Personal information | |
---|---|
Full name | Matthew D'Aquino |
Nickname(s) | Matt |
Nationality | ![]() |
Born | Canberra, Australia | 26 June 1985
Height | 1.64 m (5 ft 4+1⁄2 in) |
Weight | 62 kg (137 lb) |
Website | www.beyondgrappling.com |
Sport | |
Sport | Judo |
Event(s) | 60 kg |
Club | Beyond Grappling Club |
Coached by | Thomas Hill |
Retired | 2012 |
Now coaching | Beyond Grappling Club |
Achievements and titles | |
Regional finals | 3 X Oceania Champion |
National finals | 2 X Australian Champion |
Olympic finals | No place |
Highest world ranking | 19th in the World (2010) |
Matthew D'Aquino (born 26 June 1985 in Canberra) is an Australian judoka, who competed in the extra-lightweight category. [1] He is a 4th Degree Judo Black belt, BJJ black belt under Felipe Grez, two-time Australian judo champion, a multiple-time Oceanian champion for his respective division, and a former member of Marist Judo Club under his personal coach Tom Hill, who competed for the men's lightweight division at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, and eventually won the gold medal at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England. [2] [3]
D'Aquino represented Australia at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, where he competed for the men's extra-lightweight class (60 kg). He received a bye for the second preliminary round match, before losing out to Greece's Lavrentios Alexanidis, who successfully scored an ippon (full point) with an obi otoshi (belt drop), at ninety seconds. [4] [5]
Since then D'Aquino has gone on to be the first and only Australian male to win the Pac Rim Championships in its 40-year history, beating a highly ranked Japanese Judoka in the final. [6] Recently D'Aquino has placed 17th at the World Championships in both 2009 and 2010 as well as placing 7th in the Miami and El Salvador World Cup as well as 7th place in the US Open.
After not qualifying for the 2012 London Olympic Games D'Aquino retired from the international Judo competition but still competes in national level Judo and Brazilian jiu-jitsu competitions. D'Aquino is also an author of two bestselling books on Amazon, these books are "Hard Fought Lessons by an Olympic Judoka" and "Effective goal setting so you can win in life." He also has a number of other books you can see below.
In October 2015 D'Aquino opened a Judo and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu dojo called Beyond Grappling Club. In 2019 Beyond Grappling Club was ranked the second largest Judo club in Australia by Judo Australia.
In January 2020 the International Judo Federation recognized Matt D'Aquino's YouTube channel "Beyond Grappling" [7] as one of the top 12 YouTube channels in the world. In regards to Matt's channel, they wrote "Australian Olympian has an exhaustive collection of playlists specifically for judoka of different abilities and everyone can learn something from his well-known channel. D'Aquino has also authored books and released DVD’s and is a sought instructor around the world." [8]
In March 2020, after his dojo was shut down for 6 months due to COVID19, Matt authored three more books including My First Judo Competition, My First Brazilian Jiujitsu Competition, and the History of Judo for Kids. Each of these books has been translated into many languages. See the bibliography below for more details.
Bilingual Books:
Judo is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport, and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally. Judo was created in 1882 by Kanō Jigorō as an eclectic martial art, distinguishing itself from its predecessors due to an emphasis on "randori" instead of "kata" alongside its removal of striking and weapon training elements. Judo rose to prominence for its dominance over established jujutsu schools in tournaments hosted by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, resulting in its adoption as the department's primary martial art. A judo practitioner is called a "judoka", and the judo uniform is called "judogi".
Brazilian jiu-jitsu is a self-defence martial art and combat sport based on grappling, ground fighting, and submission holds. BJJ approaches self-defense by emphasizing taking an opponent to the ground, gaining a dominant position, and using a number of techniques to force them into submission via joint locks or chokeholds.
Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting, incorporating techniques from various combat sports from around the world. The first documented use of the term mixed martial arts was in a review of UFC 1 by television critic Howard Rosenberg in 1993.
Submission wrestling, also known as submission grappling or submission fighting, is a combat sport that focus on clinch and ground fighting with the aim of obtaining a submission through the use of submission holds. The term usually refers to a form of competition and training that does not use the gi, the "combat kimono" worn in traditional martial arts. No-gi Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) is the most well known subset of submission wrestling, with the ADCC Submission Fighting World Championship considered its most prestigious tournament.
Masahiko Kimura was a Japanese judoka and professional wrestler who is widely considered one of the greatest judoka of all time. He won the All-Japan Judo Championships three times in a row for the first time in history and had never lost a judo match from 1936 to 1950. An author said," In the history of judo, no one is the strongest before Kimura and no one is the strongest after Kimura." He has often been described as the strongest judoka in history. In submission grappling, the reverse ude-garami arm lock is often called the "Kimura", due to his famous victory over Gracie jiu-jitsu founder Hélio Gracie. In the Japanese professional wrestling world, he is known for the controversial match he had with Rikidōzan.
