Aches and pains from two shoulder surgeries.
Wonky knees from four knee surgeries.
Personal shame from an embarrassing chapter that forced him to walk away from the sport at one point.
It’s been an interesting journey, 35 years in the making, for judoka Jason Bolton.
The native of Kitchener-Waterloo, who now calls Little Rapids home, was upgraded from brown belt to black belt (Shodan) during a grading ceremony at the 2018 provincial judo championships held at the Power Plex in St. John’s over the weekend.
Bolton, who trains out of the Tun Yen Judo Club in Corner Brook, was feeling pretty upbeat when The Star caught up with him Monday.
It’s not the path he would want anybody else to follow to get to the top and he doesn’t want anyone to think achieving black belt status takes as long it did him, but he’s glad he kept forging ahead when things looked bleak at times along the way.
“It’s quite the accomplishment for myself and I’m quite chuffed with it,” Bolton said Monday morning.
His introduction to the sport came at the age of 10 when he learned how to be a judoka under Sensei Bob Zettl, a mentor who gave him an opportunity to train with the elite athletes under his tutelage and prepared him for the rigours of the sport.
It was great to be immersed in a learning environment, but Bolton believes it also had its negative repercussions because early in his career he was being groomed to compete, but didn’t learn the details or fundamentals of the art. He didn’t learn the simple things such as the names of the particular throws were … he simply saw a technique or throw and went ahead and did it.
He was always graded on his performance not his Japanese language comprehension, until it came to his green belt.
At this time, he recalled, being called out in front of the class and asked to demonstrate a number of throws, all in Japanese. This proved to be a public humiliation for him because he performed throw after throw, none of which was what was being asked of him.
He couldn’t find the courage to fight the personal shame he was feeling at this time so he decided to give it up. Many people who were shocked by his decision and tried to provide him with encouragement to stick with it but he stayed away.
However, years later, when he was in his early 20s, he connected with the sport again in Fredericton where he had moved to further his education in heavy equipment mechanics.
He battled through a number of injuries as he tried to keep up with trying to train and work long hours while maintaining a hectic work schedule.
He decided to give it up and eventually moved to Alberta where life would deliver a lucrative career, a loving wife and a son, but in 2007 he found himself living in Corner Brook and got connected to the sport when introducing his son to judo at the Blue Dragon (his son later chose hockey over judo, much to his disappointment) led to him meeting Ken Walsh of Tun Yen Judo Club.
It’s been a long time coming and he’s happy he stuck with it, but he knows it wouldn’t have happened without the support of many people who encouraged him to go for it.
He believes Walsh, and other dedicated judoka like Tony Corbin and Chris LaVallee were key figures in his ability to get his black belt after a long road and he wants them to know all their commitment was greatly appreciated.
He believes his success had a lot to do with Walsh’s personal and wholehearted approach to teaching.
“My grading wouldn’t have been possible without his dedication and unselfish commitment, and I’m forever grateful,” he said.
