"After my Christmas holiday, I stepped back on the tatami and that more or less corresponds to the day the first article was published on the IJF website. I was in Lithuania and was very pleased to see my adventure on the IJF website but it was also the same day I injured my ankle quite badly. A few important ligaments were broken and my foot was like a big potato.
The doctors said immediately that I might need surgery and that I should go back to France, which would have been the end of my trip. This was not an option so by being extra careful and with good rehab, there was a small chance that I could continue my journey.
I was very lucky to meet amazing people in Lithuania including Marius Paskevicius, the President of the Judo Association, as well as many others. They provided the best care for me and I they even arranged for me to have a free MRI, by keeping a clinic doing an extra hour shift late one evening. I recovered in Linas' house where I had to stay in bed all day long while they were taking care of me.
Since I had to take time to recover I learned more about the people in Lithuania and the judo situation in the country. I was surprised to see that during the USSR time, judo was prohibited in Lithuania. So, instead they were practising sambo and some secret kind of judo. That explains why those other martial arts are still deeply rooted in their judo. Therefore, after I was again able to step on the tatami, they asked me to lead a seminar about my point of view of basic judo. It was a very good experience for all of us. I had a good time sharing my experience and learning from them.
From a bad injury, my time in Lithuania became a very good moment, with incredibly nice people who live with the judo values, the values that I try to promote with this project: generosity, kindness, caring for others.
One thing that I have begun to recognise with this project, is that it's usually the smallest association or clubs that can help me the most, even if, like I mentioned in January, I also get great support from bigger organisations like ETV Judo in Germany.
Then I travelled to Poland for my 13th country. I started with Warsaw. It was complicated to begin since I injured my ankle, as I can't really practice randori anymore but thanks to the IJF coverage I was contacted by the former national coach for cadets, Kotaro Sasaki, the brother of Takeshi who won Paris Grand slam in 2021. He organised everything for me to have the best time and introduced me to the club where he trains, Judo Lemur. The club has 1500 members, probably one of the biggest in Europe.
I could teach from my first day there and we had lots of interesting conversations with Kotaro. I'm now hosted by him and we will go to the Warsaw Open together. I lived in Japan for about 3 years once and since Covid happened I haven’t been back there. It was a big pleasure for me to be surrounded by some Japanese culture again.
Another good thing with Kotaro is that he's working with the AJJF. He's one among many Japanese judoka who have been sent to Europe to teach judo and he gave me some useful contacts for the next country, Slovakia.
Before travelling to Slovakia I'm planning to go to Krakow; the judo coach of Lemur gave me the contact in that city and I'll discover another judo club there. I was supposed to go to Ukraine after Poland but the situation there is too complicated at the moment so I changed my plan.
An important point worth mentioning is that some people decided to support me in this project after reading the IJF article. Some of them did it anonymously. So, first of all I want to thank the IJF and all of you who have been supporting me and taking the time to read. I need to say that you mustn’t forget to give me a way to contact you by email or Instagram in case you want to support me. At least I can thank you by private messages!
One of the lessons that I have taken from these first months on the road is that I should invest more in my physical condition in order to not get injured. Before, to save money, I wasn't going to the gym. Now it's something I have changed and I try to get access to a gym everywhere I go, to keep my body strong. I can't wait to be back for some randori; it's been two months since my injury and I'm already able to do some lower level movement.
I'm now back on the road and I can't wait to share more adventures with all of you!"
More about Julien's journey