More Than a Training Camp: Griffin Judo Takes Its Team to Japan

Judo United Staff
3 days ago
4 min read

For many American judoka, training in Japan can feel like something reserved for Olympians, national team athletes, or elite competitors. Griffin Judo is showing that it doesn’t have to be. This summer, the California-based club took approximately 30 athletes, coaches, and family members to Japan for more than two weeks of training, education, and cultural immersion. Twenty-two judoka participated in the judo portion of the trip, including five coaches, with athletes ranging from 13 years old through adulthood. For Griffin Judo’s Sensei Jonathan Cotte, the purpose went well beyond simply finding tough practices.

“We wanted our students to experience judo beyond the walls of their home dojo,” Cotte said.

The goal was to expose athletes at different stages of development to Japanese judo, while giving them a deeper understanding of the history, culture, and international reach of the sport.

From the Kodokan to Japan’s Universities

The group experienced an impressive range of training environments, including the Kodokan, Kokushikan University, Tokai University Sagami High School, Waseda University, Waseda High School, Nippon Sport Science University, Asahi Dojo, Kanagawa Budokan, Kawaguchi Budokan, Kawaguchi High School and Chiyoda Sports Center. They even experienced sumo training and visited a jiu-jitsu academy.

Each location offered something different.

At universities and high schools such as Kokushikan, Nittaidai, Tokai Sagami and Waseda, Griffin’s advanced athletes experienced the technical quality, gripping, conditioning and training volume associated with high-level Japanese judo.

At community dojos and local budokan facilities, the atmosphere was different but equally valuable. Athletes were able to interact more closely with Japanese coaches, students and families. It reinforced that Japanese judo is not only about producing World and Olympic champions. It is also a community activity practiced every day by children, teenagers, adults and lifelong judoka.

Discovering Another Level of Training

For Griffin’s more experienced competitors, some days became serious tests.

Athletes occasionally trained twice in one day, accumulating as much as six or seven hours of total judo.

That meant learning how to recover from one session, eat, hydrate, travel across Tokyo, put the judogi back on and mentally prepare to do it again.

But Cotte said one of the most interesting lessons was that Japanese training was not always conducted at maximum intensity.

“Much of the randori felt closer to 70 percent—but that intensity was sustained over long periods.”

That sustained workload allowed athletes to continue working on movement, gripping, combinations and technically sound attacks instead of turning every exchange into a physical battle. The technical quality also stood out. Griffin’s coaches observed sophisticated kumikata, efficient movement, clean attacks and exceptionally strong fundamentals—even among younger athletes.

That is one lesson they intend to bring back into their own developmental program.

Rather than rushing young athletes toward increasingly complicated techniques, Griffin plans to place even greater emphasis on posture, movement, ukemi, gripping, kuzushi, basic throwing mechanics and transitions.

Sharing the Tatami With the Best

Throughout the trip, Griffin athletes also found themselves surrounded by Olympians, World Champions and international competitors.

For younger athletes, seeing elite judo from only a few feet away made a significant impression. They could observe how world-class players moved, gripped, trained and interacted inside the dojo instead of simply watching them on a screen.

“What impressed us most was not simply athleticism. It was the quality of the fundamentals,” Cotte said. That message may prove just as valuable as the difficult randori itself.

More Than Judo

Griffin was also intentional about making sure the trip did not become simply a series of practices connected by train rides. The group visited the Kodokan and the site in Ueno where Jigoro Kano began the Kodokan. They attended an All-Japan youth team competition at the Nippon Budokan and visited cultural landmarks including Meiji Shrine, Sensō-ji and the Great Buddha of Kamakura.

Families also had time to explore Tokyo, experience Japanese food, visit different neighborhoods and experience the country on their own.

For Cotte, that cultural component is essential for any club considering a similar trip.

“Those experiences are not distractions from the judo trip—they are an essential part of it.”

Building a Stronger Team

The trip also strengthened relationships within Griffin Judo.

Athletes navigated a new country together, shared meals, train rides, exhaustion and difficult practices. Older athletes helped younger teammates, while coaches, students and families experienced Japan together outside the normal structure of the dojo.

Those shared challenges created memories—and relationships—that are difficult to duplicate during regular practice at home.

Bringing Japan Back Home

Griffin Judo already plans to return and hopes Japan can eventually become a regular part of its development program.

But perhaps the real value of the trip will be seen in what happens back home.

Coaches returned with new drills, games, training formats and teaching ideas. Athletes returned with a better understanding of technical standards, training volume and recovery. Younger students saw firsthand how important strong fundamentals become as athletes progress.

More importantly, the group returned with a broader understanding of judo itself.

As Cotte explained, competition is only one part of the bigger picture.

“Judo is much more than a competitive sport.”

For Griffin Judo, the 2026 journey was not simply a training camp in Japan.

It was a chance to connect its students with the birthplace of judo, expose them to some of the highest levels of the sport, strengthen their team, and bring new ideas and higher standards back to their own dojo. Perhaps most importantly, it showed young American judoka that Japan is not some distant world reserved only for elite athletes.

It is a place they can go, experience, learn from—and someday return to.