THE UNIVERSITY DARY KANSAN TUESDAY, AUGUST 21, 2007
NEWS
5A
》 CLUB SPORTS
Gentle but fierce, judo club members battle it out
BY JEFF DETERS
jdeters@kansan.com
Ryan Hilger's hands grip the blue collar of his opponent Chad Steele's judogi. The two stand about a foot apart inside the Martial Arts room in the Student
Recreation Fitness Center.
Hilger sidesteps and pulls back with his hands, flipping Steele onto his back.
Steele quickly bounces back up, and the two spar again.
Hilger and Steele are among a handful of students who battle
each week in the KU judo club practices.
"It's real technical, exhausting. It's probably the most exhausting thing I've ever done. You can run around and play basketball, but judo is killer."
tional martial arts like karate, judo combatants do not strike each other with punches or kicks. But Hilger, assistant coach of the judo team, said that didn't mean there was no contact.
"it's still very physical", he said.
"There's just no striking or traditional combat stuff, but it's still multiple throwing, armbars, grappling and choking."
In Japanese, judo means "the gentle way" and unlike more tradi-
Brian O'Nell, Lawrence graduate student, throws teammate Geoff Warick, New Jersey graduate student, during practice Sunday night at the Student Recreation Fitness Center. Judo is a martial art commonly known for its throwing techniques.
Hilger, a brown belt, has been involved in judo since 2004. He said that even without violent punching, hitting or kicking, there was one thing competitors would often notice when they left practice.
CHRIS STEELE Lawrence senior
Jon Goering/KANSAN
Members of the KU judo club practice the footwork associated with a throw. The KU judo club is open to people of all experience levels.
Jon Goering/KANSAN
"Bruises are very common here," Hilger said. "It's just a fact of life."
Hilger said the first area of his teachings focused on safety. Students first learn how to safely fall and roll. Hilger said students shouldn't fear getting injured because no serious injuries had taken place in the club.
Another safety precaution is that competitors can tap two times on their side at any point during the match to indicate to their opponent that they have had enough, and Hilger said the club never viewed that as giving up.
"We completely respect that," Hilger said. "You're not looked down upon badly for tapping out. it's all about safety here. We teach very, very safe ways of practicing iudo."
To win a match, competitors need to score one point. By throwing an opponent to the floor, a fighter is awarded one point, and thus wins the match.
Steele said that when he first started, he had to learn how to manage the difficulties of the sport, particularly stamina.
Steele, Lawrence senior, has been involved in judo since 2002. He enrolled in the health, sports and exercise science judo class his freshman year.
Points also are tallied in smaller increments like half-points for various knockdowns and pins.
ditional robes for durability. Robes can be bought for about $25 at the KU Bookstore in the Kansas Union.
"I thought it was great," he said. "I was hooked."
The intense matches usually last about three minutes, and combatants fight in short bursts of adrenaline. Steele said his favorite move was the "tai-otoshi," where he pulls opponents over his leg and twists them around, sending them down to the mat.
"It's real technical, exhausting," Steele said. "It's probably the most exhausting thing I've ever done. You
Nick McMullen, Liberal junior, has participated in judo since his freshman year.
"I wanted to try some kind of competitive thing and I figured I'd try something new," he said.
McMullen said that participating in the sport had been beneficial to him in more than one way because not only did it give him a good workout and keep him in shape,
can run around and play basketball,
but judo is killer"
The club averages about 10 students each semester. Students pay $25 in dues each semester and must also purchase the judogi, or robes, which are made thicker than tra-
but it also taught him self-defense techniques.
The club practices from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays in the Martial Arts room in the recreation center.
McMullen encouraged students to stop in to see the action for themselves.
"Just try it," he said. "You're not going to know if you like it until you get out there and do it. And we're all real nice people, most of the time."
DRUGS
— Edited by Tara Smith
Painkiller use soars throughout U.S. suburbs
BY FRANK BASS ASSOCIATED PRESS
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — People in the United States are popping pills at an alarming rate.
The amount of five major painkillers sold at retail establishments rose 90 percent between 1997 and 2005, according to an Associated Press analysis of statistics from the Drug Enforcement Administration.
More than 200,000 pounds of codeine, morphine, oxycodone, hydrocodone and meperidine were purchased at retail stores during the most recent year represented in the data. That total is enough to give more than 300 milligrams of painkillers to every person in the country.
Oxycodone, the chemical used in OxyConten, is responsible for most of the increase. Oxycodone use jumped nearly six-fold between 1997 and 2005. The drug gained notoriety as "hillbilly heroin", often bought and sold illegally in Appalachia. But its highest rates of sale now occur in places such as suburban St. Louis, Columbus, Ohio, and Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
In Appalachia, retail sales of hydrocodone — sold mostly as Vicodin — were the highest in the nation. Nine of the 10 areas with the highest per-capita sales were in mostly rural parts of West Virginia, Kentucky or Tennessee.
The world of pain extends beyond big cities and involves more than oxycodone.
While retail sales of codeine have fallen by one-quarter since 1997, some of the highest rates of sales have been in communities around Kansas City, Mo., and Nashville, Tenn., and on New York's Long Island.
Suburbs are not immune to the explosion.
The DEA figures include nationwide sales and distribution of drugs by hospitals, retail pharmacies, doctors and teaching institutions. Federal investigators study the same data trying to identify illegal prescription patterns.
Drugmakers have embarked on unprecedented marketing campaigns. Spending on drug marketing has gone from $11 billion in 1997 to nearly $30 billion in 2005, congressional investigators found.
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