USA Judoka Ronda Rousey Narrated How Training at ‘Rival National Team’ With No Coaching Pushed Her to Another Level

Superstar athletes across sports show one characteristic in common. They love learning from others and they never stop learning. They are not shy even to take lessons from their opponents. A similar situation arose in former UFC fighter and current WWE star Ronda Rousey’s Judo career. While she became the first woman to win an Olympic medal in Judo for the United States, her journey had many interesting turns. There was a time she was unhappy with her coaches and thought they were not helping her enough. She despised her coaches and had no respect for them.

In her later teenage years, Ronda Rousey ran away from her mother’s house. She went to New York to stay away from home and train in Judo. While she did not have the best experience in New York she found Montreal, Canada to be the place that made her learn new things.

Ronda Rousey trained with rivals

Ronda Rousey’s fierce attitude took her on a journey where she was alone.  she moved out of her house counting on her father’s social security and the grants that were promised for A-level tournament winners by US Judo Organization. She was exposed to new experiences and learnings. When Rousey, moved to Canada after she was disappointed by the US Judo association’s corrupt practices she landed at a practice facility called ‘The Shidokan’.

Read More: “He Was Not Actually My Coach”: Ronda Rousey Did Not Want to Acknowledge Her “Coach” Because of the Latter’s Ignorance

In her Memoir, Ronda Rousey remembered her days and experiences from her training days in Montreal. In her book, she wrote, “The Shidokan was the Canadian version of Olympic Training Center, except, unlike its US counterpart, the best judokas in Canada really did train there. I had been there several times before for camps. While they would let me in the door and everyone was stereotypically Canadian-friendly, none of the coaches could coach me because I was on a rival national team.”

Ronda Rousey was the American who learned with Canadians

While Ronda Rousey mentions how she was never helped by Canadian coaches because she was an American, she took the opportunity to learn with the best women Judokas of Canada. She accepted that training with them made her better in her memoir.

Rousey wrote, “Not only was I “the American,” but I always beat all their girls in tournaments, and their girls at both sixty-three kilos and seventy kilos were really good. In that way, having me there on a daily basis so they could train with me and study my tendencies was beneficial. The sense of competition that came from having good girls to train with kept me working hard.” 

Rowdy Rousey’s story is an inspiration for a lot of athletes, she had a long journey to success. She went through a lot of twists and turns to reach her dream. The journey took her through some great days and some difficult days but she never stopped believing in herself. Today fans know Rousey for breaking glass ceilings. Do you find Ronda Rousey’s journey interesting? Let us know.

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