Club Profile: Emerald City Judo Redmond, Washington Joy Wittauer recalled her introduction to judo.

She and Bob Wittauer hadn’t been engaged long when they arrived home from work

one evening. “We get in the car, we’re going somewhere … I’m thinking it’ll be

romantic.”

He takes her to his judo club, Seattle Dojo.

And, what do you know, she loves it! Soon, the two set off to build their own dojo,

founding Emerald City Judo in 1999, one year before they were married.

“So much of our newlywed years were spent doing judo stuff … I’m lucky my

honeymoon wasn’t at a tournament,” she joked.

Indeed, marriage, family and judo blended nicely for the Wittauers. Joy worked out as a

white belt with Bob’s daughter, Jamie, then in her teens. And Joy later remained on the

mat during her first pregnancy with their son, Kano (yes, named after Jigoro Kano) until

the 36th week. Son David, now 4, soon followed. And what started with Bob and Joy

quickly became a dojo for a lot of families. About 50 kids competed at an in-house

tournament over the weekend at the dojo, nestled in a commercial building with a

garage door that opens onto an alley for summer parties and scooter rides. The in-

house tournament was in part preparation for the club’s upcoming Evergreen Open,

done in conjunction with nearby Mercer Island Judo. The tourney last year attracted

more than 200 players. Emerald City has also hosted various clinics with judo stars like

Olympic medalist Jimmy Pedro and 1972 Olympic Coach George Uchida.

It wasn’t easy getting where they are now. Like a lot of dojos, Emerald City jumped

around a lot, Wittauer said. But when they moved the club to its current location, a

bunch of things began to come together – the dojo found its niche.

Among other things, Emerald City became the dojo of some “Microsofters.” Of course,

Microsoft is the creator of the Windows platform for PCs around the globe, in addition to

the wildly popular X-Box gaming system, and it’s headquartered in Redmond.

Emerald City was posted on a few Microsoft message boards and now it even benefits

from Microsoft’s employee matching program for some donations, Wittauer said.

What seems to have congealed is a congregation of families, about 40 who comprise

the dojo, with parents often joining kids on the mats for a total active membership of

more than 100. But the “community,” as Joy called it, extends beyond the dojo with

parents, including herself, often relying on one another to help with transporting kids,

babysitting or whatever, and then gathering for parties and nights on the town or a

summer picnic outside the dojo doors.

. The club in some ways may be less rigid than more traditional dojos (in the dark

months of winter, there is a TV and DVDs for little kids when parents and siblings are on

the mat, and in the summer the little judokas play with balls and scooters in the back

alley. But it works … really well.

For more information on Emerald Judo, check out the club’s website HERE.