This is Saymah. She joined us about a year ago. While technically she has been with us for about a year, much of her training was disrupted by the dreaded Covid-19 pandemic. From mid-March until mid-July there was a lock-down that prevented us from holding regular judo classes. And now, we're into our second week of another lock-down. So, you can say she's been training judo properly for about seven or eight months.

In that short period of time she's achieved really good progress. When she first joined us, she was overweight. And, with no athletic background, she wasn't an obvious candidate for someone who would make it in judo. She could have very easily been one of those transient judokas who came and went without achieving even a yellow belt. But she persevered.

In the time that Saymah's been with us, she's lost weight, became a much tougher and hardier person, and acquired some really sound technical skills, in standing and on the ground. She's also good at teaching beginners. Saymah achieved the impressive progress in judo that she did because she never quit.

Perseverance is a habit. So is quitting. To Saymah's credit, she's picked up the former (not the latter) as her habit. Her experience in judo will help her in other endeavours outside the dojo.