Michael Lee Swain is one of the most successful American judokas. He competed in countless international competitions. He is now the VP of Martial Arts at Dollamur, Sports LP where he develops and sells Martial Arts equipment and continues to be a spokesperson and board member for USA Judo.
Ivan “Judo” Gene LeBell was an American martial artist, stunt performer, actor, and professional wrestler. Nicknamed "The Godfather of Grappling", he popularized grappling in professional fighting circles, serving as a precursor to modern mixed martial arts. He worked on over 1,000 films and TV shows and authored 12 books.
Nicola Kim Fairbrother MBE is a retired judoka from the United Kingdom, who competed at two Olympic Games. She currently holds the 7th Dan and is one of Britain's most prominent judoka.
Isao Okano is a retired judoka who competed in the middleweight (−80 kg) division in the 1964 Summer Olympics.
Jujutsu, also known as jiu-jitsu and ju-jitsu, is a family of Japanese martial arts and a system of close combat that can be used in a defensive or offensive manner to kill or subdue one or more weaponless or armed and armored opponents. Jiu-jitsu dates back to the 1530s and was coined by Hisamori Tenenouchi when he officially established the first jiu-jitsu school in Japan. This form of martial arts uses few or no weapons at all and includes strikes, throws, holds, and paralyzing attacks against the enemy. Jujutsu developed from the warrior class around the 17th century in Japan. It was designed to supplement the swordsmanship of a warrior during combat. A subset of techniques from certain styles of jujutsu were used to develop many modern martial arts and combat sports, such as judo, aikido, sambo, ARB, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and mixed martial arts. The official date of foundation of Jiu Jitsu is 1530.
Kayla Jean Harrison is an American professional mixed martial artist and former Olympic and world champion judoka, currently signed to the Professional Fighters League (PFL).
Sophie Cox is a British judo player from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England. She represented Great Britain at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Greece.
Riki Nakaya is a Japanese judoka. He is a two-time lightweight world champion and an Olympic silver medalist. He was also a finalist at the 2015 World Championships.
D'Aquino is an Italian surname and a variant of Aquino. It may refer to:
Mohan Bam, also known as Mohan Judo, is a Nepalese judoka winning the gold medal at 39th Australian Judo Championship, First South Asian Sambo Championship and Oceania Judo Union Kata Championship, bronze medal at Southern Cross International Open Judo Championship organised by Australian Judo Federation in 2014.
The ADCC Submission Fighting World Championship, is an international submission grappling competition, organised by the Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC). The inaugural tournament was held in Abu Dhabi, UAE in 1998. It has been held every two years since, except in 2021 due to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. Host countries have included Brazil, China, Finland, Spain, the UK, and the US.
Vanuatu competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. This was the nation's eighth consecutive appearance at the Summer Olympics.
Nauru competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. The country's participation in Brazil was its sixth consecutive appearance at the Summer Olympics since its debut at the 1996 Summer Olympics. Nauru's delegation included two participants: Ovini Uera, a judoka in the men's middleweight judo category; and Elson Brechtefeld in the men's 56 kg weightlifting competition. Uera qualified as Nauru's top-ranked judoka, in the IJF World Ranking List through a quota slot from the Oceania Judo Union. Brechtefeld qualified by grant from the International Weightlifting Federation of an unused quota place. Uera was eliminated by Varlam Liparteliani in the round of 16 and Brechtefeld finished 15th in his event.
Noriaki Bunasawa also known commonly as Nori Bunasawa, is a Japanese martial artist, judoka, US technical coach at the 1972 Olympic games in Munich, coach of team USA at the 1975 World Judo Championships, Japanese judo-jujutsu researcher and historian, writer, sports journalist, actor, fight choreographer, script consultant, and IJF media executive for the coverage of the 1996 Olympic games in Atlanta. He owned and established martial arts specialty newspaper Judo Jiujitsu Pro-fighting Journal in the US, which covered judo, jujutsu, sumo, BJJ, MMA and other professional combat sports news. He co-authored a novel based on Mitsuyo Maeda's life The Toughest Man Who Ever Lived which will be adapted into a feature film by a major production company of which he will be a script consultant and action choreographer. He is also the founder of the Mitsuyo Maeda based fighting method: Bunasawa Jukkendo.
Kade Ruotolo is an American submission grappler and black belt Brazilian jiu-jitsu athlete. A competitor with his twin brother Tye since the age of 3, Ruotolo is a IBJJF World champion, Pan Am and European Open champion at coloured belt level. Promoted to black belt in December 2021, Ruotolo won the 2022 ADCC World Championship in the 77kg division, becoming at age 19 the youngest-ever ADCC Submission Fighting World champion. Ruotolo is signed to ONE Championship where he is the current lightweight submission grappling champion.