He stepped on the mat, and it felt like he hadn’t left, although his comforting words to me at the start of the evening were that he had mellowed, now at an age of 80 years, he surely must have mellowed, no one could possibly be as intense as he was when he was in his prime, looking wearily on were all the primaries and juniors and wondering why this old man who they had only seen sitting down on a seat sometimes and that they had bowed to him whenever hey saw him, why was he now appearing before them wearing a Judo gi stepping on the mat wearing a belt which they have never seen before, it resembles a candy cane in colour, they were thinking that this situation was different, they were not wrong.

When alf spoke, he barked, he didn’t speak lightly or caress with his voice, Alf was barking commands and the kids soon learnt that they had to jump into action, and if they even slightly deviated from the speed he wanted to see, press ups were ordered and undertook at a speed which was counted out swiftly by this sprightly octogenarian,

Its such a rare occurrence that Alf Leatherdale steps on tatami these days, (which in my opinion is a travesty for Judo.) He immediatley reminded us all how we used to train, and how hard we use to work, we had to, to get results, it was a stark difference in the kids usual training, and they really got their eyes opened with this little old fella screaming out what he wanted to see, they all stepped up to the plate however and gave their all, which was heartwarming to see.

The best part of the evening for me was when he was demonstrating a couple of techniques to the juniors, he used Mark as his Uke (phew) for some throws, and demonstrated simply using Jigotai and Tai sabaki, which the kids then attempted to emulate, then he demonstrated a couple of counters, and to my surprise he demonstrated a step over the Tai otoshi, the first technique was one we had donwe many times before which turns into a ko soto gari, but as an extra to show that he still can move those old bones of his he mentioned that he could also after stepping over the leg, without saying any more he then switched into a sumi gaeshi, and it was so beautifully performed, very fluid, extracting gasps from pretty much everyone young and old on and off the tatami, even people who didn tdo judo were impressed by this little guy who moved round like he was still in his teen years.

At 80 years old he moves smoother than many of us guys, quite embarrasing really, his technique pure and clean, I believe we have missed so much by him not continuing to teach and wish he would come on the mat more often,

The senior mat was another story, we were not expecting him to come onto the senior mat, as he didnt use to come on the senior mat, he would come down and get the kids running around then bow off, in fact the last time I trained with Alf was just before I fought for my Dan grade, and my god he worked us hard,

On wednesday he started off with some throw for throw randori, which was fun, then we did some counters etc, I had to stop midway into the session due to a knee injury but he had the seniors working their socks off, then he came round to demonstrating some armlocks and chokes, Gyaku Juji Jime, and Ude hishigi Juji Gatame, and Ude gatame, I was fortunate to be one of his guinea pigs for the armlocks, now obvioulsy Alf knows his onions, and my arms and elbows can confirm that.

Despite the aches and pains that I am feeling, it was really good to have him on the mat again, it was a good reminder of where we have come from, Alf will be back I am sure of it, and I hope that he doesn’t take so long to do so next time,

He said he had mellowed, mmmmmm,