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JiuJitsu and Judo Intro

UMO School and the Vashon Grappling Club are partnering to offer an introductory, 12-week course in Japanese judo and Brazilian jiu jitsu. These kindred “gentle” arts will help students learn confidence, patience, perseverance, kinesthetic awareness, and martial skills. The goal of these sports is to encourage your opponent into surrender using techniques of leverage, holds and throws. Classes will consist of warm-ups and conditioning, technical instruction and practice (throws or take-downs, submissions and defenses), randori (free sparring), and games. The course and curriculum will be taught by club instructors, including Bobby Dodd, Sean and Heidi Lang, Nick Arnold and Warren Maierhofer. We encourage you to bring a training partner, someone you feel comfortable wrestlin’ with! The family-friendly course fee is per household (up to three family members). If you’re interested in competing, we will also help you train for a local tournament. 

SEAN LANG:
As the son of the local dojo owner, Sean Lang was practically born into martial arts, and grew up doing a combination of wrestling and judo. In 2002 he moved from Washington to San Jose, CA in order to further his training with the SJSU judo team. While at SJSU, he was coached by some of the best judo athletes in the world, and had the privilege of training with several future Olympians. He went on to win the Collegiate Nationals in
2004. In 2011, he began training in Brazilian jiujitsu under Garth Taylor in Santa Cruz before eventually moving back to Washington in 2017. A lifelong proponent of physical exercise, Sean holds a Masters in Kinesiology and a 500 hour certification in yoga, and has completed over a dozen hundred-mile ultra runs. He enjoys sharing his love of martial arts and other sports with others, and has twenty years experience teaching children and adults judo, swimming, and yoga. When he’s not here, you can either find him teaching swimming at the Vashon Golf and Country Club, or out and about with his two-year-old daughter.

HEIDI LANG:
Heidi Lang started training in judo when she was eight years old, earning her black belt at the age of sixteen after medaling in the Senior Nationals. She moved to San Jose, CA in 2001 in order to train with the SJSU judo team, where she went on to medal in two more Senior Nationals, as well as winning the Collegiate Nationals in 2004 and
qualifying for the 2004 Olympic Trials. In 2011, she moved to Santa Cruz where she began training in Brazilian jiujitsu under Garth Taylor, eventually joining a women’s BJJ
group in the area. She also taught a weekly judo-for-jiujitsu-players class with her husband Sean for several years, until moving to Washington in 2017. Heidi has loved the confidence and structure martial arts have lended to her life, and would love to see more women involved in grappling sports. When she’s not here, you can find her chasing her daughter (and future martial artist) around the island, or hunched over a laptop somewhere writing books for kids.