among the most talented players of his generation. I was in Bristol in 2013, when, playing for Australia A, he tore up Gloucesttershires attack to make 181 from 143 balls.dddddddddddd Those are the sorts of innings that win matches, and Maddo is more capable of putting them together than most.In addition to his power, placement and ability to play pretty much every shot in the book, Maddo has also been impressive in the way he thinks about the game. I was a big fan of the decision to give him some captaincy experience with the Blues last summer, and he has demonstrated on a few occasions, either on the field or in conversation, that he can come up with the sort of tactical thought that marks him as being ahead of the game. Steve has known Maddo for years, and I wont be surprised to see them swapping ideas over the course of this Test.Another step up the batting order and Handscomb will walk in at No. 5. He is regarded as one of the best players of spin in the country, and uses his feet to good effect. Something else that has impressed me about him is how he approaches training, which I saw first-hand when doing some coaching work with Australia A earlier in the year.The fundamental thing I liked about Pete is that he wasnt afraid of getting uncomfortable in training. We did several batting drills where he wanted to be taken out of his comfort zone - one of which was me firing balls down at him from a shorter distance than normal to test his reflexes and technique under that pressure. Players who seek out difficult experiences in training, to stretch themselves, invariably perform well on the field because they have made the game easier for themselves by doing so.Apart from his batting, Pete is also an excellent slips fielder, a trait he shares with Renshaw. The injection of a couple of high-quality specialist catchers will make a difference to the Australian team, and may in fact contribute to the sort of presence and energy that Steve has called for. Runs, of course, are the biggest thing the team will be searching for after their recent run of outs, and Steve will walk onto the field in Adelaide knowing the changes to the team have offered up a fresh a chance of that happening.[ue searching for after their recent run of outs, and Stev Baseball Jerseys[/url] ' ' '