Martial arts

Budo

Martial arts have been part of my life as long as computers. This page covers my own judo and karate, and the budo school my parents built.

My own budo experience

I practised judo, karate, jiu-jitsu and kickboxing. Growing up in a budo family taught me discipline, respect, patience and humour, and I still use that in my work every day.

Tribute

Jan Sjoerd Dotinga

11 April 1946 - 1 May 2008

My father was a martial arts specialist. He started with judo and jiu-jitsu and later added aikido and kobudo. Together with my mother he built a budo school in Leusden.

  1. Judo and jiu-jitsu

    He began his budo path with judo and jiu-jitsu.

  2. Judo in The Hague

    In Den Haag he practised judo at Guan Lin, together with his friend Tjima van der Lubbe.

    Guan Lin: history

  3. Aikido and kobudo

    Later he added aikido and kobudo to his practice.

  4. Budo school at De Heerd, 1980s

    In the 1980s he and my mother started a budo school in the gym of De Heerd in Leusden. They took it over from the well-known Boersma family from Amersfoort.

  5. Burgemeester de Beaufortweg 63

    The school later moved to its own location at Burgemeester de Beaufortweg 63 in Leusden.

  6. Temple-sur-Lot, France

    We spent a lot of time at Temple-sur-Lot, a budo stage facility in France. There my father, his friends and his students followed lessons from Maître Yoshio Sugino and Alain Floquet.

Dutch A-team, 1970

Black and white photo of a judo team in judogi in a sports hall, five standing and three seated.
2nd place, Dutch A-team championships, Delft, 1970The team finished second at the 1970 Dutch team championships in Delft, a silver medal in the Dutch A-team competition. JudoInside lists the same silver result for Tjima van der Lubbe.Standing: Jan de Graaf, Peter Akkermans, Wim van Leeuwen, Jan (Sjoerd) Dotinga Sr., Theo Schneiders.Seated: Wim Lut (trainer), Rob Wiegman, Tjima van der Lubbe.
JudoInside: Dotinga, Dutch Team Championships Delft 1970

Judo friends

Two judoka who were part of my father's judo years.

Wim Ruska

Judo legend and good friend

  • My father was a good friend of Wim Ruska, the Dutch judoka who won two Olympic gold medals at the 1972 Munich Games.
  • My father appears in a 1972 newsreel of the judo championships at the Vliegemolen in Voorburg, shown on Wim Ruska's Wikipedia page. He takes the first throws in the video and gets thrown, before the semi-final and the other matches of Ruska.

Teachers at Temple-sur-Lot

The two teachers who shaped those summers.

Protégés

Two of the students my father guided went on to remarkable careers of their own.

Edgar Kruyning

Budo instructor, Yoseikan and judo

  • A senior Dutch budo instructor with ranks in judo, ju-jutsu and aikido.
  • Received permission in 1995 from Minoru Mochizuki to represent and develop Yoseikan Aikido and Yoseikan Ju-Jutsu in the Netherlands, after living as a live-in student (uchi deshi) with him in Shizuoka, Japan.
  • Judo Bond Nederland reported his promotion to 8th dan judo.
  • Co-author of a comprehensive English-language book on Yoseikan Budo (2009) and head of Sogo Budo.

Joris Merks-Benjaminsen

Martial artist and author

  • Started competitive judo at age six and earned black belts in judo and aikido.
  • Moved on to kickboxing, submission grappling and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and became Open German Champion and European Champion in Brazilian jiu-jitsu in 2002 (elite class, -91 kg).
  • Studied movement science at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and wrote the book Instinctive Groundfighting.

Information about Edgar Kruyning and Joris Merks-Benjaminsen comes from public web pages linked above and may be incomplete.